AEM as Cloud Service Migration Readiness: Guide 2024
Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) as a cloud service has revolutionized the way enterprises manage their digital experiences. With its cloud-native architecture and advanced capabilities, AEM enables businesses to deliver personalized and engaging content to their audience. As companies embark on the migration journey to AEM as a Cloud Service, it is crucial to ensure readiness in terms of code and content.
In this blog, we will explore how best practice analyzer (BPA) and cloud acceleration manager (CAM) can help assess code and content reports and how NextRow’s expertise can assist in generating and analyzing code and content complexity.
Why Focus on Migration Readiness?
Migrating to AEM as a cloud-native SaaS application unlocks new possibilities for your business in the digital landscape.
Here’s why migration readiness is crucial:
- Seamlessly Adapt to Changing Business Needs: AEM as a Cloud Service offers agility to swiftly meet evolving requirements. Its cloud-native architecture ensures seamless scalability, effortlessly handling increasing workloads.
- Unleash Advanced Capabilities: Access cutting-edge features and integrations to stay ahead of the competition. Deliver exceptional digital experiences that captivate your audience.
- Enhanced Security and Automatic Updates: Benefit from ongoing enhancements and automatic security updates. Your digital assets remain protected while you focus on growth.
Embrace migration readiness to propel your business forward, embracing adaptability, advanced capabilities, and enhanced security.
Assessing Code and Content Readiness with Best Practice Analyzer (BPA)
Before setting sail on your migration voyage, it is imperative to ensure that your codebase is in optimal condition. This is where the Best Practice Analyzer (BPA) comes into play—a reliable compass that guides you through the challenging waters of code quality.
With its meticulous attention to detail, the BPA meticulously inspects your code against industry best practices, identifying potential bottlenecks, vulnerabilities, and areas for improvement. By aligning your codebase with industry standards, the BPA lays the foundation for a smooth and efficient migration, setting the stage for your digital future.
But migration readiness encompasses more than just code. Your content, the lifeblood of your digital experiences, also requires meticulous evaluation. The BPA extends its reach to content analysis, scrutinizing its structure, metadata, and relevance.
By uncovering inconsistencies, outdated content, or duplication, the BPA ensures that your content is finely tuned and ready to shine in the realm of AEM as a Cloud Service. Seamlessly migrate your content, empowering your business with a seamless transition
Navigating Code and Content Reports with Cloud Acceleration Manager (CAM)
As you navigate your way toward migration readiness, having a reliable navigator by your side is essential. Introducing Cloud Acceleration Manager (CAM)—your digital compass in the vast expanse of AEM deployments. CAM provides a unified dashboard that offers real-time insights into the health, performance, and scalability of your AEM instances. With CAM, you can effortlessly navigate through code and content reports, unraveling the mysteries of your digital environment.
By monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) such as response time, throughput, and error rates, CAM sheds light on potential bottlenecks, allowing you to optimize your environment before migration.
Prepare your ship for the exhilarating journey ahead, ensuring that your AEM as a Cloud Service operates at peak efficiency, delivering extraordinary digital experiences to your audience. With CAM as your trusted companion, you can confidently navigate the seas of migration, equipped with the knowledge to steer your business toward success.
NextRow: Unleashing the Power of Code and Content Complexity Analysis
Harnessing the power of the Best Practice Analyzer (BPA) and Cloud Acceleration Manager (CAM), NextRow elevates your migration readiness to new heights. Their meticulous analysis and in-depth understanding of AEM and industry best practices enable them to provide tailored recommendations that optimize your code and content. By partnering with NextRow, you unlock the potential to seamlessly transition to AEM as a Cloud Service.
As you navigate the challenging waters of migration, NextRow’s proficiency in addressing challenges and minimizing disruptions becomes a beacon of assurance. Trust their experienced crew to guide your ship toward digital excellence, propelling your business to greater success in the ever-evolving digital landscape. With NextRow by your side, embrace the journey with confidence and embark on a transformation that transcends boundaries.
Conclusion
In the ever-evolving world of digital innovation, Adobe never fails to astonish with its groundbreaking announcements. Like a rising star in the digital sky, AEM shines brightly within Adobe’s Experience Cloud, illuminating the path to extraordinary customer experiences. Embrace the winds of change and set sail with AEM as your compass, navigating the boundless seas of migration readiness.
Migration Planning and Setup: AEM as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS)
While Adobe never fails to surprise its users, it recently launched its AEM cloud service. As a result, the road to digital transformation has been forever changed by its inception. Planning and setting up your migration to AEM as a cloud service is a critical step toward leveraging the full potential of Adobe’s powerful platform. This blog will delve into the essential aspects of migration planning and setup, focusing on content preparation, code refactoring, environment strategy, and the valuable assistance provided by the NextRow team.
Come experience a streamlined migration process, reduced complexity, and ensure a seamless transition to AEM as a Cloud Service.
Planning Content Preparation and Reducing Complexity
Although we discussed the importance of Migration readiness and the efficacy of tools like BPA and CAM, effective content planning and deployment are key to a successful migration. In such cases, The Content Transformer tool is your ally in simplifying this process, enabling you to transform and adapt your existing content to align with the cloud-native architecture of AEM.
By utilizing the Content Transformer, you can reduce complexity, ensure data integrity, and maintain a seamless user experience. Careful evaluation of your content’s structure, metadata, and relevance is essential to optimize its performance in the cloud environment. With meticulous planning and the assistance of the NextRow team, you can efficiently prepare your content for a smooth migration.
Creating a Code Refactoring Plan for Compatibility
Code refactoring plays a crucial role in the migration planning and setup phase alongside content preparation. To achieve compatibility with AEM as a cloud service, businesses must assess and update their existing code repository.
- By creating a comprehensive code refactoring plan, organizations can identify and address outdated code, eliminate deprecated functionalities, and optimize overall code performance.
- This procedure entails analyzing the present codebase in-depth, determining dependencies, and putting current coding standards into effect.
Businesses can increase the stability, scalability, and maintainability of their code repository by systematically rewriting it to conform to the high requirements that AEM establishes as a cloud service.
- Determine any out-of-date or ineffective code by analyzing the present codebase.
- Adopt contemporary coding standards and get rid of out-of-date features.
- To improve stability and scalability, optimize the performance of your code.
- As a cloud service standard, take care to address dependencies and make sure AEM is compatible.
Environment Strategy for a Smooth Migration
Moving to AEM as a cloud service requires a strong environment plan. To ensure a smooth transition, this strategy calls for careful design of the architecture, infrastructure, and deployment procedures.
Factors including scalability, redundancy, disaster recovery, and performance optimization must be given considerable thought.
- Organize the architecture and infrastructure to meet AEM’s needs for a cloud service.
- Determine the optimal cloud infrastructure provider and deployment models.
- Establish best practices for monitoring, management, and performance optimization.
- Finally, implement robust disaster recovery mechanisms to ensure business continuity.
By designing and implementing a well-thought-out environment strategy, businesses can minimize downtime, mitigate risks, and lay a solid foundation for a smooth migration experience.
Leveraging NextRow’s Expertise in Migration and Planning Setup
Navigating the intricacies of migration planning and execution can be challenging. The NextRow team offers invaluable support in planning and implementing changes and updates to your code and content. In addition, with our deep understanding of AEM and industry best practices, we can guide you in optimizing your migration approach.
Whether it’s planning code refactoring, strategizing content transformation, or aligning with the cloud-native environment, NextRow’s expertise ensures a seamless migration experience. By partnering with NextRow, you can leverage our knowledge, experience, and proven methodologies to successfully migrate to AEM as a Cloud Service.
Conclusion
As the winds of digital transformation blow, the voyage to AEM as a cloud service beckons. With NextRow as your compass, chart a course with meticulous planning and expert execution. Seamlessly streamline content, master code refactoring, and navigate the migration seas. Set sail towards unparalleled possibilities, guided by a trusted partner.
Implementing AEM as cloud service (AEMaaCS)
A new era of enterprise digital experience management has begun with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) as a cloud service. With its cloud-native architecture and advanced capabilities, AEM empowers businesses to easily deliver personalized and engaging content to their audience. However, as organizations embark on implementing AEM as a cloud service, careful planning and implementation become imperative.
This blog will walk through the crucial aspects of executing code refactoring and content transfer plans, leveraging Cloud Manager for seamless deployments, formulating a robust QA strategy and testing plans, and the invaluable role of NextRow Tools in reducing manual effort.
Code Refactoring and Content Transfer Execution
You’ve already familiarized yourself with the modifications made to AEM as a Cloud Service and determined whether your deployment is prepared to be migrated to the cloud through the preparation, planning, and set up in the earlier portions of the trip.
An essential part of the implementation phase is carrying out the plans for content transfer and code refactoring. By following a systematic approach, businesses can ensure the successful transition of their codebase and content to AEM as a cloud service.
- Identify compatibility issues and refactor code to align with AEM as a cloud service.
- Remove deprecated functionalities and optimize code performance.
- Execute content transfer plans with data integrity and minimal disruptions.
- Leverage NextRow Tools for automated code refactoring and content transfer.
Code Deployments through Cloud Manager
Before we begin, you should become acquainted with Cloud Manager, as it is the only mechanism for delivering code to AEM as a Cloud Service.
Cloud Manager enables enterprises to administer AEM on the cloud on their own. It contains a framework for continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), which allows IT teams and implementation partners to accelerate the delivery of customizations or upgrades without sacrificing performance or security.
In addition, it offers a single platform for managing and automating deployment workflows, resulting in consistent and efficient deployment processes.
- Automate build and deployment workflows using Cloud Manager to accelerate time-to-market and reduce errors.
- Integrate Cloud Manager with version control systems for seamless collaboration and concurrent feature development.
- Gain visibility into deployment status, logs, and metrics through Cloud Manager’s monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities.
- Ensure code integrity and governance with Cloud Manager’s agile development features.
Ensuring Quality and Performance through Testing and Security Review
In the journey of implementing AEM as a cloud service, quality assurance, user acceptance testing (UAT), and performance testing play pivotal roles in delivering a flawless digital experience. These testing practices guarantee that the implementation meets the highest standards of quality, functionality, and security.
- A well-defined QA strategy is essential to validate the implementation through rigorous functional, regression, and integration testing. This ensures that all features and functionalities are thoroughly tested and aligned with business requirements.
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT) takes center stage in validating the implemented features from the end-user perspective. By involving users and stakeholders, organizations can ensure that the solution meets their expectations and delivers the desired user experience.
- Performance testing evaluates system responsiveness, scalability, and stability under various loads. It helps identify bottlenecks, optimize system performance, and ensure a seamless experience for users even during peak usage periods.
- Additionally, conducting a comprehensive security review is vital to safeguard sensitive information and protect against potential threats. This includes verifying adherence to data protection regulations, implementing AEM secure coding practices, and addressing vulnerabilities to ensure a robust and secure digital ecosystem.
NextRow Tools for Implementing AEM Effortlessly
Unlocking the true potential of AEM as a Cloud Service requires efficient code and content update management. This is where NextRow Tools come into play, revolutionizing the implementation process. NextRow Tools are pivotal in reducing manual effort and enhancing efficiency during the change/update process. These tools automate tasks such as code analysis, content validation, and deployment validation, ensuring a streamlined and error-free implementation.
By leveraging NextRow Tools, businesses can accelerate their AEM as a cloud service implementation and maintain the highest level of security and compliance. In addition, with NextRow Tools, deployment workflows become a breeze, enabling swift and hassle-free code and content updates.
Conclusion
Implementing AEM as a Cloud Service marks a new age of digital transformation for businesses. As organizations embrace this cloud-native solution, they unlock unparalleled scalability, performance, and security.
The future is here, and with AEM as a Cloud Service, businesses can captivate their audience, streamline their operations, and stay ahead in the ever-evolving digital landscape. So, embrace the possibilities and embark on your AEM journey today.
Go-Live Phase: AEM as Cloud Service (AEMaaCS)
As the go-live phase of integrating AEM as a cloud service approaches, the stage is set, the spotlight is bright, and the digital transformation reaches its grand finale. The go-live phase marks the culmination of the implementation process for AEM as a cloud service. A smooth transfer from the current infrastructure to the cloud-based AEM environment is ensured during this crucial period, allowing businesses to fully realize the promise of their digital experiences.
In this blog, we will encompass the key aspects of AEM such as cloud service go-live and the invaluable assistance provided by the NextRow team in planning and strategizing the go-live cutover.
Go-Live Readiness Checklist: Essential Preparations for a Seamless Transition
It is essential to guarantee readiness on a number of fronts before starting the go-live phase. This entails determining the stability of the system, checking that all prerequisites have been satisfied, and certifying that all necessary preparations have been made. The basis for a smooth transition is laying a complete go-live readiness evaluation. Discover the key aspects to guarantee a successful live.
1.
Content Transfer: Unlocking Digital Assets and Importance of Seamless Data Migration
A crucial stage is the migration of content from the current AEM environment to the cloud-based AEM as a service. Extracting content, ensuring its integrity, and safely moving it to the new environment are all parts of the content transfer process. To prevent any interruptions in the content flow and guarantee a flawless transfer, careful preparation, and execution are necessary.
2.
Delta Transfer: Optimizing Performance and Importance of Efficient Incremental Updates
To keep the content up to date during the migration process, delta transfer plays a vital role. It involves transferring incremental changes made to the content since the initial transfer. By identifying and transferring only the modified or new content, delta transfer significantly reduces the overall transfer time and optimizes the migration process, ensuring efficient and timely updates.
3.
Code Triaging: Harmonizing the Codebase and Importance of Stability and Compatibility
During the go-live phase, it is essential to assess the codebase thoroughly and prioritize any necessary modifications or enhancements. Code triaging involves:
- Evaluating the existing code.
- Identifying potential issues or deprecated features.
- Streamlining the codebase to align with the new cloud-based AEM as a service environment.
This process ensures optimal performance, stability, and compatibility, paving the way for a robust and future-ready codebase.
4.
User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Perfecting the User Experience and Importance of User Satisfaction
UAT plays a pivotal role in the go-live phase, ensuring that the implemented features and functionalities meet user expectations. By conducting comprehensive UAT, organizations can gather valuable end-user feedback, identify usability issues, and make necessary adjustments. UAT allows us to fine-tune digital experiences and enhance user satisfaction, creating a delightful and user-centric environment.
5.
Performance Testing: Showcasing Excellence and Importance of Scalability and Responsiveness
Performance testing is a critical aspect of the go-live phase, aiming to assess the responsiveness, scalability, and stability of the AEM as a service environment under various workloads. By simulating real-world scenarios and stress testing the system, organizations can identify and address any performance bottlenecks, ensuring a seamless user experience even during peak usage periods.
In addition, performance testing highlights the system’s capabilities and ensures its ability to handle high-traffic loads, delivering exceptional performance and reliability.
NextRow: Your Maestro of the Go-Live Phase
In the complex and crucial go-live process, partnering with an experienced and reliable team can make all the difference. NextRow is at the forefront of enabling successful go-live cutover for organizations transitioning to AEM as a cloud service. With their deep expertise in AEM implementation, the NextRow team assists companies in planning and strategizing the go-live cutover, ensuring a seamless and efficient transition.
Their expertise helps organizations identify potential challenges, mitigate risks, and streamline the go-live process, ensuring minimal downtime and maximum business continuity.
Conclusion
As the countdown to go live begins, ensuring go-live readiness becomes paramount. From seamless content transfer and efficient delta updates to code triaging, UAT, and performance testing, each step contributes to a successful transition to AEM as a cloud service. By meticulously preparing and addressing these key aspects, organizations can elevate their digital experiences, enhance user satisfaction, and pave the way for future growth and success.
AEM as Cloud Service Post-go-live Optimization
Welcome to a realm where your digital aspirations take flight. In the vast landscape of AEM as a Cloud Service, the path to success doesn’t end with a go-live—it’s just the beginning. Get ready to embark on a thrilling expedition as we delve into the realm of post-go-live optimization. In this captivating blog, we unravel the secrets that will unlock the true potential of your AEM implementation.
From code refinement to access fortification, we’ll guide you toward a realm of unparalleled performance, innovation, and user experiences. Prepare to elevate your AEM game to extraordinary heights with NextRow Digital and turn your dreams into digital reality.
Post-Go-Live Optimization: Elevating Your AEM as a Cloud Service Transformation Process
So far, you’ve successfully taken your AEM cloud Service migration headway. From Migration readiness to planning and implementation, the journey has been a rollercoaster; however, to elevate performance, scalability, and innovation to unlock the full power of your platform, certain aspects should be considered during their post-go-live optimization process.
Code Cleanup: Paving the Path to Performance Excellence
Streamline your codebase by bidding adieu to redundancy, optimizing algorithms, and embracing industry best practices.
- Identify areas for improvement, retire outdated functionality, and improve the architecture as a whole.
- Eliminate redundant code, improve algorithms, and embrace industry best practices to streamline your codebase.
- Using methods like code restructuring, performance profiling, and caching systems, you may speed up load times, lessen complexity, and guarantee scalability.
- Improve the stability, maintainability, and extensibility of your code to provide a foundation for outstanding performance and seamless user interfaces.
Access Management: Enhancing Security and Collaboration
Safeguard your content management environment by prioritizing effective access management.
- Implement granular access controls, craft role-based permissions, and choreograph secure workflows for harmonious collaboration.
- Conduct a comprehensive audit to scrutinize user access rights, eliminate unnecessary privileges, and implement robust authentication mechanisms.
- Foster seamless collaboration with granular access controls, role-based permissions, and secure workflows.
- Regularly review and update access policies to ensure compliance and data integrity.
- Create a secure ecosystem that empowers content authors, editors, and administrators with appropriate access levels, balancing collaboration and stringent security measures for exceptional digital experiences.
Support and Expert Guidance: Post-Go-Live Optimization Success
In the post-go-live symphony, the orchestra of support plays a vital role. Dedicated support and expert guidance ensure a harmonious transition and resolve any hiccups along the way.
- Their virtuosos, experienced professionals, deliver timely assistance, wield efficient issue resolution, and serenade you with proactive recommendations to optimize your AEM as a Cloud Service environment.
- With your trusted partner, you can confidently compose innovative masterpieces and deliver exceptional digital experiences, knowing their seasoned ensemble stands by your side.
Log Management: Unveiling Actionable Insights
Unlock the power of proactive log management to gain valuable insights into system performance and issue resolution.
- Define log levels, implement robust frameworks, and leverage monitoring tools to capture vital information.
- Continuously monitor log files to identify errors, exceptions, and performance metrics.
- Analyze log data to optimize resource allocation, identify bottlenecks, and improve system efficiency.
- Harness log aggregation and analysis platforms for real-time monitoring and actionable insights, enabling proactive troubleshooting and driving continuous improvement for your AEM as a Cloud Service deployment.
Streamlining Post-Go-Live Deployment Cycles: Accelerating Innovation
Fuel innovation and maintain agility by streamlining deployment cycles in the post-go-live phase.
- Implement efficient CI/CD pipelines, automated testing frameworks, and release orchestration tools for a streamlined process.
- Automate build, testing, and deployment processes to reduce time-to-market for new features and enhancements.
- Ensure code stability and maintainable releases through version control, branching strategies, and continuous integration.
- Embrace infrastructure-as-code and containerization for seamless scalability and rapid environment provisioning.
- Streamlined deployment cycles enhance agility, mitigate risks, and empower your teams to rapidly innovate, delivering impactful updates and enhancements for exceptional digital experiences.
Partner with NextRow for Post Go-Live Optimization Success
As you navigate the complexities of post-go-live optimization, NextRow can be your trusted partner. Their experienced professionals guide code cleanup, access management, log management, and streamlining deployment cycles. With NextRow’s comprehensive support and expertise, you can confidently tackle the challenges of post-go-live activities.
By partnering with NextRow, you unlock the full potential of AEM as a Cloud Service, delivering exceptional digital experiences to your users. Together, you can optimize your platform, enhance performance, and ensure the long-term success of your AEM implementation.
Conclusion
As we conclude this journey of AEM as a Cloud Service post-go-live optimization, you are equipped with the required knowledge and tools to boost your digital experiences to new horizons. You can elevate performance, fortify security, and foster innovation by embracing these strategies. Take the reins of your AEM implementation, optimize it to perfection, and unleash its full potential.
First Party Cookie vs Third Party- Rise of First Party Data
Traditionally, brands have relied on both 1st and 3rd party cookies to power their user experience and marketing activities. Some of the top brands that we have worked with pay almost equal importance to both 1st– and 3rd–party data (obtained mainly through respective cookies) to supercharge their marketing efforts.
Third-party cookies/data were mostly used by digital marketing teams to acquire and remarket customers across the internet. With Apple taking the lead in May 2017 to sunset 3rd party cookies, and Google announcing its “Privacy Sandbox” in 2019, brands are preparing for a data strategy shift. However, after Google announced its extended deadline (late 2023), brands are now questioning their own timelines and further use of third-party data.
What is our take on this?
We reckon that Google’s announcement is going to give the much-needed time to implement the strategy shift, rather than encourage brands to stay with the 3rd party strategy. They’ve given themselves another year at least to make this happen. Let us explore why!
Almost every major brand has invested in technologies like Data Management Platforms (DMP) and Demand-side Platforms (DSP), which rely on 3rd party cookies. They help segment users and show them display ads throughout the internet. In addition, these cookies are used for measuring attribution.
Despite their benefits, 3rd party cookies/data also present major drawbacks, like:
- Users increasingly see 3rd party cookies as a blatant breach of their privacy.
- 3rd party cookies seldom represent a real user and data is mostly inaccurate.
- Data misuse and irresponsible marketing is rampant with 3rd party data.
- Growth of walled gardens like Apple with more flexible privacy choices enticing users.
With increased government regulations and a shift in user mindset, it is becoming increasingly clear that 3rd party cookies are becoming outdated and slowly dying.
How can brands make this shift possible?
Even though it is somewhat restrictive, at this point, to move to a 1st party strategy, some of our customers have already planned for it. This is a long-term play and there are many impactful benefits to making the shift. Below are a few of these:
- 1st party data is far more accurate and represents a closer model of end-users.
- With user consent, customer trust will build up and positively impact customer retention.
- In the long term, due to scaling, moving away from wasteful marketing will lead to significant savings.
- It’s much easier for brands to share data with a handful of trusted partners and provide meaningful customer engagements.
These pros will not be seen overnight and require organizations and marketing teams to adapt and implement changes in technology and culture first. Technology and related processes are vital to such a transformation.
What are the key technologies at play?
Each marketing technology stack determines how this 1st party shift will become a reality. Today, we often see disparate point solutions, loosely integrated, powering these experiences. Most of the time, these solutions rely on 3rd-party data to reach or intervene in customer journeys. Here are the technologies we recommend every brand to consider:
- Customer Data Platforms (CDPs): A CDP is a 1st party version of a DMP that we discussed above. A CDP seamlessly combines 1st party data to conjure up an omnichannel view of the customer. It enables data and segment sharing based on hashed durable identifiers like email and phone numbers. Customer Data Platforms operationalize privacy and cater to simple view/deletion requests. Adobe Real-Time CDP and Salesforce CDP are some of the offerings from market leaders in Digital Experience Platforms.
- Scalable Robust Data Lakes: A data lake is a vast store of seldom-related data that provides low storage costs and virtually unlimited storage for big data. Such data lakes form the backend of technologies like CDPs and Analytics. Powerful query capabilities allow organizations to gain intelligence on segments and their cross-channel actions.
- Consent Management Systems: With privacy gaining prominence like never before, user choices must be respected. Many governments are enacting complex laws that will result in significant impacts on brands’ processes and finances. Consent Management Systems are imperative to cater to these and seamlessly integrate with solutions like CDP and analytics.
- Systems with open standards: This one is not easy at all! The components of the marketing stack should be open, to be easily integrated with custom solutions. Also, there should be a watchdog to centralize and standardize the data to promote extreme interoperability between the stack and across organizational boundaries.
- Apps built with open APIs: Leading digital experience platforms like Adobe are opening up their marketing clouds with APIs, fostering innovation. Here, one can easily draw parallels to the initial days of the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. These plug-and-play apps are game-changers because they completely democratize your marketing teams (zero IT dependence). NextRow is building an automated cross-solution validation solution called “Predictive” on Adobe’s platform. “Predictive” greatly helps to bridge the gap between business analysts and implementation developers.
Technology Spotlight
Leading marketing cloud providers (Digital Experience Platforms) like Adobe are emphasizing brands to leverage their 1st party data at scale. Adobe’s offerings like Real-time CDP with features like private device graph and segment sharing enable brands to build real-time customer profiles and activate audiences across channels. This is all done by integrating durable identifiers like phone numbers and emails with pseudonyms or 1st party cookie ids. You can easily leverage Adobe’s platform-level services to accomplish more tasks like big data querying, cataloging, and AI on top of Adobe Real-time CDP.
Way Forward
We envision the customer experience industry going through a cycle of positive disruption, putting users and their choices at the center of responsible marketing. Technology planning, implementation, and change management are clear ways to stay ahead of the game!
About NextRow
NextRow Digital is an Adobe Silver Partner and an expert in implementing Adobe technologies. We have the right skillsets and processes to support your complex needs ranging from IT teams to marketers. Grow your business with the help of RT-CDP experts at NextRow!
To learn more about our Adobe Experience Platform offerings, visit our Adobe Platform page
To learn more about our CDP offerings, visit our RTCDP page.
To learn how NextRow can help with RT-CDP assessments, planning and integrations, contact us at
Modern Marketing Analytics and Metrics for Modern Marketers
Modern marketing teams can have countless marketing strategies to drive expected results, from social platforms, advertising to press releases, email campaigns, and more. Marketers continue experimenting with various channels, content, and tactics to promote significant growth in customer acquisition and marketing ROI optimization. All these efforts are in vain, though, with the absence of modern marketing analytics.
Analyzing every campaign, channel, practice, and strategy provides feedback in numbers to let you know if you’re headed in the right direction. It also helps you understand how effective specific strategies and combinations of strategies are when it comes to reaching your goals.
Here, we will explore what modern marketing analytics is, how it is different from traditional (or outdated) analytics, modern analytics key metrics and how it leads to improved ROI, the role of predictive data in modern analytics, challenges faced by modern marketers, expectations from modern marketers, and more. Let’s start by looking at why modern analytics is crucial to today’s marketers.
Why Modern Marketing Analytics Is a Must-Have
When the Covid-19 pandemic triggered adverse effects for businesses everywhere the marketing world was turned upside-down. Altogether, it highlighted the necessity and value of modern analytics in online marketing. Marketers are more thoughtful of their goals and types of metrics that can derive growth in their marketing efforts, but this isn’t just due to the pandemic. Before that, customer expectations were shifting, and marketers needed advanced tools to meet these new demands.
Complex, interwoven marketing channels are now a necessity for enterprises; and the modernization of technology and marketing approaches and channels is crucial to the success and growth of these. To adapt to today’s complex marketing mix, marketers should understand the modern marketing landscape. Moreover, they should identify the factors influencing their customer expectations.
What Are the Challenges It Addresses?
Marketing channels, their usage, and the complexity of each are dependent on the size of the company – most of which applies to analytics. Here are some of the major reasons analytics can become more complicated:
- Investing in more marketing channels and practices is great, but it can be difficult to see where you should invest and where to hold off.
- Your customer may be present at multiple marketing channels. So, you need to connect with them at every channel with personalized, relevant messaging. Multi-touch attribution will help you to understand the influence of various campaigns.
- Multi-touch attribution is wonderfully useful, but the touchpoints across all devices need to be taken into account for optimal messaging and data. You need to reconcile it as best you can.
The tricks to manage these complexities require head and shoulders above your current marketing analytic system. Modern marketing analytics with future-proof capabilities is the key answer to achieving the goals. So, what does this mean? What are the metrics of modern analytics? Let’s find out.
Significance of “Modern” in “Modern Analytics”?
A few years ago, the choice of marketing analytics and attribution use was dependent on several factors such as –
i ) Who is the user? Employees or an expert such as a data scientist?
ii ) Whether it matches the theme of the organization or not.
iii ) Whether it could be embedded or not.
However, today’s marketing landscape is completely different. In fact, a myriad of cutting-edge technology has been introduced. Also, its capabilities have evolved more than ever before in just a few short years. Now, processes and platforms can be future-proofed with modern functionalities and next-gen technology.
Here are a few points that show how modern analytics serves marketers’ evolving needs better:
1.
Multi-Touch Attribution Model
There are numerous ways through which a consumer can reach your sites. For instance, organic search, paid search, web referrals, direct entrance, newsletter, emails, and more. Now, marketers should focus on the customer journey to find out which action led to conversion and which touchpoints are working more effectively. Sometimes, it is difficult to measure marketing performance across multiple conversion points; as a single user may reach you through various sources and devices.
The multi-touch points attribution model can help marketers work effectively with omnichannel marketing campaigns. This is an algorithm-based model that shares the credit across multiple touchpoints in a customer journey. Thus, it helps you to understand how much each channel is influencing consumers.
2.
Customer-Centric Approach
The idea of putting customers at the forefront of all efforts is not new. Now, the marketers have unequivocal evidence that fulfilling the customer’s needs and provides a competitive advantage. They must also understand the complexity to achieve customer-centricity; this is not a simple task. Also, it requires commitments at several levels-
i) Design-thinking approach for customer issues and needs;
ii) A centralized platform bringing data from every touchpoint for a unified view of customers;
iii) Predictive analytics from customer journey;
iv) Data about everything a consumer sees and interacts with;
v) And, most importantly hiring individuals capable of using the above information to come up with solutions that resonate with the customer.
Modern marketing analytics unify various channel data into ‘one customer’. Additionally, it addresses the problems of siloed data and siloed experiences. For instance, Adobe based RT-CDP platform provides a holistic and unified view of customer data profiles coming from various channels to deliver a consistent customer experience.
3.
Predictive Analytics
Predictive analytics and AI are what keep many marketers ahead of the competition. These tools optimize the targeting capabilities of marketing teams. Moreover, helping them pick and deliver the most appropriate content for each customer. This level of personalization and awareness boosts engagement and improves marketing effort returns.
Customer journeys are not linear. So, predictive analytics, when used appropriately, can save time for teams needing to react accurately and quickly, no matter the direction individual customers take. We’ll never be able to predict buyer actions correctly 100% of the time. However, predictive analytics takes us much closer, allowing for a modern, more precise approach to customer action.
Future With Modern Marketing Analytics
Modern marketing analytics ensures that the expectations of modern consumers are being met. All these efforts are aligned with proven trends and results. For instance, Salesforce Customer 360 combines all interactions with your customers from website to social channels. So, you can effectively approach your customers with more personalized content at the right time and right place. Likewise, the Adobe experience platform helps you build real-time customer profiles, AI-powered insights, improved privacy, and more.
All in all, shifting from older existing models to unified marketing measurements helps marketers to deal with the challenges of an ever-changing marketing landscape and changes in customer trends.
If you would like to know more about modern marketing analytics and platforms, how they can help scale up your business, or how to choose the right tools and implement them into your business process; contact us at +1-847-592-2920 or marketing@nextrow.com. We are always happy to answer all your queries.
The Definitive Guide To First-Party Cookies In Adobe Analytics
Death of the 3rd party cookie is imminent and with Google’s decision to delay blocking of 3rd party cookies in its widely popular browser Chrome, has given marketers the much-needed time to rewire their implementations. Google Chrome, commanding about 70% market share (2021, Desktop as per netmarketshare.com) is an important part of the web analytics equation. Below is a quick comparison of the cookie pool and timeline.
In this article, we are going to cover how cookies influence your web analytics. We have compiled a guide with foundational steps to make your analytics implementation robust and examine the implications of a 1st party universe. We would be focusing on “Adobe Experience Cloud” solutions like “Adobe Analytics” and “Adobe Experience Platform” in this article.
If you are looking for an overarching strategy, insights related to audience sharing, and tactics that brands can take to embrace this shift, refer to this detailed article here.
How Cookies Influence Your Analytics?
Your Adobe Analytics implementation heavily leans on cookies. Many brands only think about advertising and audience sharing when we talk about 3rd party cookies. They seldom think about their analytics implementation, as cookies are hidden beneath multiple layers. In your Adobe Analytics implementation, cookies dictate the below:
- Visitor identification on the site and across domains
- Persistence of data like across sessions (Ex: campaigns, traffic sources)
- Computation of stitched customer profiles
How Are Cookies Created in Analytics Implementation?
Cookies are typically set using two methods. #1 JavaScript code (client-side) by your tracking library (AppMeasurement or HCode/s_code.js) and #2 using HTTP headers (server-side). Regardless of the method, a cookie needs to be set under a domain. Depending on the domain, it is classified as 1st (same domain as the website), or 3rd party (different domain).
Once this cookie is set, a random ID is set to identify the visitors, which is sent in every beacon call to Adobe Analytics. This data is sent to (Adobe) server at a specific address. This is called as the “Tracking Server” (or ModStat) which is nothing but an end point to collect analytics data. The random ID is valid for 2 years on a rolling basis (except for safari browsers where it is only valid for 7 days).
This “Tracking Server” address can be something like “<your-site>.112.2o7.net” or “<your-site>.sc.omtrdc.net”. But this address can also be customized like “<your-site-name>.metrics.com” or “<your-site-name>.data.com” which is more friendly and will not be blocked by ad-blockers. This approach is done by creating a type of alias at the network level called a “CNAME”.
Generally, you work with your web/network team to accomplish this. The CNAME points to an Adobe end point like *.112.2o7.net or *.sc.omtrdc.net, but this will not be explicitly visible. A CNAME plays an important role in your Adobe Analytics implementation. Adobe recommends using a CNAME as a global best practice.
Guide for Identifying, Assessing, and Planning for Migration
Depending upon your technical architecture and the implementation method, you could be in the any of the below three buckets. Talk to your web/analytics dev team to know about the version or implementation method.
Bucket #1: H-Code or Pre-VisitorAPI.js ID Implementation
If you happen to be in this bucket, then you might be using Adobe Analytics as a standalone solution. Here a cookie named “s_vi” (vi – visitor identification) is used to identify the visitors. These cookies can take both 1st party or 3rd party avatars depending on the tracking server that you are using.
How to Identify the Type of Your Cookie?
- It depends on the “Tracking Server” settings present in the “HCode (s_code.js)” or the “AppMesurement” library (initial versions of Adobe Analytics tracking library without VisitorAPI.js).
- If your “Tracking Server” ends with “<your-site>.*.2o7.net”, then your analytics is implementation is powered by 3rd party cookies. You can also check the domain of the “s_vi” cookie using the Chrome developer tools (under “Applications” tab) and it will be set under “*.2o7.net” indicating that it is a 3rd party cookie.
- If your “Tracking Server” ends with “<your-site>.metrics.com” or “<your-site>.smetrics.com”, then your analytics uses 1st party cookies. (This is when you use CNAME as discussed above).
- If you check the domain of the “s_vi” cookie using the Chrome developer tools (under “Applications” tab) and it will be set under your site’s domain, which makes it as 1st party.
What Should Be the Next Steps if I Am in This Bucket?
- This is a legacy method of visitor identification, and you should migrate as soon as possible regardless of your expansion plans. Here are possible plans and the next steps:
About Nextrow
NextRow Digital is an Adobe Silver Partner and an expert in implementing Adobe technologies. We have the right skillsets and processes to support your complex needs ranging from IT teams to marketers. Grow your business with the help of Adobe Analytics experts at NextRow!
To learn more about our Adobe Experience Platform offerings, visit our website.
To learn how NextRow can help with Adobe Analytics assessments, planning and integrations, contact us at +1-847-592-2920 or marketing@nextrow.com.
Bucket #2: VisitorAPI.js Implementation or “Adobe Experience Cloud ID Service”
Many of you would be likely in this bucket. This enables Adobe Analytics to be used as an integrated solution with Target, Audience Manager etc. An additional library (VisitorAPI.js) or an extension in Adobe Launch is required to implement this. It uses a 1st party cookie named “AMCV_{YOUR-ORG-ID}” where the visitor ID (called “ECID”/“MID”) is stored and used in analytics calls. This cookie is always set in the 1st party domain.
But this service also uses a 3rd party cookie named “demdex” which houses a 3rd party ID called the “UUID”. The “UUID” is used by Adobe to identify users across domains and across the entire web. The “UUID” is synced with advertising solutions like Google, TradeDesk to target users across the web. The “ECID” is used in internal Adobe solutions.
Example, if your business owns two sites, www.cars.com and www.bikes.com, then a person browsing the sites (from same browser) is identified the same across both domains (thanks to the 3rd party cookie accepting Chrome browser!). The actions taken by the visitor on both sites can combined and used for targeting the visitor precisely across the internet (here it sounds a little creepy!). With the sunset of 3rd party cookies, you will not be able to do this!
How to Identify the Type of Your Cookie?
- Here, irrespective of your tracking server settings, the AMCV cookie (main visitor id cookie) is always set as 1st party cookies.
- The demdex (cross-domain id) cookie is always set as 3rd party cookie.
- If you are using a CNAME, then the only difference is the cookie is set using HTTP headers (server-side).
- You can check the domain of the cookies using the Chrome developer tools (under “Applications” tab).
What Should Be the Next Steps if I Am in This Bucket?
- Cross-domain tracking and advertising use cases based on 3rd party cookies would be worst hit in this bucket. There would be visitor count and profile rests when Chrome rolls out the update. Preparation and planning are recommended. Here are couple of options to minimize the impact:
Bucket #3: Implementing Futuristic Adobe Experience Platform
You should consider yourself lucky if you are starting here. Possibly you are starting anew with customer analytics or trying Adobe Experience Platform in a new site/LOB. Here the data collection is powered by an open library called “alloy.js” and available as “Web SDK” extension in Adobe Launch (Tags).
Visitor identification is powered by “Adobe Identity Service” which is the evolution of the previous service that we saw. This brings the focus only on 1st party tracking. 3rd party cookies and tracking are not enabled by default (but available as an option for those who still want to use it).
From here there is only one way to go, which is “strengthening your first-party strategy”. Let’s have a look:
Key Factors to Consider During Migration
Visitor Identification in analytics can be a complex task and especially with 3rd party cookie sunset around the corner, it is imperative to understand the details for better planning and migration. Below are some of the key things to watch out if you are planning for migration, irrespective of the bucket:
Visitor Migration
If you are changing anything related to visitor identification, you need to enable “ (a.k.a grace period)” to prevent visitor cliffing (a visitor id reset for all your visitors). Failure to do so will have ramifications in visitor reporting and profiles which are irreversible.
Ad-Blockers
If you are using a CNAME, then chances of your tracking calls blocked by ad-blockers and other privacy solutions are almost negligible. On the other hand, a 1st party implementation without a CNAME would take a hit.
Apple ITP
With ITP 2.0, safari browsers in desktop and mobile have a cookie expiration period of 7 days. This is true if you use a CNAME as well. When you use “Adobe Identity Service”, you have the option to Bring-your-own-ID which could potentially help you to circumvent the 7-day expiry.
Cross-Domain Tracking
This is a sticky wicket, especially with the sunset of 3rd party cookies. Start leveraging the services to start building the ID syncs now so that there are no big surprises when the time comes.
Privacy
User privacy and choices should be respected at any cost. Even though this is not in the scope of this article, it is imperative to call this out explicitly and Adobe services do a good job of providing tools for implementing this. Please check the respective documentation for details.
CNAME
This is a recommended global best practice to get maximum value from your analytics data. Adobe runs a managed certification program, which is free for Adobe customers to encourage migration to CNAME based tracking.
Conclusion and Next Steps
It is time to have a look under the hood and determine the next steps. Like we discussed above, this much needed time can be used for technology planning, implementation and change management which are the clear ways to stay ahead of the game!
IntegratedPDF Solution – Hyper Personalize Your Customer Experience
In recent years, the business ecosystem has gone through an unprecedented change due to various reasons. The ongoing pandemic and technical disruptions, such as –the sunset of third-party data, and the introduction of new technologies are just to name a few. These disruptions have put digital at the center of everything, changed online and offline customer behavior, disruptions and posed new challenges to marketing approaches.
Marketers need modern strategies and technologies to go along with these changes in the marketing ecosystem. They need to focus on an omnichannel presence to engage a greater number of customers and learn more about their behavior and preferences. Additionally, they need to embrace futuristic technologies in their marketing approaches, such as AI/ML and automation, to improve marketing efficiency and results. Last, but not least, marketers should always focus on customers without leaving any stone unturned and should find new opportunities to serve their customers.
In this blog, we will see a modern approach to harness the potential of PDF documents to extract deep knowledge about customers, improve personalization and customer experiences, and capture high-quality leads. We will explore the various aspects of Integrated PDF solution powered by Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) introduced by NextRow Digital.
Know more about Adobe Experience Platform and its implementation process here.
How Does IntegratedPDF Work?
Let’s say you are a technology company and when end users land on your website or product page they want to see a PDF brochure to explore more. Then the PDF brochure will open in Chrome’s or Firefox’s native PDF reader tool. It is not possible to track the user’s engagement in PDF like time spent, keywords searched, etc. Also, if a user wants to share this PDF with their team or use it in a meeting, a prompt for download is given and the user is lost. There is no reason for brands to send the customer offline when they are already there on their website or app.
Again, if the same user comes back to the website after interacting with PDF, the customer lands on the same homepage and the brand has no idea about that customer’s interest. Even though the user already interacted with the PDF, they have to restart the journey from scratch.
How IntegratedPDF Solution Can Change the Complete Scenario
If your website is integrated with the PDF solution powered by AEP, here are the added advantages:
- PDF will open along or within your website rather than opening through any PDF reader tool or browser plugin/extension or downloading. This is powered by Adobe Document Clouds embedded API with powerful PDF rendering capabilities – such as highlighting, annotation, comments, and more.
- Whenever a customer interacts with the PDF you can record analytics in real-time. With an experience management platform like Adobe Experience Platform (AEP), you can send this data in real-time for segmentation and profiling. You derive insights from each and every action taken by the user – such as the pages he visited, time spent across the PDF, any annotation action, any queries made by him and more.
What Is Nextrow’s IntegratedPDF Solution?
This solution is designed to solve all the key challenges of marketers for lead scoring and personalization with the documents used for marketing purposes. It provides scalable pdf analytics having a base for customer analytics.
NextRow’s Integrated PDF solution is a
futuristic integration between Adobe
Experience Cloud and Adobe Document Cloud.
Behind the Scenes (How Are All These Possible?)
This integrated PDF solution is powered by Adobe Document Cloud SDKs and Adobe Experience Platform. In Document Cloud SDKs, PDF embedded API (a native API by Adobe) is used, which offers consistent rendering experiences and flexible UI to host the PDF in a way that embedded PDF’s look like part of the website. Moreover, you can switch to the full screen mode for annotation and collaboration. Users can easily tag anyone who is an authorized member. You can also integrate it with other platforms such as Adobe Sign and Microsoft technology to amplify the capabilities. Our solution uses AEP and RT-CDP for real-time profile, last millisecond personalization and uses Marketo as an email trigger. Nevertheless, the same solution can be extended for non-Adobe MarTech stacks like Salesforce as well. This works even if you are only using point solutions like Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target.
Benefits of IntegratedPDF Solution
- Precise analytics data for high-value leads
This data can help you upgrade your existing lead scoring models with high precision. All this can be possible with the cutting-edge native Adobe Technology not by third-party technology.
- You can trigger a web-based journey based on actions taken by users in the PDF
If the same customer comes back to the website after a few days, weeks, or months, they don’t have to restart the journey from the beginning. In fact, you can ask the customer whether they want to start from where they left off.
- Build unified customer profiles
Information provided by the customers (forms filled in by them) will go to AEP’s RT-CDP in real time and merged into a real-time customer profile. Simultaneously, the customer can also get the annotated PDF (or personalized PDF) to the provided mail-ID (using any campaign email system). These ID’s will be merged with the personal identity in real-time.
- You can deliver hyper-personalized customer experiences
You will be able to know the interest of a particular visitor. You can customize your homepage banners and emails based on the visitor’s interest.
Do You Really Need Adobe CDP and Marketo for PDF Integration?
As discussed above, the captured data can be used in the RT-CDP in real-time and you can trigger an emailer campaign with Marketo. It doesn’t imply that you cannot reap the benefits of the IntegratedPDF solution without Adobe RT-CDP and Marketo. You don’t need RT-CDP and Marketo, however, these would be added advantages for you. Take a look at Adobe RT-CDP, its features and benefits.
To know in detail and what are the available options for this system, talk to an expert.
What You Can Expect in the Future?
This integrated PDF solution is just the foundational approach, our next stop will be AI scoring, PDF personalization, Smart journey, and Smart CTAs to deliver a high level of contextualized experience to the customers using Adobe Cloud Documents and Adobe Experience Platform.
If you want to know how PDF analytics data is coming in and sitting into AEP to power these experiences, watch this on-demand video here.
If you have any queries, feedback or want to discuss more about this, contact our expert at sales@nextrow.com.
How IOT and Adobe Experience Platform Brings Revolution to the Pharma Industry
Technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) bring revolution to every sector and the Pharma industry is no exception. IoT is reinventing the old model of manufacturing and distribution of drugs with the use of smart devices and machine-to-machine communication. This technology is not only revolutionizing the patient experience, but is also playing a vital role in other areas such as supply chain, R&D, and clinical development.
The Pharma Industry is not just limited to delivering medications, storage, and distribution. It now includes – tracking biological usage, providing answers to prescribed treatments, educating patients and ensuring appropriate medication usage, promoting adherence to the medication, and assigning dedicated Nurse Ambassadors to help get patients started and stay on track with prescribed treatment plans, etc.
Pharma industries require collaborations between medication, data of customer health and activity, as well as data from various medical or non-medical smart devices for:
- personalized services
- remote patient monitoring
- recommending the next best course of action in case of emergencies
- sending precise instructions for medication dosage and patient care
- promoting adherence to the specific line of medication
- personalized medication plans and tracking, and more
In this blog, we will talk about challenges, how IoT is making a significant change in the Pharma industry by associating with Adobe Experience Platform, and what is the best way of implementing and executing IoT-enabled solutions.
Why Advanced Technologies Should Be Implemented in Pharma?
Key Disruptions in Pharma That Require Involvement of New Technologies:
- The pharma industry is not only limited to drug manufacturing and distribution. Smart devices and wearables involved collaborate with tech products and help HCPs for easy diagnosis.
- Digital interaction with patients has become the new norm. With real-time interaction and virtual detailing, the pharma industry is making life easier by providing people with medical help instantly.
- Pharma has become more patient-centric. Now patients can do research, have a doctor discussion guide before consulting, and know more information about the drugs they consume.
- Third-party cookie sunset, complex regulations for marketing technology stacks, and compliance like privacy, and auditing are some more reasons for disruptions.
Key Challenges Marketers Face Providing Consumer’s Expected Experience:
Data Silos
With various sources of data such as prescription drug websites, disease awareness sites, mobile apps, and machine-generated IoT data, deriving real-time customer profiles is the holy grail for marketers. The real challenges are to keep data centralized with identities and governance.
Complex Patient Data Processes
Offline management and ingestion of patient data is another challenge for marketers that disturb real-time decisions. They need a high-tech marketing stack for optimizing the data ingestion.
Privacy and Regulatory Compliance
Marketers deal with sensitive patient data and due to that, regulations and compliance become vital. They require tech-stack compliance with strict industry regulations to address evolving issues in handling sensitive data.
How IoT Is Bridging the Gap in Customer’s Experience?
Customer data is highly fragmented due to touchpoints like web and mobile not being connected. Additionally, new data sources like machine generated data are not exploited for personalizing the experience. Data driven experiences and next best actions are missing, which provides a disjointed customer journey and customer experience.
Let’s Take a Look into Customer Experience without IoT Integration:
- No immediate medication alert from the mobile app when there are abnormal readings detected on the patient’s smart BP monitoring device
- Lack of personalized medication recommendation or reminder tracking
- No scope for immediate intervention from nurse ambassadors in case of emergency
What Happens When IoT Meets Adobe Technology
Together, IoT and Adobe technology can help craft a meaningful experience by infusing data from smart devices into the Adobe Experience Platform. Data from sites, apps, and other sources can be combined with machine-generated data using AEP. It can help deliver an “Internet of Experiences” which is real-time and far superior to the disjointed experiences customers previously had. The solution can also include in-house smart devices, blood glucose monitors, and smart medication dispensers.
Nextrow’s IoT-Enabled Solution for Pharma Using AEP
We have built an extensive solution, which is an innovative integration of customer digital data and IoT device data powered by the Adobe Experience Platform. It includes integrations across Experience Cloud Products below:
High-Level Architecture of IoT Integration Solution
The behavioral data collected from websites and mobile apps are respective to Adobe’s data collection SDK’s. Connectors will be used to collect patient data that can be either a batch or real-time ingestion. Though there are several easy ways to get the data into AEP, this is the best way to use a cloud-based connector (in case you are using AWS or Google Cloud).
The necessary segments will be created in AEP using Segmentation Service and the segments will be activated to Adobe Target, and Call center (profile API) using Adobe Journey Optimizer + AEP RT-CDP Destinations. The identity service will stitch all the data into profiles using the common identified such as email ID. RT-CDP can power website experiences through Adobe Target and mobile push apps using Adobe Journey Optimizer. Call center can access the profiles in real-time using the RT-CDP Profile APIs.
Benefits of IoT Integrated Solution
Better Customer Acquisition: – Significant increase in the number of customers due to the enhanced features available in the application due to smart device integration.
More Engagement:- Easily available recommended content and instruction sets will improve customer engagement
Better Conversion Rate:- Readily available in-app support system and instruction steps will improve medicine and medical device purchases
Improved Customer Satisfaction and Retention:- Improved customer satisfaction through personalized services will build a loyal customer base
New Face of Pharma With IoT-Enabled AEP Solution
The combination of IoT and Adobe Experience Platform can transform the life sciences industry. It can empower the pharma industry to offer valuable propositions, improve patient and HCP engagement, create a faster time to market, as well as improve productivity, cost optimization, and better compliance adherence.
If you want to know more about this solution, connect to an expert at sales@nextrow.com.
The Abc’s of Adobe Experience Platform WebSDK
Adobe is consistently working on making Adobe technologies more efficient, dynamic, and simple. WebSDK is a new introduction to this line that enables a unified data collection library for Adobe Experience Cloud customers.
You need to use different JavaScript libraries for each individual solution and none of these libraries work with each other, leading to deployment friction. Although tags in the platform manage libraries, they have several issues such as library size, lower performance, multiple calls, fractured data collection, confusion of schemas between solutions, and others. Plus, there isn’t a JavaScript library that sends data directly to the Adobe Experience Platform. Due to this, many AEP implementations are using Adobe Analytics connector or Audience Manager connector, which is not real-time.
WebSDK can solve these issues and improve efficiency. There is a lot of buzz around WebSDK, let’s see the fundamentals of this new library and how it could bring a fortune to your business.
What is WebSDK?
WebSDK is the new client-side data collection extension for all Adobe Experience Cloud applications, including Adobe Experience Platform. This is the foundation that helps you migrate to a cookie-less 1st party data collection. It is “Tags” (formerly Adobe Launch, TMS) extension used to configure the actual javascript library alloy.js.
Libraries we were using in past have been combined: –
- Visitor API (ECID, UUID, 3rd party ID syncs, known-id syncs)
- appMeasurement(Plugins, Custom Analytics, eVar persistence)
- AT JS (A4T, Recommendations data collections)
- DIL JS (AAM standalone implementation and data collection)
WebSDK interchangeably used for
alloy.js focuses on how we are
collecting behavioral data from
websites, kiosks, or web apps. It is
powered by Edge Network.
Why Websdk Is Critical for You?
Unlike the earlier versions of the libraries, this one encompasses all the solutions from Adobe Analytics to RT-CDP. So, this requires a multi-solution approach for planning and implementation. Failing to do so will require expensive iterations and a negative business impact on the cross-channel marketing use cases.
Values Brought by WebSDK
- HIGH PERFORMANCE
WebSDK improves efficiency by providing faster page loads as it is smaller than all of the current Adobe libraries. - IT’S SIMPLE
The union of Web SDK, XDM, tags, AEC solutions, Experience Edge and AEP makes data collection and implementation of Adobe technologies simpler and easier. How?
AEP Web SDK enables simplicity in sending and receiving data to AEP Edge Network. XDM removes tagging for eVars and mboxes. Tags (Adobe Launch) simplify Web SDK deployment and configuration. Experience Edge routes the data to AEP and other solutions.
- DATA IS IN YOUR CONTROL
As a stream of data is connected and unified, you can easily control its journey along the applications. - FUTURISTIC SOLUTION
WebSDK and Experience Edge Network together bring modernization to the data collection, and personalization efforts, and enable first-party domain.
A High-Level Architecture
AEP Edge Network is the center of WebSDK architecture. Data will be sent to the Edge Network from all of the devices such as Mobile, Desktop, Kiosk, etc. From the central place, data will be sent to the various solutions whether it is AEP, Analytics, or target. This “central place” is a server-side configuration managed through a feature in “Tags” (a.k.a Adobe Launch) called “Data Streams”, helping you to control the flow of data to different solutions.
Customer Implementation by Nextrow Digital
Recently, we helped a Top Pharma Giant in the US on a large scale WebSDK migration. The client wanted to re-invent their consumer focus and provide unparalleled experiences to their patients and prospects by supercharging their MarTech stacks across their 100+ sites. NextRow’s WebSDK migration solution built a solid and scalable foundation for the client to exploit first-party customer data and seamlessly send data to solutions like AEP, Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, and AAM. The solution improved performance leading to higher website signups and improved customer data capture.
Get Ready to Start Your Journey With WebSDK
Get help to begin your journey with the WebSDK, you can always count on subject matter experts at NextRow Digital. To date, we have migrated 100+ digital properties in our client’s ecosystem and this is set to raise next year. Contact us at sales@nextrow.com
to leverage our expertise in AEP WebSDK and improve your business efficiency.
Check out this on-demand video to learn more about WebSDK here.
How Adobe Analytics Helps Employ Data Governance
Data is an important asset for any business. Businesses deal with a large volume and variety of data to make well-informed decisions. They always look for “how to add more value and bring meaning to data”. To understand data assets, how to access them, and how to use that data most effectively; Data governance helps to maximize the value of data while maintaining its consistency across the organizations.
Data governance makes sure that data is governed properly, protected, secured, and is in compliance. This is crucial for every business, as they are collecting data from various sources. In this blog, we will walk you through how Adobe Analytics can help you govern or protect data while taking care of customers’ rights as well.
Adobe Analytics GDPR and CCPA
Data governance is not a new concept in Adobe Analytics. However, Adobe is always looking to incorporate additional capabilities and enhance the functionality to help brands manage GDPR and CCPA. When you use Adobe Analytics, it works as a data processor as well. It receives, stores, and processes data according to your company’s permission and instructions. As a data controller, you will determine the personal data that should be processed and stored by Adobe on your behalf.
Data governance features in Adobe Analytics enable data governance policy to use data. Let’s see how it supports GDPR and CCPA and how you can you manage your data more efficiently.
There are three important parts of Data governance in Adobe Analytics
- Consent Management
- Data Governance
- Data Subject’s Right
Consent Management?
First, brands need to understand what data needs to be collected, how to collect, and what consent they need to get from the customers. They also need to determine what data is collected now and in the future.
Moreover, it is the customers’ right to know or understand what data is collected and the brand’s right to understand its digital performance as well. Data governance makes all these possible. This is why building a proper due diligence on data collection is not important but it becomes mandatory to keep transparency and integrity. You should determine how the data will be used and processed.
For efficient data management, you need to check how to get consent from the customers and whether the present consent is sufficient or not. It can be done internally or you can get help from a third party. It is important to make sure that you have the right approach that aligns with your brand. You must ensure that you adopt a proper approach for honoring consumers opt-outs or withdrawal of consent whenever they want.
What Are the Steps You Need to Take for Consent Management?
After implementing Adobe Analytics, you send a beacon. Now, it is your responsibility to initiate the beacon and you should avoid the default setting when you configure the Adobe Analytics extensions otherwise everything would be tracked without consent. Make sure, you are not sending any beacons with default settings and you do not enable auto data collection. When consent is in place, everything cannot be enabled as it is not compliant with consent management and policy.
A simple way to manage consent is to use “Opt in” services in AEP instead of a third-party extension for consent. This will help you to get consent and then you can trigger beacon.
Data Retention and Governance
After collecting data, data governance is important to make sure that the data is properly labelled and governed. Ensure that collected data has proper retention and governance policy and you have reviewed the current tags and cookies to align it with your use cases. Follow these three steps:
IDENTITY RESOLUTION AND STRATEGY
Collecting PAA in Adobe Analytics is not recommended. You should have an identity strategy to identify customers, such as loyalty ID, one-on-one mapping ID, etc. Knowing the customer helps improve the personalization strategy across various devices and platforms.
DATA RETENTION
Once the data is collected, you need to set an appropriate data retention period. In Adobe Analytics, by default the data retention time period is 25 months, you can extend this time period by up to 10 years by contacting a support representative.
DATA LABELING
Labeling all the variables captured to operationalize the governance practice and policies is important too. Why it is important?, because it helps-
- to identify the data subject,
- to determine which data should be returned to the customers
- determine which data should be deleted
Point to remember: You cannot bypass the data retention process and directly go to data labeling.
Data Subject’s Right
Once the data is collected, you should take care about customer’s right for the data. What if customers want to opt out, want to understand what data is being collected, and want to delete those data in future. GDPR and CCPA in Adobe Analytics will help you manage the right to access and right to delete.
You must take care of these three points:
- You need to understand how you will receive and respond to the data subject requests. you require a system or automated system to manage these requests.
- You should have identifiers to authenticate the user ID from identifiable data. You require a strategy to determine how ID will be identified. In Adobe Analytics, ECA (Experience cloud applications) service which is a cookie id or device id service will help you.
- After receiving the request, you have to review the data to determine what data has to be presented to the customers. As, the collected data also includes information that may not be useful for the customers such as the browser’s name, browser’s versions, java versions, etc. So, you need to clean the data and review it before presenting it to the customers.
The request has been made by the customer and a query has been made to Adobe Analytics by you. Then, Adobe will send data to the data controller to review that will be presented to the customers. This whole process is called Privacy Service which is present in Adobe Analytics as well as Adobe Experience Platform.
Keeping Pace With the Evolution of Data Governance
No one can deny the fact that data governance is here to stay because brands will keep using the data to improve their business decisions, performance, and business results. They require clean and optimized data on which everyone can rely. All in all, the importance of data governance will keep increasing with time as more data will be created, new technologies will be introduced, and more regulations will be coming.
If you need help with data governance in Adobe Analytics or any other Adobe Technologies, do let us know at sales@nextrow.com.
For more information about Data governance in Adobe Analytics, watch this on-demand webinar video here.
