Salesforce Connections kicks off in Chicago today, and while it’s not quite Dreamforce, it’s a sufficiently high profile div into the worlds of marketing, commerce, and service to make it seem less than coincidental that Adobe and Oracle step forth with new announcements this morning.
First, Adobe. The general availability of the Adobe Experience Platform was announced back in March. It signalled a new architecture for the Experience Cloud, existing as a basic data layer, housing constantly updated unified customer profiles, which Sensei AI could plunder for insights deliverable to the Marketing, Commerce, and Advertising Clouds.
How about real-time, personalized insights? Today’s announcement marks a stage on the way, with Adobe announcing that real-time personalized engagement is “a reality.” For Adobe Campaign, at least, the email to cross-channel offering for B2C marketers. Unlike conventional, pre-configured customer journeys, “Triggered Journeys” will automate individually personalized experiences triggered by contextual events: any interaction, for example, as well as factors like changes in loyalty status, the customer’s location, and even the weather. These journeys complement, rather than replace, existing outbound programs.
“Real-time” is getting to be one of those phrases, like “Big Data” a few years ago. But Kristin Naragon, head of GTM Strategy, Adobe Campaign, insists this is the real-time real deal: “By collecting, processing and organizing tens of millions of events per second from multiple sources, and combining it with Adobe Sensei, Experience Platform enables brands to engage with individuals in a contextual, personalized way across channels, in the most meaningful moments.”
I asked her if brands were really ready for this opportunity. In reply, she wrote: “Brands today understand it’s imperative to deliver great customer experiences and a highly personalized customer journey is a must – no matter what stage they’re in. They know it’s crucial to deliver unforgettable, customer experiences.”
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Oracle too is splashing around in the CDP pool today, announcing a collaboration with two prominent consulting and services firms, Accenture and Capgemini, to address what a release called “the hype and confusion around the CDP market.” Said Oracle: “The first wave of CDP solutions has failed to address the challenge of creating a single and dynamic view of the customer due to the complexity of integration, the need to address the entire customer journey and a limited set of use cases/capabilities centered on B2C marketing.”
Oracle’s own offering is CX Unity, pre-integrated with the Oracle CX Cloud, and with built-in AI. The role of Accenture and Capgemini, both Oracle platinum partners, will be to help enterprises benefit from the solution by identifying data sources and developing data strategies.
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Will Salesforce be talking about the CDP space and it’s own approach at Connections this week? Place your bets now.
