CDP Institute

If anything requires coordination between business and IT, it’s improving customer experience. This Cyara survey found that companies with more experience in CX projects were 87% more likely to report shared understanding between business and IT and 81% more likely to report CX.. A majority (58%) said pressure to move too quickly had created CX problems.

Speaking of customer experience, consultancy COPC found consumer satisfaction with multichannel experience reached the lowest point in the eight years they’ve been keeping score, falling to 38% from 57% in 2018. There’s plenty more in this 75 page report so let’s just pull one factoid: only 60% of respondents said they’d used the phone to resolve a service issue in the past year.

It’s Eat Your Spinach Day here at CDP Institute, when we publish important news you probably won’t read. We’ll start with a $44 million Series B for Fivetran, which offers automated data integration technology that can build custom connectors in minutes. This is generic technology that could compete with Customer Data Platforms.

Next, a reminder that cybersecurity remains a problem. Optiv found that 58% of chief information security officers believe that experience handling a data breach makes them more attractive to potential employers. That may help to explain why the same survey finds that companies often fail to implement basic security practices.

On a happier note, several vendors are helping to address privacy requirements. OneTrust and Active Navigation are partnering to help companies find sensitive customer information lurking in unstructured data. Dataguise has added a product to simplify response to customer data access requests. And BigID is making it easier to track third party data sharing, as required by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and other rules.

Cheetah Digital has released the Cheetah Engagement Data Platform, which provides “real-time data collection, profile unification, segmentation, and machine learning-driven insights”. It serves as the foundation for the company’s cross-channel Customer Engagement Suite. Cheetah started in 1998 as an email service provider, which was purchased by Experian and then spun off in 2017.

Open source big data tech firm Cloudera has also launched a data platform. The Cloudera Data Platform (yep, they call it CDP) offers tools to assemble, manage and distribute all types of enterprise data in streaming, data lake, data warehouse, and operational database formats. It also includes machine learning to make the resulting data more useful.

Also in the open source world, Vista Equity Partners spent a reported $1 billion to purchase a majority stake in Acquia, which offers a Drupal-based digital experience platform. Acquia itself has recently purchased Mautic, an open source marketing automation system, and Cohesion, a low-code Drupal Web site builder.

Segment has a pair of announcements today. First is a Privacy Portal that automatically detects personal information and lets users restrict its distribution. Second is Functions, which lets users add custom data integrations with a few lines of code.

Arm Treasure Data has also made it easier to build custom integrations, with a feature they call Custom Scripts.  And, they’ve addressed the distressing shortage of pirate-themed CDP products with Treasure Boxes, a library of prebuilt codes and applications for various purposes.

RedPoint Global doesn’t have new features today but did raise $13.5 million in new funding round, bringing its total to $37.2 million per Crunchbase. The funds will used to support growth via geographic expansion and strategic partnerships.

Lots of news to choose from today, Dear Reader. The three bits I think you’ll find most interesting start with new analytics features in Salesforce Datorama, which I consider a CDP but they position as a tool for marketing analytics. The features are a Harmonization center for data preparation and Data Canvas for improved visualizations.