Customer Data Platform, though a relatively new concept, has become front and center to the question of how best to craft ‘Customer Experience’ or CX, especially given our omnichannel, big, and fast, data environment. That means, Customer Data Platforms as a concept is also evolving at an unprecedented rate. There is no single definition of ‘what is a Customer Data Platform’ anymore.
The term ‘Customer Data Platform’ has reshaped itself from when it was originally defined by David Raab, founder of the CDP Institute, as the marketing-managed technology that can deliver a unified, persistent view of the customer and is accessible to other systems. While the core of the solution has stayed intact, the larger offering has been interpreted in different ways by different vendors and even users. So, how does that impact a potential Buyer of a Customer Data Platform?
We believe – and said in Issue 5 of The CDP Explainer Series as well – that it’s not about the best CDP solution – it’s about the best CDP solution for you. The choice of Customer Data Platform partner stems from your unique context, use case(s) and desired outcomes.
In addition, it’s important to acknowledge that CDP vendors themselves are now reinterpreting Customer Data Platforms based on their growing knowledge of their preferred markets; and positioning or aligning themselves into different areas of specialization.
And that is why, this 9th Edition of The CDP Explainer Series is a Buyers’ Guide – with a difference. It doesn’t compare limited vendors against limited features. Instead, we acknowledge that:
- Customer Data Platforms space is an evolving and expanding landscape and its starting to mean different things to Vendors and Users too
- A limited comparison of vendors based on a limited list of features can never be comprehensive or even fair to either the CDP Vendor or the prospective Buyer
- What is needed is not absolutes but a framework to equip Buyers to create the best possible shortlist of vendors to suit their own unique context, outcomes and use cases.
This Buyers Guide for choosing a Customer Data Platform in an Evolving Landscape gives you just that with a 3-step approach and a way to draw up a shortlist that makes sense to you. Download the guide here with one single click.