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THE ULTIMATE GUIDE FOR CLOUD MIGRATIONFEATURING REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES AND KEY CONSIDERATIONS BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE FOR CLOUD MIGRATION | 2



TABLE OF CONTENTS

EDITOR’S NOTE:

SECTION 1:THE CHALLENGE WITH DATA MANAGEMENT TODAY The limitations of legacy data management systems

SECTION 2:THE CASE FOR THE CLOUD Strategic and operational outcomes of moving marketing data to the cloud

SECTION 3:MAKING THE MOVE People and process considerations before, during, and after the migration

SECTION 4:WHAT NEXT? Working with an experienced data migration expert to design your own journey

BONUS SECTION: Real examples of marketing data migration to the cloud

ABOUT MERKLE:

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FEATURING REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES AND CHECKLIST FOR BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER A MARKETING DATA MIGRATION | 3



Marketers are no strangers to market dynamics, but the global crisis caused by the Coronavirus pandemic has virtually changed the game as far as marketing is concerned. For customer-centric marketers, staying competitive today and tomorrow – especially in light of all the changes that will define a post-COVID-19 world – means putting fundamental new capabilities in place:

• An advanced yet user-friendly way to capture, store, and analyze the complex data generated by customer interactions across multiple channels and devices

• Agile, responsive, and innovative ways to engage with your customers in the moments (and channels) that matter

• Automated yet intelligent ways to activate data for seamless, relevant, and personalized customer experiences (CX)

• True flexibility powered by technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and cloud, to navigate the unpredictable business environment in crisis

Of course, only a powerful combination of data and technology can enable these ambitious multi-channel marketing and CX strategies.

The speed, scale, and agility needed to unlock today’s “big data workloads” into “big data assets” needs something revolutionary. That revolution is being led by the public cloud, which has democratized data management for marketers across industries. In fact, a recent Gartner report forecasts that the cloud application services market (software as a service (SaaS)) will grow from $116 billion in 2020 to $151 billion in 2022. It also predicts that the overall cloud computing services market, which includes SaaS, platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS), is set to grow from $266 billion in 2020 to $354 billion in 2022.

Enterprises of all sizes today are exploring ways to migrate their marketing data to the public cloud, as it has been seen to address the shortcomings of legacy data management systems in the context of managing high data volumes at speed and scale, while also offering significant cost and operating advantages.

As marketers are the primary users and beneficiaries of the migration to cloud, it’s critical for you to understand what is at stake, how to get involved in the process, and the outcomes and business impact you can expect as a result of the migration.

EDITOR’S NOTE

https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-11-13-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-public-cloud-revenue-to-grow-17-percent-in-2020


Without that, you run the risk of a sub-optimal migration that leaves you underwhelmed – failing to deliver the speed, agility, cost efficiencies, scale, or experiences hoped for.

This playbook is designed to help you:

• Understand the business case for migrating to the cloud and building next-generation marketing data management systems

• Get insight into key areas to consider before, during, and after the migration

• Find ways to work with key internal and external stakeholders for best business outcomes

• Prepare a path forward toward successful data migration

• Find ways to optimize performance if your migration is already underway or complete

With this guide, we hope you feel prepared to initiate a cloud migration discussion and implementation for your organization. You’ll enjoy the returns a well-executed cloud data migration can bring.

To your success!

Merkle Technology ServicesToolbox Editorial Team




SECTION 1

THE CHALLENGE WITH DATA MANAGEMENT TODAYWhen underlying systems seem too cumbersome to manage day-to-day marketing and the time and effort required to generate basic customer insights is overwhelming, modern marketers know they need more than what their legacy marketing systems were set-up to deliver.

We’ve had multiple conversations with marketing leaders who struggle with legacy systems that once served their purpose, but are inadequate for today’s complex marketing environment. The recurring theme we hear is that IT ecosystems have not modernized at the rate needed to keep pace with current-day marketing capabilities, and this leads to a lack of flexibility in responding to rapidly evolving customer expectations.

The truth is that legacy systems slow down marketers and marketing performance outcomes. They are not flexible enough to keep pace with customer dynamics, distributed workforces, ever-evolving technology, and a relentlessly competitive landscape. Of course, none of it is helped by shrinking operating and IT budgets, a limitation made worse by the fact that legacy systems demand heavy maintenance staff and engineering interventions.

BUT IT’S NOT JUST MARKETERS WHO ARE FEELING THE PAIN.

Data analysts need timely data access to generate accurate insights that inform marketing decision making. However, legacy systems do not offer the necessary analytical tools or computational power that can keep pace with the volume and velocity of the inbound data they need to crunch. IT architects too crave access to the hardware and software needed to build next-generation data management environments, but legacy systems may be incompatible or cost prohibitive.

© Merkle

TIME VALUE RISK


To sum it up, here are the challenges that legacy marketing data management platforms pose to marketers, data and IT professionals, and the business itself:

• Systems are inadequate to ingest and store the huge volumes of complicated, unpredictable, unstructured, and unorganized data that makes up the bulk of marketing data today, in a way that is cost effective and easy to access and use.

• Legacy technology can’t keep pace with the computing needs demanded by such high data volumes, restricting marketers from analyzing and activating data in real time to support data-driven marketing.

• Fragmented and siloed data leads to disconnected customer experiences that are restricted by incomplete or outdated views of the customer. Marketers need a unified identity of the customer across channels and devices, and they need data to flow freely across their various campaign execution systems.

• Legacy systems are cumbersome and costly capital expenditures, constantly needing upgrades and maintenance by specialized staff.

• Long procurement and change cycles for the software and hardware mean low agility to respond to new business opportunities or create disruptive models.

• Keeping pace with the ever-evolving security, regulatory, and compliance environment is a huge challenge and burden for IT teams – and it is not one they are especially equipped to address effectively.

• The already stretched IT and data resources are bogged down with solving hardware and maintenance challenges, instead of helping solve strategic business challenges.

The ability of cloud technologies to address many of these challenges, while also creating value for the business by enabling scale and speed, have made it a popular alternative for marketers across industries. The next section takes us deeper into the strategic and operational advantages that migrating marketing data to the cloud can bring.




THE CASE FOR THE CLOUD The universal appeal of the cloud is that it can drive both strategic advantages and operational efficiencies to businesses large and small, across industry verticals. As a technology, it has evolved almost unrecognizably beyond being a place for “storing data.”

Today, public clouds offer several strategic capabilities to drive optimal marketing performance outcomes. From data storage to integration to analysis and activation, cloud platforms offer a powerful ally to customer-centric marketers who want to double down on delivering seamless CX in the age of complex multi-channel marketing environments. That explains why modern marketing leaders were already exploring a “cloud-first approach” for their businesses in 2020. However, in the post-COVID era, it is an even more pressing need. Marketers acknowledge that buying behavior will be more digital than ever, as work-from-home and travel restrictions become the new normal. The role of AI and ML driven digital shopping experiences will be critical, and for this, we go right back to strong data capabilities that cloud can help manage and optimize.

This view is supported by their IT counterparts as well. In 2019, Spiceworks conducted a survey of more than 450 IT decision makers in organizations across North America and Europe to understand emerging trends related to the selection and deployment of public cloud. We found that on average, organizations spend nearly a quarter of their total IT budget on hosted/cloud-based services, and this was set to double over the next year. IT decision makers predict that the two marketing workstreams most likely to run fully in public clouds include websites/ecommerce sites (55%) and email (54%). If you add on hybrid cloud figures, that figure rises even more. Spiceworks’s 2018 State of IT report also found that the top drivers for moving workloads to the cloud include providing access to data anywhere (42%), enhancing disaster recovery capabilities (38%), enabling more flexibility (37%), and reducing support burden on IT staff (36%).

If you are a marketer building a business case for migrating customer data to the cloud, analyzing the seven benefits below is a great starting point. However, context is key, so explore how each factor plays out in your business as you build a case for investing in a cloud data migration initiative.

SECTION 2

42%37%36% reducing support

burden on IT staff

enabling more flexibility

providing access to data anywhere

Top drivers for moving workloads to the cloud:

https://www.spiceworks.com/marketing/public-cloud-trends/pdf-report/

https://www.spiceworks.com/marketing/public-cloud-trends/pdf-report/

https://www.spiceworks.com/marketing/state-of-it-2018/


THE SEVEN BENEFITS OF MIGRATING MARKETING DATA TO THE CLOUD

FROM DATA TO INTELLIGENCE

No business today – large or small – is immune to the complexity of customer data. In fact, managing and analyzing data effectively can help smaller brands punch way above their weight and take on the big brands with deadly results – a trend that’s been most visible in the direct-to-consumer (D-to-C) space. The big strategic differentiator of brands today is the way they are able to turn big data workloads into big data assets. Harnessing the power of cloud computing goes beyond organizing and accessing data. It includes advanced analytics to turn huge volumes of data into intelligence for strong campaign performance. Cloud platforms make it easier for marketers to harness (capture, organize, manage, and access) and leverage (analyze and activate) the power of their marketing data by offering advanced analytical technologies as fully managed services. On the cloud, marketers can access a massive parallel computing environment in a matter of minutes, without massive investments of time, effort, and resources. They can also choose to integrate it with AI and ML technologies, again offered as a service on the cloud, to drive strategic competitive advantages.

INCREASED AGILITY

Today, marketers need to move at “the speed of each customer” – whatever their pace and journey. While speed is important, the focus is having the agility to adjust marketing messages and channels based on what the customer data is indicating in key moments of their buying journey. Miss the moment and you may have missed the sale. Multi-channel marketing and campaign orchestration are both central needs of modern marketers. Cloud data platforms help respond to customer and market dynamics with agility and relevance. By accessing marketing data in real time, marketers can deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time and on the right channel. This is made possible with PaaS-based architectures, which let marketers ingest and process their marketing data in near real time to deliver their customers personalized CX, instead of worrying about complex and expensive infrastructure.

UNLIMITED SCALE

The multi-channel marketing environment means that millions of data points are generated almost every hour, by customers. By putting marketing data on the cloud, marketers can achieve true one-to-one marketing at scale. For marketers focused on delivering delightful customer experiences, this is a critical requirement, especially if they operate in business-to-consumer (B-to-C) environments. Cloud environments are elastic, multi-tenant architectures, backed by sophisticated technology to scale on demand. That means marketers can start small and grow the environment as their data needs grow, and they never run out of capacity – no matter how big their applications grow.

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From data to intelligence

Increased agility

Unlimited scale

Robust securityMore marketer control over data

On-demand pricing

Integrates with digital messaging platforms

THE SEVEN BENEFITS OF MIGRATING MARKETING

DATA TO THE CLOUD

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ROBUST SECURITY

Both consumers and marketers today are acutely aware of data security, privacy, compliance, and regulations governing data storage and usage. Managing complex marketing data on-premises is a cumbersome and resource-intensive undertaking for an already stretched-thin IT. Given how quickly the security and privacy landscape itself changes, this task needs constant monitoring and upgrades – it is not a one-time effort. Not having the proper controls in place can leave companies vulnerable to data misuse or abuse, resulting in serious loss of credibility, customer trust, and of course, debilitating fines. Established public clouds ensure that marketing data is secured by best-in-class security, regulatory compliance, data governance, and disaster recovery practices, backed by cutting-edge encryption and access control technology.

MORE MARKETER CONTROL OVER DATA

In the past, a popular model for marketers was to have agencies host and manage marketing data on their data centers. Not only did that make marketing data like a black box for marketers – the true owners of the data – but also left them with poor access to their own data. By migrating marketing data to the cloud, not only does data sharing become easier, but marketers are empowered with more control of their own data, as agency experts can access it securely to generate insights or activate campaigns.


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ON-DEMAND PRICING

Building legacy systems is notoriously expensive and time-consuming. As most marketers find, by the time the system is developed and tested, the business needs themselves have changed dramatically. Working with a public cloud partner helps optimize spends on data storage, management, access, and activation, while also offering the option of scaling up or down as the business may demand without liability or capital expenditure. Pay-per-use models allow users to retain control over cloud budgets, only paying for what is consumed. These pricing models also help marketers to pilot new initiatives without breaking the bank, and then scale if successful.

INTEGRATES WITH DIGITAL MESSAGING PLATFORMS

Established public cloud platforms have ease of integration with leading marketing applications, resulting in easier integration for bi-directional data flow and faster time to value for marketers. For example, Adobe’s partnership with Microsoft Azure or Google Marketing Platform’s integration with Google Cloud give marketers an added advantage of seamless data flow and access to advanced analytic capabilities, saving precious hours in building custom integrations.

Public clouds – with their innate benefits of scalability, elasticity, cost efficiency, and security – help transform business outcomes fueled by a successful data strategy. The strategic benefits detailed in this section help underscore why public cloud environments are the preferred choice for modern marketing use cases (see box).

SIX MODERN MARKETING USE CASES FOR CLOUD DATA MIGRATION:

1. 360-degree view of the customer: Connect data from disparate sources and resolve identity across channels to fully understand a customer’s unique behaviors and preferences.

2. Personalization: Understand customer needs, beliefs, and affinity to interactions with the brand.

3. Lifetime value: Estimate the average value that a customer will generate throughout his or her lifespan as a customer.

4. Brand loyalty: Gain insight into a customer’s feelings toward the brand and dedication to purchase the same produce or service repeatedly.

5. Campaign performance: Know which campaigns and activities under-perform or excel in generating revenue.

6. Attribution and media spend: Optimize your marketing investments by understanding which media channels drive the most high-quality leads or sales.




MAKING THE MOVE

BEFORE

Start with due diligence in the following areas to ensure readiness and successful deployment:

• STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT AND ALIGNMENT: This is probably the most crucial and strategic pre-migration activity. As the business owner and primary user of the migration, marketing needs to facilitate conversations with data stewards, data scientists, and IT leadership to form a cross-functional decision-making committee. The goal of the committee is to define expected outcomes and steer the organization toward the right investment and deployment decisions. Committees are often supplemented by “tiger teams” (a panel of functional and technical specialists who work with speed and efficiency) to jump start the process and ensure gaps and vulnerabilities are addressed up front.

• READINESS ASSESSMENT: The cross-functional team will be in a good position to understand the business and technical requirements for the migration, and arrive at an inventory of workloads and associated objects to be migrated. This assessment will help define the migration roadmap, technical architecture, and use cases for the early stages of deployment.

• CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MODEL SELECTION: The deployment model defines the location and ownership of the cloud infrastructure. This is one of the most crucial decisions for the migration, since each model addresses different organizational needs, offers different benefits, and comes at a different cost. The choice must be based not only on the cost and value proposition, but also on factors related to control, security, and degree of responsibility the organization wants to take on. Choices range from single cloud, multi-cloud, or hybrid cloud deployment models.

With cloud becoming such an attractive proposition from the performance, scale, and cost perspectives, business teams are seriously exploring their options. This process involves multiple stakeholders, process considerations, and evaluations. In this section, we discuss the most significant processes to be considered before, during, and after the cloud data migration.

SECTION 3


• Single cloud is a dedicated cloud provider that serves all your cloud computing needs. This may be a good starting point for a cloud migration journey, but often large enterprises look for multi-cloud to hedge the risks.

• Multi-cloud, as the name suggests, is where cloud resources are spread out across two or more cloud providers for disaster recovery redundancy purposes.

• Hybrid cloud deployment is when an organization, for various reasons, deploys a combination of public cloud and on-premises infrastructure. This can be to supplement the capacity of on-premise capabilities or to divide the load of mission-critical and non-critical capabilities to optimize cost and effort.

• CLOUD SERVICE MODEL AND MIGRATION METHOD SELECTION: SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS models offer various architectural patterns to host, store, manage, and process the data that sits on the cloud.

• Software as a service, or SaaS, is the most common model for business applications, such as CRM or email, and offers ease-of-use and low investment for the user. SaaS offers speedy deployments without the need for any infrastructure – everything is run on and managed by the vendor’s cloud. It is an affordable system, especially useful for multi-tenant applications, and the closest you can come to a “ready-to-use” cloud deployment. The major drawback is a general lack of control over the applications and the environment.

• Infrastructure as a service, or IaaS, is a model where developers are fully in charge of hardware and software choices and also responsible for day-to-day management of such cloud resources. While it offers the highest degree of control over the data and the infrastructure where it is hosted, it is also the costliest and requires the most substantial commitment and resources from the user.

SINGLE CLOUD

MULTI CLOUD

HYBRID CLOUD

CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MODELS


In addition to choosing the service model, the migration method also needs to be defined based on the workload and the speed needed for the migration. Two popular approaches include:

• Lift-and-shift method takes existing on-premises workloads and migrates them to the cloud “as-is,” with minimal or no changes to the application architecture or other mechanisms. This approach is really about simply re-hosting data from one location to another.

• Re-architecture method calls for redesigning on-premises workloads to a cloud-optimized architecture in order to fully leverage the native capabilities of the cloud environment.

• MIGRATION ROADMAP: Based on a cloud readiness assessment, which identifies all the data and applications that need to be migrated to the cloud (what to migrate), the panel builds out a roadmap for phased execution based on priority use cases (how and when to migrate). The readiness assessment process may also reveal some apps and data that need to be rehosted, re-structured, or even retired. The outcome is a time-bound migration roadmap that includes prioritization of workloads to be migrated, ideal data storage structure based on use cases, and the data prep, validation, and transfer priorities and scope. The focus is to execute with minimal business disruption or vulnerability.

• FUTURE STATE TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE: The future state technical architecture is a blueprint of the technical design based on the deployment model chosen (single/multi/hybrid cloud), type of cloud resources being used (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS), associated technology stack, etc., and should be designed to deliver long-term business value.

• SECURITY AND COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: These need to be baked into the future state architecture, keeping in mind existing and anticipated data governance, security, privacy, and other regulatory frameworks applicable in the specific industry content.

• SKILL GAP ASSESSMENT: Migrations are not as simple as moving data from one platform to another. A combination of specialized skills – not all of which are readily available within the marketing and IT organization – are needed. Skilled facilitators, such as cloud certified architects and developers, big data professionals, cloud management specialists, security and privacy experts, technology and data integration specialists, and change management leaders are needed. A skill gap assessment will help understand where business and technical resources may be needed to set the migration up for success. In the context of marketing data specifically, end-user training becomes crucial to enable marketers and business analysts to access data from cloud environments easily and independently.

MIGRATION METHOD

LIFT-AND-SHIFT

RE- ARCHITEC-

TURE


• VENDOR AND PARTNER SELECTION: Identifying the preferred cloud vendor based on your use cases, preferred deployment model, and resource allocation is a key task before deployment. Depending on the complexity of the migration in terms of data, integrations, and business continuity, you may also choose to engage a specialist partner such as a cloud data migration expert, to help optimize the migration experience and minimize the time to business results (outcomes expected from the migration).

• PROOF OF CONCEPT: With all the prep work in place, teams may feel ready to test a few different combinations or deployment models. These proof-of-concept runs, or even smaller pilot runs on limited business functionality or test data sets in a beta environment, will help validate future state architecture, simulate the impact of the migration at scale, and gather information on dependencies that may impact outcomes.

Depending on the complexity of the migration in terms of data, integrations, and business continuity, you may also choose to engage a specialist partner such as a cloud data migration expert, to help optimize the migration experience and minimize the time to business results (outcomes expected from the migration).


DURING

KEY DEPLOYMENT ACTIVITIES AND PROCESSES

• FINE TUNING: Based on learning and observation during your first cloud deployment, look for opportunities to make adjustments to your design, assumptions, and tech stack to further improve the processes, architecture, and metrics/ KPIs. Continue to monitor and evolve your thought process.

• MITIGATING RISK: Migrations should commence with basics in place, such as appropriate data backup and sharing of downtime notifications to appropriate stakeholders. The threat of data loss and data security vulnerabilities during migration are very real and need clearly defined strategies and disaster recovery or contingency plans.

• ENSURING TIMELY AVAILABILITY OF DATA: Make sure that all relevant datasets are available during the migration. Projects that see delays in data availability or run into hurdles to secure access can lead to slippage in migration project plans.

• CLOSING GAPS:

• Integration gaps: As you are in the midst of your first cloud deployment, ensuring that cloud application is integrated with existing applications is the key to success of the migration and data usability.

• Skill gaps: Identified at the pre-deployment stage and budgeted for in the business case, these gaps need to be filled with the right resources as soon as the project is green-lighted by management.

• Execution gaps: Cutover the migrated workloads from traditional deployment to the cloud, and sunset on-premise infrastructure which may no longer be needed.

• SETTING PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS: Documenting baseline metrics on KPIs and measuring outcomes before and after the migration will help you understand if the project is delivering the expected benefits and the time being taken to achieve project milestones. Perform optimization as necessary to improve the performance.


AFTER

KEY CONSIDERATIONS AT THIS STAGE INCLUDE:

• EXPANDING CLOUD MIGRATION BEYOND MARKETING TO OTHER BUSINESS FUNCTIONS: Based on the success of the cloud migration, brands should look at cloud more strategically and holistically for adoption in wider business functions, such as enterprise IT.

• LEADING WITH A “CLOUD-FIRST” STRATEGY: With the first successful cloud migration journey, it is time to scale up and adopt cloud for subsequent projects, as well as identify legacy applications as candidates for modernization.

• PUBLISHING GUIDANCE AND GUARDRAILS FOR SUCCESSFUL CLOUD ADOPTION: Leverage the lessons learned from the first deployment to put together best practices, guidelines, and playbooks for reuse by subsequent project teams.

• ESTABLISHING CLOUD COE TO PROVIDE CENTRALIZED EXPERTISE AND DRIVE DE-CENTRALIZED INNOVATION: Building a cloud center of excellence (CoE) consisting of professionals experienced in cloud migration is an investment that can encourage human capital to skill-up and earn cloud certifications and accreditations. CoE should ideally be led by a key senior leader to champion cloud expertise across organization, while fostering innovation in individual teams.

• DRIVING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE TO DEFINE NEW CLOUD-CENTRIC OPERATING MODELS, POLICIES, AND PROCESSES: As with any change, organizations need to re-examine their current processes and policies to assess what needs to change to streamline cloud projects. For example, organizations embracing cloud have often found that the agile development methodology with continuous integration/continuous deployment models is most productive and efficient. Executing such a methodology requires significant changes to legacy policies and procedures.




WORKING WITH A DATA MIGRATION EXPERT FOR OPTIMAL OUTCOMES

Undoubtedly, the decision to migrate to the cloud and follow a dual IT and business approach has proved successful for many great brands. But they didn’t get there in a day. Even advanced marketers who have been through a cycle of data migration to the cloud may – and do – still struggle with some aspects that hinder their ability to drive optimal value from the migration.

Key among those hindrances is integration with other applications to activate the data seamlessly. They may also find, post-deployment, that the total cost of ownership (TCO) speed or agility is not panning out as they had anticipated or expected. The challenge is that risk mitigation, cost optimization, adoption, and activation are all equally important, pegged on the pillars of planning, resources, processes, and execution. To prevent this from happening to you, consider working with a data migration expert on the various aspects of the migration – from defining the best service and deployment model to data integration, visualization, and activation.

Working with an expert who has the benefit of perspective and experience across a range of deployments and industry contexts will also help build early success stories to share with all stakeholders. This aspect, as we mentioned earlier, is crucial to promote adoption across the marketing organization and drive ROI.

Although one of the greatest advantages of the public cloud is access to the latest security functionality, when it comes to protecting your data, you will still need tight security policies within your own organization. This involves developing risk mitigation policies and building an organization-wide security mindset. It also

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Working with an expert who has the benefit of perspective and experience across a range of deployments and industry contexts will also help build early success stories to share with all stakeholders.


needs you to follow the discipline of keeping remote, distributed, or mobile employees trained to minimize vulnerability caused by human error. In this aspect as well, working with an experienced cloud migration expert can save you not just unnecessary anxiety but also unnecessary exposure.

To help create a clear path toward cloud migration, we recommend starting a dialog with a cloud migration expert today. Merkle has worked with multiple brands across industries to help them manage end-to-end business outcomes from cloud migrations.

To initiate a dialog on marketing data migration to the cloud at your organization, start by setting up a half-day workshop with Merkle cloud experts to help understand the possibilities and power of cloud in your context.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT, DATA GOVERNANCE, CHANGE MANAGEMENT

ADVISORY ARCHITECTURAL DEVELOPMENT MANAGED SERVICES

• Cloud Migration Strategy

• Roadmap Planning

• Technology Assesments

• Workshops & Trainings

• Technical Architecture

• Operational Frameworks

• Pilots & Proof of Concepts

• Design Patterns

• Big Data Integration

• Big Data Visualization

• Big Data Analytics

• Quality Assurance

• Ongoing Maintenance

• Production Support

• Solution Enhancements

MERKLE’S CLOUD SERVICES

Merkle has worked with multiple business organizations across industries to help them manage end-to-end business outcomes from cloud migrations.

Contact the Merkle Technology Services team set up your session here.

https://www.merkleinc.com/contact




BONUS SECTION

REAL SUCCESS STORIES OF MARKETING DATA CLOUD MIGRATION1. HOW CANON GAINED A SINGLE VIEW OF CUSTOMERS TO

DELIVER UNBEATABLE CX

The challenge:

Canon’s B-to-C business was struggling with siloed customer data. This means there was no common identity of customers across channels and touchpoints, and none of the systems communicated well enough to develop a consolidated view of customers across systems. The company’s challenge was to generate meaningful insights based on a 360-degree view of each customer across channels, in order to power its customer engagement and experience strategy. Merkle’s solution approach:

We ingested data from across Canon and its affiliates to build a best-in-class CRM ecosystem.

• By integrating offline and online data available within the CRM, we enabled the team to easily access customer data, analytic insights, and reporting in one single place.

• We integrated a Google Cloud platform-based solution with Canon’s customer data platform (CDP), Merkle’s identity resolution solution (Connected Recognition), and Oracle Marketing Cloud, to help create a 360-degree view of customers.

• Integrating Canon’s consumer database and multi-channel campaign management platform on top of Google Cloud has enabled Canon to create audience segments based on real-time customer behavior across offline and online sources.

Results:

• 50 distinct data sources integrated on Google BigQuery*

• 24 million unique customers loaded from 10+ years of CRM database history on Google

• 750,000 reached through 30 new campaigns, allowing Canon to advance its CRM strategy*

* Actual results vary by + / - 10% on a day-to-day basis.


2. WEALTH MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION INTEGRATES CUSTOMER/PROSPECT DATABASE ON AMAZON WEB SERVICES

The challenge:

A wealth management organization was struggling with the high total cost of ownership of an aging on-premise data management system that hosted its entire member and prospect database. With limited compute and storage capacity, the system was unable to process semi-structured and unstructured datasets. Data democratization and integration capabilities were also severely constrained. The challenge was to migrate to a flexible, nimble, scalable, and highly performant platform – all at a lower total cost of ownership. The business goal of the migration was to drive membership growth by co-locating member and prospect data and to improve member experience.

Solution approach:

Merkle implemented a future-state technology roadmap to support two key strategic business initiatives:

• Single identity management

• Deeper integration of members, prospects, and big data solutions for integrated marketing

Based on the roadmap, Merkle executed a successful migration of existing platforms and capabilities, including prospect and member databases, into the cloud on AWS .

Results:

• Successfully migrated the enterprise-scale data system to a new cloud infrastructure within Amazon Web Services (AWS):

• 127+ million known individuals in member solution

• 650+ million known individuals in prospect solution

• Can now support campaigns, real-time services, list-sourcing, and analytics capabilities in a flexible, nimble, scalable, high-performing cloud environment

• Created $4M+ of infrastructure cost savings over three years


Merkle is a leading data-driven, technology-enabled, global performance marketing agency that specializes in the delivery of unique, personalized customer experiences across platforms and devices. For more than 30 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. The agency’s heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights that drive people-based marketing strategies. Its combined strengths in performance media, customer experience, customer relationship management, loyalty, and enterprise marketing technology drive improved marketing results and competitive advantage. With 9,600+ employees, Merkle is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, with 50+ additional offices throughout the US, EMEA, and APAC. In 2016, the agency joined the Dentsu Aegis Network. For more information, contact Merkle at 1-877-9-Merkle or visit www.merkleinc.com.

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the ultimate guide for cloud migration...1 day ago · machine learning (ml), and cloud, to...

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