How AEP can help with data governance
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Adobe’s Experience Platform (AEP) is just that – an experience platform. Adobe approaches everything from the lens of ‘how does this guarantee your customers get the best experience’. It’s finessed towards use cases and customer engagement. But to provide a great experience, it needs to do something exceptionally well: it must facilitate data distribution at scale. And doing that well? That means being in accordance with consumer trust and expectations as well as, of course, data compliance laws and regulations. Using data to provide the best experience will always be the goal of the platform and, indeed, it’s why customers should invest in it. But, to me, data governance is one of the biggest additional bonuses for someone using AEP.
Great experience means trust, trust means governance
The reason why this is such a value add for organizations is that data governance is a big focus right now, yet somehow often forgotten. Data governance defines a framework around a customer’s rights and an organization’s accountability. This ensures appropriate behavior around data throughout its lifecycle – from collection, storage, use, protection, archive, even deletion. It guarantees that data is consistent, trustworthy, and not misused. Consumer trust is paramount in a brand experience and we’re living in a world with increasing concern over data privacy and consent management. When companies choose an experience platform, data governance is something they need. But it’s not necessarily something all of the data distribution vendors already have.
With international regulations including CCPA and GDPR, as well as the notorious Facebook/Cambridge Analytica case, consumers are more aware of their data rights than ever. Traditionally, data could be shared between third parties without consumers knowing. But the latest regulations ensure that is no longer the case. Consumers must be informed how their data is being used – and to give permission for access accordingly. Experience platforms need to work off those permissions or they cause consumers to lose trust. In the latter case, how can that be considered a great experience?
Data governance is complex
For many organizations, getting data governance right is a complex and timely process. It often involves changes in data, process, organization, and technology aspect altogether. It’s often the case that they either don’t have the skills or understand what it takes internally to guarantee they’re getting everything correct.
Unfortunately, the demand is obvious. The everchanging regulations and uneven interpretation of the regulations only put more pressure on organizations to establish proper data governance. Take for example the recent stirs caused by Schrems II case. Maximillan Schrems, an Austrian activist, complained to European Court of Justice about the privacy protection of his data, believing that there is insufficient protection to prevent his personal data being used without his consent as enforced by GDPR. Maximillan won the case, even though the companies involved thought they had been adhering to the latest laws. As a follow up, the European Data Protection Board published a set of recommendations for institutions in EU to manage their data transfers – things that require proper data governance. Note that outside of Europe, similar privacy regulations exist, notably in US (CCPA), Brazil, India, and Japan. Trends shows that the geographical coverage will only expand over time.
A platform that takes care of governance on top of other critical data distribution concerns
AEP might be an experience machine, but it is designed to have data governance as an integral part of the platform. Data labeling, user consent, and user preferences are automatically enforced during activation – this is a core function of AEP. It’s been designed to respect all the rules applicable to a certain set of data before it can be used for a specific purpose or shared further. Such an automation allows broad usage of data at scale in a responsible manner.
Furthermore, AEP is also equipped with state-of-the-art technology to allow data ingestion/consumption and customer identity resolution in a near real-time manner, powerful enough to address the most demanding experience use cases. AEP stands upon a robust foundation: security, integrations, metadata management, monitoring/observability, analytics, extendable via connectors/API interface – things that cover even the demand of enterprise-ready generic data distribution platform. For consumers, the best part is that all of this is packaged within a single platform.
Get the support you need
Adobe Professional Services provides comprehensive data governance support and sets up a foundation for data distribution for clients, so they can simply carry on and use the platform, resting easy with the knowledge that data is being handled correctly, and without needing to worry about investing in creating the processes themselves. For many companies, that’s a real weight off their shoulders.
I know our clients want to guarantee they’re getting data governance right – both for themselves and to earn customer trust for the best experiences. AEP is leading the way in helping brands provide great experiences, while expertly taking care of data governance behind the scenes.
Adobe Professional Services provides support and ensures its customers are getting data governance right. To learn more, please visit here.