Is having a CDP in general more important than selecting the right one?

We run Live Q&A sessions during our Webinars, which allows attendees to ask their questions in a forum with several market-leading CDPs, as well as independent advisors. Not all questions can be answered live, therefore I cover as many of them as possible in follow up articles & posts.

This time, as many companies are revisiting their MarTech plans & setting out goals for the year, let’s look at the question on the importance of having a CDP and not having one, vs the differences between individual CDP vendors.

CDP vs. no CDP 

I can see where this question is coming from as ultimately this boils down to having a competitive advantage (or perhaps simply keeping up with the competition) vs potentially missing an opportunity.

And at the same time, if we believe a CDP will enable you to deliver a superior customer experience, this could also equate to your ability to harness improved revenues through increased customer satisfaction – just to name one example.

If we stick to this level – then yes, advancing your ability to better understated and then serve your customer will almost always be better than standing still.

However, the devil’s in the detail.

‍Why selecting the right one matters

The fundamental principle of a CDP is that on its’ own, it doesn’t accomplish that much.

1. It needs data to power it – and the state & locations of your data, as well as the ability to deliver it will severely impact which CDP you need.
2. You will derive value from the CDP investment by activating that data – and the way you intend to do it needs to be supported by your CDP of choice - i.e. it your strategy relies on a real-time customer experience personalisation (the case for approx.80% CDP adopters) - and your CDP is not real time, you will either have to re-deploy the CDP or worse – curb your ambition.

Time to value

Anyone who has been in this situation would have experienced a very uncomfortable flashback. This is mainly due to the famously long CDP selection, deployment & embedding timelines in large organisations.

 And whereas we can debate what duration is optimal, it’s useful to acknowledge this is typically the case. The process is complex due to:

• The number of business stakeholders it covers
• The potential impact it can have
• The number of integrations required

Although a POC can be established quickly, actual CDP selection is likely to require significant investment in time & resource – and you will likely want this to be the case, to name just a few reasons below:

• ‍Budget – CDP deployment & license costs can run into millions – this typically requires a comprehensive business case & even board approvals‍
• Budget 2.0 – the investment required will typically also mandate a Procurement involvement (which is highly recommended when purchasing a CDP)‍
• PII – CDPs are designed to handle customer data – meaning Legal, Compliance and Infosec reviews will need to be thorough‍
• Use-case Planning – to know what to integrate and what data to ingest, your use-cases will need to be outlined in advance ‍
• Data preparation & modelling – once you have your use-cases, you will need to find the data & bring it into theCDP so you can act on it‍
• Integrations – a comprehensive deployment will require a potentially extensive connections with your existing platforms –some of which might be custom API builds‍
• Training – lastly, you will need to ensure people utilise the platform, so it can deliver value – this will require engagement, new skills development and potentially even recruitment

This is not an exhaustive list and I am certain one could find many more reasons why, once you sign the contract and begin the implementation, ideally you would know with a high degree of certainty, that you have selected the right tool for your business.

Why taking your time might be the best business decision you make

If you have spent time ensuring you have:

• Clarity in use-cases & business requirements
• High degree of data readiness
• Clear integration plans
• Confidence in CDP deployment roadmap
• Required resources and skills
• Comprehensive, validated understanding of your CDP functionalities

…you can then not only proceed with the CDP deployment with confidence, but also likely accelerate your business value delivery, positive customer impact and the coveted ROI.

 Key Outtakes

In summary, I fundamentally believe that each company where business, data & activation complexity meet certain criteria, does require a CDP Capability.

That is not to say that every business needs to buy one.

However, if your goal is to unify customer data to better understand your customer and act on those insights, then one would argue you are striving for a CDP, in whichever form it comes.

To that extent, it is better to have one than not.

If you are indeed planning to build or buy one, spending time to select the right approach and platform will be the 2^nd best decision you make. 

The 1^st one being to embark on a transformation that will deliver a superior customer experience and value from your data.