Adobe Experience Platform (AEP): What we know and what we don’t
We all knew that there will be a big announcement at Adobe Summit. There always is, every year! Few years back it was the clouds (experience, marketing, analytics, advertising). Now some announcements are bigger than others and pretty much similar to the iPhone announcements but more for Martech and Adtech Geeks like me. In 2018, there were no big announcements at Adobe Summit. It was more like announcing an iPhone 6S where it was meh. Having gone through a year of no major announcements and hearing rumors about a platform in the works, we knew that this year would be a big one. Something comparable to the iPhone X announcement. Something big that will reinvent the way we do things in Martech and Adtech. Adobe delivered by revealing the details behind their long awaited Experience Platform (AEP).
Adobe Experience Platform is purpose-built for capturing, processing and actioning data in real time, enabling enterprises to deliver rich and relevant experiences to their customers – Abhay Parasnis, EVP and CTO, Adobe
This is not the first time we hear about the platform, it was actually announced in last year’s Summit but this is the first time they removed the covers and showcased what is under the hood and so far it looks very promising. That being said, we only know a little about this new toy but enough for us to predict what 2019 and 2020 will be like. Here is an overview of what we know so far:
Real-time Customer Data Platform (CDP)
Adobe is leveraging AEP to coin their version of the CDP, this time with a real-time CDP. Between Adobe Campaign and Adobe Audience Manager, Adobe always had the CDP capabilities but the real-time aspect is definitely new and improved.
Unified Profile
The idea behind the platform is that it sits across all the tools within the experience cloud. It always has a consistent and unified way to identify a visitor/customer across all solutions. The only way to do so is via a Unified Profile that brings together the PII and anonymous profiles into a single ecosystem. With a unified profile, you will be able to create your own data model and define the schema that works the best for you and your organization.
In Beta till May 2019
A good number of big brands such as 3M, Homedepot and Best Buy are in the beta program for AEP. There were few hints about it exiting beta and into general public sometime in May of this year which is literally next month. Exciting!
It will have its own SKU
I wish AEP would have the same pricing model as Adobe Launch: “At no additional cost” but reality is that there will be a new SKU associated with this service independent of the other products you have in your stack. I hope you have some budget saved up for this.
Adobe Campaign Standard will be first
The platform will bring a great deal of new features with it but exactly which existing Adobe tools would be able to benefit from it? Adobe Campaign Standard will be the first product to be integrated into AEP with a new feature: “Real-time Journeys”.
Query Service
Yes, you heard this right. You will be able to query your data. This might sound like a basic feature but it is a feature that never existed through the Experience Cloud. You can query your analytics data, DMP and even your tables for Adobe Campaign. The platform will introduce a query editor and scheduler.
Data Science Workspace
We first heard about data science workspace at Summit 2018 but since then it has only been in Beta for some customers. At the time, data science workspace was slated to be within AAM. This has changed, it will be a standalone UI within the Platform. It will leverage the unified data model, query service and the connected pipelines to take a model from an idea to insight to action.
Powered by Adobe I/O
Adobe is not in the business in creating a closed platform, they are investing in a platform that can exist and be accessed anywhere. The only way this will be possible is with robust API’s part of the Adobe I/O. At one point, they showcases the UI running on a AWS instance where all the data is being retrieved from the platform itself through Adobe I/O.
What we don’t know
The platform is real and has a lot of hype about it but there is a good deal of unknowns that are crucial for our clients and ourselves as practitioner. Here is a list of open questions that we have to get answers for soon:
Many more questions yet to be answered but we are patient and excited. Check back in here for new posts on the Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) and Customer Experience Manager (CXM) in the months to come.
