This article was originally written by Avanade alum Brian McGee.

As consumer expectations about how brands interact with them continue to evolve, marketers must make smart decisions about which tools best allow them to meet the needs of and guide their audiences down their desired path. Solutions that track customer journeys, test best-performing content, and create dynamically generated, optimized experiences all contribute to enhancing the overall customer digital experience.

The creation of diverse meaningful customer experiences is accelerated by the ability to collect and act upon real-time insights within the broader context of massive volumes of data already amassed so that the right journey can be presented. This workflow is dependent on a nimble suite of martech solutions with the ability to identify visitors, share data across sources and vendors, and apply AI/ML to determine the optimal experience a particular customer - all requiring minimal latency for application to in-process customer journeys. With Composable Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) which orchestrate disparate, modular business apps into synchronized digital marketing components to transform how brands direct customers to the experiences they seek.

How it works
The principle of Composable DXP is the ability to collect customer insights from a suite of martech toolsets then translate them into contextual messaging and experiences that drive engagement and conversion. Composable DXP ecosystems unify and operationalize content management systems (CMS), analytics, personalization, CRM, marketing automation, and CDPs to generate compelling and relevant customer experiences.

With Composable DXP, brands can execute use cases that:

• Distinguish audiences and serve targeted experiences based on affinity, program status, lifetime value, or purchasing history
• Trigger emails based on visitor activity, such as shopping cart abandonment
• Display geography-specific landing pages
• Create experiences based on previous customers with similar visitor attributes

Composable DXP ecosystems are practical because they augment commonly used martech toolsets and integrate across vendors and are scalable to any size organization. Technology to capture customer details, track sales leads, generate marketing messages, and test most effective creative components are repurposed to work in harmony to create more contextualized experiences that drive conversion.

The Composable DXP creates an experience ecosystem by integrating digital toolsets that collaborate to optimize the customer experience. Data activated by one component is configured to trigger an action on another. This enables brands to not only gather a comprehensive view of their customers but leverage these insights to activate experiences that create optimized experiences across channels and devices.

Challenge for experience agility – APIs
While a benefit of Composable DXP is its ability to work with digital toolsets via across vendors (I.e. Google for digital analytics, Optimizely for personalization, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for CRM, Adobe Campaign for email messaging), working with a wide-range of stand-alone tools often result in an over-dependency on fragile API connections, data latency, and limited use cases. Non-native API prerequisites can vary widely and reduce experience agility and velocity.

Use cases requiring true real-time data exchange between components to trigger next page targeted experiences often rely on instantaneous insights and content activation. Because many cross-vendor solutions are limited by API batch processing restrictions, ecosystems which feature instantaneous data transfers which can activate next page view or event targeting options offer the most agile experience optimization options.

Even “low-code” APIs between systems can require developer-savvy resources to activate. These data “handshakes” can require continuous maintenance to ensure against dropped connections and security liabilities. Native, same vendor Composable DXP stacks typically provide the low maintenance, plug-and-play functionality that can be managed by marketing or non-technology key stakeholders.

Conclusion
Composable DXP technology creates dynamic, autonomous experiences by extending and repurposing existing martech components. Connecting non-native toolsets via APIs enable these applications to work synchronously to deliver augmented functionality for stand-alone solutions. However, non-native components may require 3rd-party API connectivity and supplemental maintenance efforts to reduce vulnerability to crashes, security threats and latency issues. Therefore, for optimal functionality it is best to leverages native or complimentary toolsets that do not require API instrumentation.

Serving experiences targeted to specific moments within a journey relies on agile technology that can identify, measure, and activate on insights from multiple sources, the generate the right experience at the precise moment to resonate with the customer. Composable DXP gives the ability for any site to utilize the power of experience optimization at any scale and drive business outcomes.

Let Avanade help
Considering a Composable DXP approach for your organization?

Avanade specializes in powering Adobe and Microsoft solutions that bridge experiences and productivity to seamlessly connect data and decisioning across workforce and digital platforms.

Avanade knows how. And with our partnerships with Microsoft and Adobe, we can help you deliver instant impact and long-term value…fast.

Learn more about building a better customer experience with Avanade and Adobe and come check out Avanade/Accenture at the Adobe Summit 2023!

Sources

• “Adopt a Composable DXP Strategy to Future-Proof Your Tech Stack”
• “The Problem With APIs”