What is a digital experience platform and how do you choose the right one?
Digital experience platform (DXP) defined
The digital experience platform market is white hot. It’s expected to hit $16B by 2028. And it’s no surprise. With more consumers than ever interacting with businesses across multiple digital channels, companies want a single platform that can help deliver better customer experiences – or risk losing them altogether.
So what is a digital experience platform, anyway? Gartner defines a DXP as:
“An integrated set of technologies, based on a common platform, that provides a broad range of audiences with consistent, secure and personalized access to information and applications across many digital touchpoints. Organizations use DXPs to build, deploy and continually improve websites, portals, mobile and other digital experiences.”
In short, a DXP tracks and analyzes customer omnichannel data to improve digital journeys from an integrated, unified platform. Though it sounds simple, there’s a lot that goes into an effective DXP.
What to consider when evaluating a DXP
If you’re considering a DXP for your company, here are some key factors to keep in mind in the selection process.
Integrates into your tech stack seamlessly
Martech stacks can be unwieldy and complex, with many technology capabilities frequently added, sometimes creating a hodge-podge infrastructure. This can also be a sticking point in your search: you want a DXP that helps consolidate and streamline redundant software and tools, but that doesn’t result in incompatibilities or new problems. Look for a DXP with the flexibility for native integrations and open APIs to leverage your existing investment in key analytics, CRMs, data management tools, voice of the customer, APM and other software and platforms.
Offers cutting-edge technology
Not all DXPs are created equal. Beyond omnichannel analytics such as technical issues, unique visits, conversion rates and other data, your DXP should have capabilities to identify the “why” of the issue, its relevance and the insights to serve up improvements. Look for AI-driven analytics and machine learning to focus the effort on what matters most in vast sets of data. The most sophisticated DXPs will include automatic journey mapping, session replays, interaction maps and personalization and A/B testing capabilities, among other features.
Ensure it provides value for all of your teams
Each organization has their own responsibilities and priorities in the customer experience. A DXP should deliver easy-to-understand analytics and insights from a single, collaborative system. Marketing teams, for instance, want to optimize conversion rates and measure campaign effectiveness. Customer service teams want full visibility into customer issues and the ability to resolve them quickly. Engineering and DevOps teams need to understand the root of an issue and prioritize to fix based on impact. Mobile and web product development teams want to prioritize product backlog while also introducing new innovations.
Built for data-sensitive environments
When you’re dealing with the big data sets of DXP, security is not a checkbox – it’s one of the most important factors in your selection. It should build in customer and end users’ privacy with the strictest standards and best practices, and have the security certificates to prove it. The DXP should include automatic customer data masking and omission along with encryption so data is kept secure and only accessible by authorized people, stored on a single-tenant cloud. It should also adhere to the existing and new compliance regulations – from digital record-keeping, data protection, monitoring and reporting privacy.
Customized to your digital experience journey
In a Gartner survey, 90% of respondents rated themselves as having low digital analytics maturity, even though its many CEOs’ number one priority. Evaluate where your company’s current digital experience maturity level is before diving into a DXP platform. Then you can plan or reorganize your organization – whether it’s your data governance, getting the right team and skill sets in place, digital tools or other areas. As you become more and more digitally mature, your DXP can evolve and grow with your needs.
Learn how Glassbox can help by visiting glassbox.com.
