Where should a CDP fit in your martech stack?

Any customer data platform (CDP) must nestle nicely into your martech stack, including your customer data ecosystem. Like many architectural choices, you face few absolute rights and wrongs here, but you have options worth considering.  At Real Story Group, we’ve seen three broad approaches, including variants of each: Licensing a… This post first … Read more

How to Filter the Right CDP Short List

In this article for CMSWIRE, I explore the lenses with which to filter Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and eliminate vendors that don’t meet business needs. Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) are rapidly becoming a foundational technology piece in omnichannel martech stacks. They can also serve as a key component in broader digital transformation and customer experience … Read more

The Real Story on MarTech: Should you build or buy a customer data platform?

“Build versus buy” in the context of technology marketplaces is a long-running debate. At Real Story Group, we see this debate getting revisited for marketing tech stacks, particularly for customer data platforms (CDPs). Is there a single right approach? I don’t think so, but the details matter here.  So let’s dig… This post first … Read more

MarTech: Building the Culture of Innovation

Good folks at N. L. Dalmia Institute of Management Studies and Research invited me for their International Marketing Conclave. The conclave’s theme was “MarTech: Building the Culture of Innovation”. So how do you go about building a culture of innovation and how does it connect with Martech? I covered these five themes that impact culture … Read more

Universal scenarios: The key to comparing personalization technologies

In part 1 of this 3-part series, I explored different options seating personalization capabilities in a larger marketing technology stack context. In part 2 of the series, I looked at different platform components required for building a holistic personalization technology strategy. In this concluding part 3, let’s explore some canonical scenarios that you can… This post first … Read more

What to Make of Acquia Buying DAM Vendor Widen

It’s not a surprising move, but I think for Widen licensees, not a very welcome one. Longtime WCM / nascent MarTech suite vendor Acquia has announced it is buying Digital Asset Management (DAM) vendor Widen. This fills a gap in Acquia’s portfolio but I think for Widen licensees, this may not be a very welcome one. Let’s … Read more

APIs Don’t Maketh Headless

Headless (in context of CMS or Commerce) often generates interesting debates. (The Real Story Group‘s forthcoming Ecommerce evaluations will have more on this)  Traditional, legacy platforms will often tell you they got APIs, so they’re headless too. But they aren’t. They are built in a monolithic way, with all services being part of one large … Read more

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