Unica Campaign - Where it wins !!
May 03, 2014
Unica Campaign - Where it wins !!
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- IBM Unica Campaign
Overall Satisfaction with IBM Unica
as a provider of consulting services for enterprise marketing systems including Unica, we service customers for end to end lifecycle aspects of Unica campaign
ranging from metadata definition, toolset configuration, campaign design, development, execution and reporting on effectiveness, Support of platform and administration activities.
ranging from metadata definition, toolset configuration, campaign design, development, execution and reporting on effectiveness, Support of platform and administration activities.
Pros
- It does a few things well (segmentation in particular) and doesnt stray into areas that ought to live in a best of breed product. There are competing products that did more than help the marketing analyst define and report off of marketing campaigns. These competitors soon lost touch of what they were doing and it lead to their ultimate death in the industry.
- It allows data access from a variety of databases and files and can serve as a single point of integration of data (this can be a boon for mid-sized companies that dont want to invest in a separate integrated datamart that caters specifically to the needs of the marketing execution dept)
- It provides hooks into the O/S (be it Unix or Windows )
- It permits the use of RAW-SQL where its own proprietary language falls short (or if the analysts are already proficient in SQL).
- Extending its functionality to include complex business use cases is easy as a result of its flexibile architecture.
Cons
- Ability to include Seed lists is more relevant today than it was before ... and it is an invaluable feature. Unica Campaign ignores this completely.
- While Unica campaign is touted to be a database marketing tool that reads from the database , its support for including an adhoc file is very rudimentary, buggy and difficult to use without getting IT admins involved. Custom work is required to make it usable.
- Data driven microsegmentation is possible to pull off, but there are some bugs along the way that one has to Traverse.
- While demos are very flashy in depicting omni-channel capabilities, the sales folk dont get into the business of educating customers of advanced features.
- Workforce enablement is quick (with the right resources being available to build out custom functionality)
- Automation of campaigns leads to efficient operations with higher lead conversion. Fewer resources needed to run the engine.
- Time to market is quicker than other products even while enriched functionality can be added iteratively and in an agile setting.
INFOR Epiphany
SAP/KXEN
Epiphany lost out on account of its added resource needs to maintain its own internal ETL database (in addition to the enterprise D/W)
It cant be set up to work in a day. Go-To-Market ramp up time is one quarter. Takes more resources.
SAP/KXEN needs more tech oriented folk and its user interface less intuitive to the marketing analyst. Holistically speaking, its offerings are still maturing (not full suite) .. And the products are NOT integrated to a common platform (or are in the process of)
SAP/KXEN
Epiphany lost out on account of its added resource needs to maintain its own internal ETL database (in addition to the enterprise D/W)
It cant be set up to work in a day. Go-To-Market ramp up time is one quarter. Takes more resources.
SAP/KXEN needs more tech oriented folk and its user interface less intuitive to the marketing analyst. Holistically speaking, its offerings are still maturing (not full suite) .. And the products are NOT integrated to a common platform (or are in the process of)
Evaluating IBM Unica and Competitors
Yes - At a customer site, Epiphany (now under INFOR) was replaced by Unica campaign.
Epiphany support and the company's investment in acquiring new customers (versus servicing existing ones) was a key factor in going with IBM/Unica.
What was replaced was
An integrated Marketing Planning & Operations module
A campaign Execution module for outbound marketing
A real-time inbound decisioning engine for Inbound Marketing
An Optimizer for reducing Customer Contact Fatigue and more focussed targeting
An analytical product that would not quite replace SAS rather augment its capabilities as a ui driven analytical engine
Epiphany support and the company's investment in acquiring new customers (versus servicing existing ones) was a key factor in going with IBM/Unica.
What was replaced was
An integrated Marketing Planning & Operations module
A campaign Execution module for outbound marketing
A real-time inbound decisioning engine for Inbound Marketing
An Optimizer for reducing Customer Contact Fatigue and more focussed targeting
An analytical product that would not quite replace SAS rather augment its capabilities as a ui driven analytical engine
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Vendor Reputation
- Analyst Reports
Usability and flexibility are also big wins over competitor Epiphany. Automation capabilities are a plus but the most important factor was the investment and partnership with that IBM was undertaking to improve and enhance Unica based on findings - this was the BIG BIG bonus.
Didn’t get much cooperation from competitor after the first three years regarding product enhancements and improvements.
Tried to work with the competitor for over 2 years to make enhancements to competitor Epiphany - both OUTBOUND and INBOUND MODULES, but no luck.
the sale of competitor to another company, and the apparent disinterest they had in enhancements, convinced us we needed to move to another application.
It wont change one bit.
We went through several layers of proof of concepts following sales cycles and were totally convinced that the choice we made was the best given the circumstances.
The framework for selection of vendor that we used was time tested
Compatibility of new vendor solutoin with existing system interfaces were checked and found to be in line with target business architecture and system architecture
We went through several layers of proof of concepts following sales cycles and were totally convinced that the choice we made was the best given the circumstances.
The framework for selection of vendor that we used was time tested
Compatibility of new vendor solutoin with existing system interfaces were checked and found to be in line with target business architecture and system architecture
IBM Unica Implementation
- Professional services company
Unica Lab Services / Professional services did the installation and pilot campaign design.
They were in charge of solution architecture, sizing of the hardware, software platform recommendations, installation, configuration, proof of concept PILOTs, training etc.
Subsequently, it was a mix of consulting companies that did the implementation (*Installation = first step of implementation).
This particular customer had a lot of custom requirements and were were picky and quality conscious about usability and maintainability etc.
It took 3 years to get all the LOBs under the umbrella suitably trained and change-management measures put in place to encourage smooth transition.
They were in charge of solution architecture, sizing of the hardware, software platform recommendations, installation, configuration, proof of concept PILOTs, training etc.
Subsequently, it was a mix of consulting companies that did the implementation (*Installation = first step of implementation).
This particular customer had a lot of custom requirements and were were picky and quality conscious about usability and maintainability etc.
It took 3 years to get all the LOBs under the umbrella suitably trained and change-management measures put in place to encourage smooth transition.
Yes - SIZING AND INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING
INSTALLATION, CONFIGURATION and Pilot
DATAMART TESTING
TRAINING OF ANALYST resources
MIGRATION - LOB1
TESTING RESULTS between legacy tool and Unica/Campaign
REAL TIME DECISION ENGINE INSTAL, CONFIGURE
INTEGRATE WITH TOUCHPOINT 1
INTEGRATE RT engine with TOUCHPOINT 2
O/B CAMPAIGN OPTIMIZATION (COMPLEX USE CASES, FEATURES, AUTOMATION, PERFORMANCE )
PHONE CHANNEL ENABLEMENT FOR OUTBOUND CALLING
MIGRATION OF LOB 2
INSTALLATION, CONFIGURATION and Pilot
DATAMART TESTING
TRAINING OF ANALYST resources
MIGRATION - LOB1
TESTING RESULTS between legacy tool and Unica/Campaign
REAL TIME DECISION ENGINE INSTAL, CONFIGURE
INTEGRATE WITH TOUCHPOINT 1
INTEGRATE RT engine with TOUCHPOINT 2
O/B CAMPAIGN OPTIMIZATION (COMPLEX USE CASES, FEATURES, AUTOMATION, PERFORMANCE )
PHONE CHANNEL ENABLEMENT FOR OUTBOUND CALLING
MIGRATION OF LOB 2
Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled - Training was timed well so the analysts could hit the ground running when the system was up.
Analyst Deskside support/Hand-Holding was provided in addition to online help, classroom support and cross-training across LOBs.
The customer had a very complex set of use-cases that had to be pulled off with deep understanding of their business use cases and then implementing it on the technology solution. This sometimes took a long time to do as the right participants were not readily available and would refuse to put down anything on paper (several possible reasons why)
On such a high visibility project, it was important to recognize different on a continuous basis for their contributions. After a while, the agile methodology worked best to provide both transparency to the business, deliver incremental value continuously, and have individuals be recognized for their inputs.
Analyst Deskside support/Hand-Holding was provided in addition to online help, classroom support and cross-training across LOBs.
The customer had a very complex set of use-cases that had to be pulled off with deep understanding of their business use cases and then implementing it on the technology solution. This sometimes took a long time to do as the right participants were not readily available and would refuse to put down anything on paper (several possible reasons why)
On such a high visibility project, it was important to recognize different on a continuous basis for their contributions. After a while, the agile methodology worked best to provide both transparency to the business, deliver incremental value continuously, and have individuals be recognized for their inputs.
- Database Performance and Data integrity were not up to the mark initially
- The stability of the platform was NOT keeping up with the needs of the business until the right IBM support staff could be obtained with leadership visibility.
- It took twice the amount of time to ramp up resources partly because the change from competing product to Unica needed some database experience and different thinking.
Using IBM Unica
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Easy to use Technical support not required Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using | None |
- Data Mapping
- Campaign Flowchart Design and Development
- Performance Effectiveness reporting
- Setting up the table catalog
- Defining Offer Attributes
- Defining custom attributes as aggregates of other attributes or of system metadata
Yes - It is great
With the porting away from MS-Activex to DoJo, Mobility has greatly increased as a result of enabling technology , speed and easy availability of tablets. It is now possible to optimize the user experience of the tablets based on the nature of the operating system without the end user having to be involved.
With the porting away from MS-Activex to DoJo, Mobility has greatly increased as a result of enabling technology , speed and easy availability of tablets. It is now possible to optimize the user experience of the tablets based on the nature of the operating system without the end user having to be involved.
Comments
Please log in to join the conversation