In our earlier weblog submit, we mentioned how ActionIQ companions with Databricks to handle the important thing problem organizations face in reaching their personalization targets: discovering the steadiness between enterprise self-service and knowledge governance. ActionIQ, powered by its HybridCompute know-how, gives a singular integration sample that permits organizations to deploy their composable CDP immediately inside the Databricks Lakehouse setting. This integration gives a number of benefits over the standard bundled CDP structure:

• It reduces operational burden by eradicating the necessity to copy knowledge throughout methods
• It centralizes knowledge governance and ensures knowledge consistency
• It accelerates time to insights by way of a no-code interface for non-technical customers

We additionally outlined an instance workflow through which a retail model seamlessly leverages ActionIQ and Databricks, by way of the HybridCompute integration, to activate customized content material and gives for goal prospects primarily based on their particular person buy propensity scores for numerous product classes.

Integrating ActionIQ with Databricks by way of HybridCompute, Enabled by Question Pushdown

Now, let’s discover the important thing steps required to finish the workflow with ActionIQ’s composable CDP deployed inside the Databricks Lakehouse by way of a Linked Software. On this integration sample, ActionIQ connects to a buyer’s Databricks account to course of knowledge however would not persist knowledge outdoors of the Databricks account.

The 4 high-level steps in establishing this connection are:

1. Guarantee knowledge readiness in Databricks
2. Arrange the Databricks connection inside ActionIQ
3. Generate SQL queries from ActionIQ
4. Use the question outcomes to drive buyer engagement

For every step, we’ll current each the idea and the implementation particulars utilizing the retail use case outlined above. Please be aware that the information utilized within the use case is artificial and has been created solely for the aim of demonstration and illustration.

Step 1: Guarantee Information Readiness in Databricks

As a Buyer Information Platform (CDP), ActionIQ implements a customer-centric knowledge mannequin that’s purpose-built round one dimension: your definition of a buyer. The queries generated by ActionIQ end in an inventory, or viewers, of distinct person IDs of consumers that meet sure standards, in addition to profile attributes and aggregated attributes that describe these prospects. Translated to SQL, these queries all comprise a GROUP BY non-customer-centric question.

Let’s assume the propensity scores are already calculated and recorded in a desk residing within the Databricks Lakehouse (Determine 1). Earlier than connecting Databricks with ActionIQ, your IT crew must mannequin the propensity scoring knowledge to make it query-ready in ActionIQ. This may be achieved by creating one other view of the desk, mapping the Databricks identifier household_key to the aiq_id anticipated by ActionIQ (Determine 2).

Step 2: Arrange the Databricks Connection inside ActionIQ

As soon as the propensity scoring desk is correctly modeled, your IT crew, particularly the CDP administrator, can proceed with establishing ActionIQ’s HybridCompute integration with Databricks.

To start, you’ll collaborate together with your Databricks administrator to determine correct permission management, guaranteeing a safe connection between the 2 methods. It is suggested to create a separate Databricks service principal and grant ActionIQ entry to your Databricks sources. Moreover, you’ll arrange a separate SQL warehouse for question pushdown workloads. To permit ActionIQ to make use of the newly created warehouse, you’ll grant the ActionIQ service principal “Can Use” permissions on the warehouse and entry to the propensity scoring desk you want to use in ActionIQ.

Leveraging the Unity Catalog in Databricks Information Explorer, you may set granular permissions on the desk or column degree, specifying what customers can entry and make the most of later inside ActionIQ. Moreover, you will have the flexibleness to configure read-access-only permissions for the propensity scoring desk in Databricks. Because of this customers connecting by way of ActionIQ can solely push down queries to knowledge from the desk and are restricted from making any modifications.

Following the permission set-up, your CDP administrator will begin configuring the HybridCompute integration immediately inside ActionIQ’s self-service UI:

1. Create a brand new Databricks connector in ActionIQ (Determine 3)
   

   

2. Present your Databricks account info, together with Server Hostname, Token, Port and HTTP Path (Determine 4). These particulars could be accessed below Connection Particulars in your Databricks workspace.
   

   

3. After getting into the required info, check the Databricks connection (Determine 5). In case of a check failure, an error message might be displayed to help with troubleshooting. Upon seeing the “connection profitable” message, finalize the configuration course of by clicking on “Add Connector” or “Save”.
   

   

Congratulations! You could have now efficiently arrange and configured ActionIQ’s HybridCompute integration with Databricks Lakehouse by way of native question pushdown. By pulling solely the desk metadata (schema, row depend) from Databricks Lakehouse, the propensity scoring desk is now discoverable from the ActionIQ person interface (Determine 6).

Step 3: Generate SQL Queries from ActionIQ

Now, your advertising crew can begin implementing the use case they envisioned. The first goal is to interact prospects who exhibit a excessive propensity rating for bread and a reasonable propensity rating for mushy drinks. The technique includes focusing on these prospects with a bundled supply designed to incentivize purchases in each product classes. The communication might be delivered by way of both e-mail in a e-newsletter format or paid media channels, relying on the shoppers’ most well-liked channel.

Viewers Creation

Inside ActionIQ’s Viewers Middle module, your advertising crew can create the target market phase immediately utilizing the intuitive no-code UI. This may be achieved by combining two primary audiences (determine 9) —— prospects with excessive propensity rating (>= 0.66) for bread (determine 7) AND prospects with reasonable propensity rating (in between 0.33 and 0.66) for mushy drinks (determine 8).

At this step, additionally, you will create extra viewers segments mandatory for the cross-channel buyer journeys you propose to construct later. For instance, one in every of these segments might be particularly designed for e-mail communications, figuring out the recipients of the customized e-mail e-newsletter. Moreover, you’ll create a separate phase for paid media promoting. All of those viewers segments could be simply created with the ActionIQ Viewers Middle UI (Determine 10). The related software seamlessly interprets these person actions into SQL queries which are able to be executed within the Databricks Lakehouse.

Step 4: Use the Question Outcomes to Drive Buyer Engagement

When it is time to interact prospects utilizing this knowledge, ActionIQ robotically pushes the question all the way down to the Databricks Lakehouse by way of JDBC to return the related subset of data. Because the outcomes stream into ActionIQ, the question processor performs additional transformations to reach at a last outcome set that is aligned with the person’s wants. It is necessary to notice that solely the information required to meet the person’s motion and use case is returned, and it’ll not be saved for longer than the job execution.

Journey Orchestration

Following the execution of the queries, the viewers phase outcomes are returned again to the ActionIQ person interface. From there, your advertising crew can begin setting up multi-stage buyer journeys to activate the bundled supply, that includes bread and mushy drinks, focused on the meant viewers. Throughout the target market —— prospects with a excessive propensity for bread AND reasonable propensity for mushy drinks —— the journeys could be additional cut up primarily based on prospects’ channel preferences as follows (Determine 11):

• If the client is a part of the emailable viewers phase, they are going to obtain the bundled supply by way of the e-mail e-newsletter.
• For patrons not included within the emailable phase, the bundled supply might be delivered by way of paid media promoting. Moreover, this group could be evenly distributed throughout completely different paid media channels for testing functions.

When you’re able to activate the designed journey, the target market segments and their related attributes might be written to the designated channel vacation spot (comparable to Sparkpost, Fb, Pinterest, TikTok), by way of File switch or API.

Actual-Time Personalization

In addition to orchestrating customized buyer expertise on outbound channels, your advertising crew can prolong the identical degree of personalization in actual time to guests in your web site. By leveraging the ActionIQ Profile API, your personalization engine can retrieve the excellent buyer profile, encompassing all attributes and viewers membership, inside milliseconds (Determine 12). This empowers you to personalize the net banner supply for every buyer, presenting the related product class aligned with their excessive propensity rating.

Conclusion

As demonstrated within the step-by-step workflow above, this retail model efficiently achieved personalization with out knowledge replication by leveraging ActionIQ’s HybridCompute integration with the Databricks Lakehouse. On this state of affairs, entrepreneurs effectively operationalize the propensity mannequin developed and educated in Databricks, with out having to maneuver or copy knowledge into ActionIQ. They will seamlessly uncover audiences and orchestrate constant, customized experiences throughout channels utilizing ActionIQ’s user-friendly interface. The advantages for the enterprise are substantial, because the activation of customized gives results in elevated buyer engagement, improved conversion charges, and in the end, income progress.

to be taught extra about how a Composable CDP can assist you scale your buyer knowledge operations? Attain out to the ActionIQ crew.

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