Posted by Stewart Maurer May 14, 2018 At Crownpeak Empower London, Digital Governance Means Good Business
Last month, I was delighted to meet with our customers and partners at Empower London, Crownpeak’s bi-annual user summit. The event took place in the iconic OXO Tower, where expansive views across the Thames set the scene for a day designed to open up creative perspectives on Digital Governance and the GDPR: the EU’s much anticipated data-privacy regulation.
The theme of the day was how brands can deliver engaging online experiences responsibly. With the GDPR and the recent US congressional hearings with Facebook on the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it was a timely topic. Nonetheless, we were surprised by the level of interest by our attendees, which included representatives from Unilever, GSK, Toyota, Barclays, and Siemens, to name a few.
Do great AND be good
The summit kicked off with a warm welcome from myself and Crownpeak CCO, Craig Solberg. We framed the agenda by talking about the fragility of customer trust in the digital age – an issue the GDPR seeks to address - and the critical challenge this is presenting to business today. While the advent of the GDPR is creating widespread nervousness among the digital community, for those companies ready to meet it and earn the trust of their customers, this tightening of the regulatory landscape presents huge opportunity. “Do great and be good” was the guiding spirit of the summit.
Making regulation fun
After the keynote, the program opened out to multiple-tracks designed to engage delegates with different aspects of the governance challenge: Privacy, User Consent, Accessibility, SEO and Personalization.
Crownpeak CTO, Adrian Newby, ran a GDPR boot camp covering the requirements and implications of the GDPR, taking in some real-world examples: “Good, Bad, Ugly…Mostly Ugly” and wrapped up with a showcase of best practices for delegates to take away.
“It was an informative day that’s really relevant to the time that we’re in at the moment.”
Christian Buncher, Managing Partner – Digital, McCann Birmingham
Fahd Shaaban, Sr. Director of Product Leadership and Market Insight provided perspectives on “Governing the Digital Experience” and how leveraging access controls for users and roles, monitoring workflow, content versioning, and full history auditing can help companies establish accountability and more closely manage the quality of what they’re publishing.
Delegates were invited to participate in deep-dive product tours, with pro-tips on how to maximise use of their Crownpeak DXM and DQM implementations to support their digital governance initiatives. Product experts were also on-hand to provide bespoke, 1-to-1 consultations on any aspect of the Crownpeak product suite.
“Excellent networking for Crownpeak customers and users, with unique access to experts from the business.”
Steven Sutcliffe, Senior Governance Manager, Lloyds Banking Group
After an intensive morning, lunch provided a welcome breather and an opportunity to take in the London skyline from the balcony of the OXO2 while connecting with other delegates.
Can the GDPR save customer experience management (from itself)?
Tim Walters, Principal Analyst at Digital Clarity Group opened the afternoon session with the keynote address: “Can the GDPR Save Customer Experience Management (From Itself)?” Amplifying the positive message of the summit, he welcomed the impact of the GDPR in helping to strong-arm businesses into becoming more customer-centric: “GDPR is the only way to enforce a better customer experience,” said Walters.
“Could have been dull. Was actually brilliant!”
Iain Gray, Digital Engagement Manager, Unilever
Using digital governance to protect your brand’s DNA
Moving from theory to practice, it was time to let our customers and partners take the stage. Emanuela Tasinato, Digital Experience at Toyota Motor Europe described how the Japanese concept of “Omotenashi” – being the perfect host - underpins their approach to customer experience. She demonstrated how Toyota use the Crownpeak Digital Quality Management (DQM) platform to protect the DNA of their global brand and ensure consistent delivery of digital content across their local markets.
Tim Walters, Principal Analyst at Digital Clarity Group and Emanuela Tasinato, Digital Experience, Toyota Motor Europe tackling the GDPR and the Digital Governance challenge
Next up, Mirum’s Simon Webb, Executive Creative Director and James Huckle, Head of Technology provided an insightful guide to “Designing for Governance”. They explained how deploying “design systems” – a collection of components and guiding principles - allows you to balance control with flexibility. “Invest early in governance, to save later” they advised.
Later in the afternoon, bottles were uncorked and canapés served to herald in the presentation of the Crownpeak product roadmap. We were excited to share our vision across the product suite with a host of new features designed to help our customers deliver exceptional experiences, easier, faster and smarter, many of them gained from suggestions made at our last Empower event.
Drinks are served at the Empower London party
For me, Empower is an invaluable opportunity to get to know our customers: to understand their challenges and learn from their experiences with our products, so we can empower them with the tools needed to drive their business forward. We had fun, we learned a lot and hope everyone who attended did too!
“It’s definitely been worth it, and I’ll certainly be coming back next year”
Linda Nguyen, Digital Engagement Marketing Consultant, Barclays
This September, we’re taking Empower to New York. We have a fabulous program in the making and are excited to meet with our US customers and partners. More details coming soon.