Interoperability: The Secret to Staying in Sync

Want to learn more about how Twilio Segment facilitates interoperability? Check out our recent launch of Linked Audiences along with our vast catalog of integrations. 

Something interesting is happening on the Segment platform. In the past year, we saw a 12.5% spike in destinations, meaning: organizations are sending their data to more places than ever before. There was a notable uptick in data warehouses as a destination, along with a reappearance of our “series regulars” (i.e., analytics and advertising platforms). 

At first glance this doesn’t seem all that surprising; isn’t there an ever-present need for businesses to understand the data they collect and contextualize it? Not to mention the emergence of new channels translates to new target destinations. What’s interesting here is that for years there seemed to be a movement toward tech stack consolidation – has this fallen to the wayside? 

Not exactly.

This year’s State of Martech report found a similar pattern. Despite having primary platforms (like CEPs, CDPs, or data warehouses) roughly 82% of organizations surveyed said they also used alternative products and apps, with reasons ranging from better functionality to, ironically, cost-effectiveness. 

This is on trend with recent conversations about composability: organizations don’t want to be locked into “one-size-fits-all” platforms. They want a certain degree of customization and specialization, and for all these tools and apps to work in tandem. Or as Scott Brinker put it, “What made a platform the “center” of one’s martech stack? The fact that most of the other products in their stack were integrated into it.” 

In other words: the advantage of diversifying your tech stack is inextricably tied to interoperability.

From data hoarding to data sharing 

While using specialized tools and apps can offer teams greater precision in their workflows or ease of use, there’s always the risk that you’ll create a new silo. To prevent this, organizations have turned to cloud warehouses or lakes to consolidate data and gain a 360-degree view of customer experiences and operations. But this can also get complicated. Building point-to-point integrations for each new tool, transforming and standardizing data so that it’s compatible with the relational structure of the warehouse, ensuring safe data transfers (from both a security and privacy perspective)...we could go on. 

Then, there’s the matter of making all that data inside your warehouse actionable across different teams. How do you prevent this repository from becoming just another silo? To truly reap the benefits of an interoperable tech stack businesses need to pivot from data hoarding to data sharing. 

While interoperability focuses on how different systems communicate and exchange information, data sharing focuses on making those aggregated insights available for – ideally immediate – use. This is how analytics teams are able to run the reports they need, or how data science teams can build and improve internal models. For non-technical teams, it allows them to understand the full context of customer experiences and tailor each subsequent interaction. 

However, if you’re relying on data teams to manually pull and export this unified data, you’re bound to run into delays. That’s why you need to focus on self-service tools and portals, which was one of the driving forces behind our recent launch: Linked Audiences.

Build complex audience lists in minutes, without SQL

Linked Audiences is the latest Twilio Segment feature to focus on warehouse interoperability. This no-code interface allows marketers to autonomously build audiences based on the real-time event data and the historical records stored in the warehouse – without needing SQL or technical support. Then, marketers can send those audience lists to any downstream tool for activation.

This opens a whole new realm of possibilities for businesses to move with speed and precision when engaging their customer base. Real-time data can help marketers pinpoint the perfect time (and place) to reach out to customers (e.g., sending a discount code when someone views the same product on your website for the second time that day). Or it can help you understand when to pull back, like removing someone from an ad campaign after they’ve converted. 

Warehouse data helps marketers understand the overarching trends that may be influencing someone’s behavior and the relationship between different data entities. For example, pairing order histories and product IDs can help you see which items are most frequently bought together – helping you identify prime cross-selling opportunities. Or you can start to see someone’s shopping preferences. Are they a bargain shopper, only making a purchase during a sale? Or do they have a higher average order value, making them a great candidate for a loyalty program? 

Pulling an audience list with this degree of nuance would historically take data teams weeks to do. Now, marketers can create them in minutes.

Wrapping up 

From the rise of APIs, to the prominence of cloud environments, and the renewed interest in composable tech stacks, interoperability continues to be a critical focus for organizations. Businesses not only need to ensure compatibility between the different tools and systems they use, but that data remains accurate, up to date, and secure as it moves between them. 

From day one, Twilio Segment was built to be used with other systems – from our API-first platform to our commitment to open-source and extensibility. With over 450 pre-built integrations, and the ability to scale data governance and identity resolution across thousands of customer touchpoints, we help businesses streamline the ongoing technical work it takes to unify, protect, and activate data.