Adobe Partners Push Boundaries of Customer Experience, Personalization

Deloitte, Cognizant, Mindtree and others are changing the way we think of digital transformation.

T.C. Doyle, Senior Director of Content

March 28, 2019

5 Min Read
Cognizant booth at Abobe Summit 2019

(Pictured above: The Cognizant team makes interactive movies on the fly at Adobe Summit to demonstrate a shift to the focus on the customer experience.)

ADOBE SUMMIT — What’s the key to creating more immersive and personal experiences for customers? A lot of new technology, and plenty of human empathy, says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Speaking in Las Vegas at Adobe Summit 2019, Nadella told attendees that “empathy” is the key to finding solutions to unmet needs.

Judging by the work that fellow Adobe partners big and small showcased at the event, which has attracted more than 17,000 people, it’s a sentiment widely shared by many. Take Accenture Digital.

Here in Las Vegas, Accenture Digital demonstrated a variety of solutions for learning, playing and working in new ways. This includes new virtual-reality (VR) technology and augmented reality (AR) developed for car maker Mercedes-Benz. The work was spearheaded by the global consulting and technology giant’s Mackevision business that Accenture acquired in early 2018. It not only meets Nadella’s vision of an “unmet” business need, but “unimagined” ones as well.

With the technology, a consumer can check out the interior of almost any car made by Mercedes Benz in completely immersive, 360-degree technology. Retailers can use some of the same technology to provide homeowners a glimpse of what different bathroom remodels might look like in their own homes. With the touch of the screen, they can change the color of countertops, cabinets and hardware, and see what all these options look like in their own homes — on their phones and tablets.

In addition to Accenture, there were plenty of other large integrators on hand showcasing technology that leverages Adobe commerce, creative and cloud technology. Deloitte Digital, which now generates $1 billion in annual revenue, showcased solutions for various industries. Same with Infosys, Publicis and Cognizant Interactive,

For sheer daring, you couldn’t beat what Cognizant Interactive was doing in its booth on the exhibition floor. The company set up an entire digital film studio complete with a green screen, make-up station and scriptwriting team in its booth. Attendees were encouraged to create their own “#MetheMovie” productions using Adobe technology and Cognizant Interactive know-how.

“The shift to competing on experience is one of the greatest impacts of the digital era, affecting all industry verticals and forever changing how we grab a ride, listen to music, book a vacation stay and so on,” writes Donna Tuths, senior vice president and global head at Cognizant Interactive in New York City. “I like to think of it as The Experience Revolution.”

Make that Tuths and everyone else at Adobe Summit.

From a partner perspective, there are large vendors such as IBM, SAP and, of course, Microsoft on hand — each of whom showcased how their products fit into the Adobe ecosystem and the greater experience revolution, in general. There are also traditional digital agencies that offer digital-marketing solutions, pure-play digital services providers and a host of classic technology services providers in attendance.

There are also a host of hybrid organizations, including Mindtree.

Nambiar-Suman_Mindtree-Digital.jpg

Mindtree’s Suman Nambiar

If you’re not familiar, Mindtree is a publicly traded [NSE: MINDTREE], global IT consulting and services company that does business in almost 20 countries. With nearly $1 billion in annual sales, it provides classic data-center support, managed services, consulting and more. It has helped the likes of Kellogg, Proctor & Gamble and other corporate giants.

While Mindtree will gladly provide managed services to customers that demand them, half of its business today is in digital services.

“We understand enterprise systems, understand enterprise data and enterprise engineering really well, because day in and day out that’s our bread and butter,” says Suman Nambiar, the head of strategy, partners and offerings at Mindtree Digital.

When it comes to digital interactive services, Mindtree Digital excels at the “stuff that is not out-of-the-box,” he adds. And the company believes there is plenty of …

… business out there for the taking — in creating new customer experiences for clients in key industries, helping customers with their own digital journeys and managing and securitizing these capabilities when the need arises.

The only thing limiting Mindtree Digital and organizations like it here at the Adobe Summit 2019? Customer culture and talent, says Nambiar. While marketing and sales arms of many customers are ready to embark on digital transformations, the IT departments and legal arms of these organizations are not. Same with talent. While there are plenty of project managers the world over, there are not yet enough software engineers and experience developers to go around.

Adobe, which recently updated its Solution Partner Program (SPP), is trying to help. Among other things, it has unveiled this year new financial incentives, new enablement support and new rules of engagement for partners, all if which is summarized here.

All of this comes at an important time for Adobe and its thousands of partners. The company is still digesting the acquisitions of Marketo and Magento made last year, while its partners are still adjusting to the cloud while trying to leverage AI and other emerging technologies.

While they do, Adobe says it is trying to better serve their needs. It’s listening, in other words.

Now wonder Microsoft CEO Nadella seemed in a good mood here. 

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About the Author

T.C. Doyle

Senior Director of Content, Informa

T.C. Doyle, is the Senior Content Director of Channel brands at Channel Futures, and is responsible for the editorial direction of channelfutures.com. A veteran technology writer, editor and video storyteller who has covered the IT industry for more than two decades, he was previously the Executive Editor at Channel Partners, and the Editor@Large with Cisco, where he traveled the world in search of stories that captured the social and technological transformations occurring in the economies of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. A frequent speaker at IT industry events and trade shows, he resides in Park City, Utah.

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