What is a CDP Center of Excellence?
A Center of Excellence (CoE) is a team of specialized employees whose mission is to provide strategic planning, gain buy-in, and establish best practices surrounding a single subject or goal.
CoEs serve to educate the company on a subject, motivate employees to collaborate, and align them around goals and KPIs.
Why Do Companies Need a CDP Center of Excellence?
Setting up a CoE is a great way to get people across the enterprise involved and get buy-in. Establishing a CoE will help expose where the gaps are in terms of skills and talent, and provide insights into whether you will need external support from an agency to supplement your team.
A CoE will have managers along with implementers to ensure all levels are being addressed in the group. A CoE can be temporary or permanent, pending on the business needs and internal skills sets.
Who Should be Involved with a CDP Center of Excellence?
Getting the right people at the table is critical, so you will need a cross-functional team with a well-thought-out plan and strategy. Here’s who to consider when setting up your CDP center of excellence.
- Data-Driven Project Managers
- Data Management Experts
- Technology/IT Teams
- C-Suite/Executive Leaders
- Marketing
- Sales
- Customer Service
- Legal
- CDP Implementation Partners (Professional Services)
- External consultants
How is a CDP Center of Excellence Used?
The CoE can be used to move the CDP into more formal, scalable operations across a company. It can also establish the strategy, process, roles, and support needed to get value from the investment. With the right people, skills, and process in place, your organization is ready to activate all your customer data for true business value.
For example, a CDP CoE would include key stakeholders like digital marketers, IT and technology, data specialists, line of business (LOB) reps, customer service, sales, channels, and operations. All would serve to benefit from a CDP implementation done right. If you are working with external vendors, having them and their technical implementation team in the group would be beneficial too.
