Get to know customers with the SAP Customer Data Cloud (SAP CDC)

Benefits, possibilities, and differences between it and the SAP Customer Data Platform (SAP CDP)

SAP Customer Data Cloud (CDC, formerly Gigya) was acquired by SAP in 2017. The solution is designed to collect and merge customer identities, preferences, and consents across multiple contact points. We talked with valantic expert Tim Baumgart about what exactly is behind this, what the advantages are, and what differences there are between it and the SAP Customer Data Platform (CDP).

Hello Tim, to start with: What is the SAP Customer Data Cloud (CDC)?

SAP’s Customer Data Cloud provides a digital customer identity and access management tool that enables companies to collect, aggregate, and manage customer data across multiple touchpoints and applications. Numerous applications, including social media integration, can be used to collect and then unify data. Customers can register with a wide variety of authentication methods. Data, permissions, and preferences are centrally managed across multiple applications in SAP CDC. With SAP CDC, companies can get to know their customers better and sort out their interests more effectively.

What are the benefits of SAP CDC for companies?

The biggest benefit is that customer data can be recorded centrally. This creates a basis for “clean” follow-up processes. These follow-up processes can open up opportunities and potential to encourage customers to voluntarily share additional data with the company. This is also called progressive profiling. Of course, the GDPR also plays a major role in this. These requirements can also be managed easily with SAP CDC.

SAP CDC also supplies standard screen sets that can be used, which reduces implementation time. Technically, the company can then use login screens across different applications.

The advantage for customers is that they only need a single login, which can be used across a company’s different applications. For example, social media profiles can be linked or data from other systems, such as an e-commerce solution. Single-sign-on, recognition, authentication should make customers’ lives as easy as possible.

This way, companies can manage to increase the conversion and interaction rate, since it is easier for customers to interact with a company’s entire system environment via a profile.

For which companies is SAP CDC suitable?

SAP CDC is particularly beneficial for companies that want to unify and centrally control their consent management via multiple touchpoints or applications. This also includes a certain number of clients and associated consents, so that the solution pays off for companies.

This is not only true for companies in the B2C environment. SAP CDC also works in the B2B environment, making it one of the few CIAM tools that is suitable for B2B’s special requirements.

With regard to integration into the existing system environment, SAP CDC is exploiting its full potential in an SAP environment. For example, with marketing systems such as Emarsys or the SAP Marketing Cloud and SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) as middleware. If you add the SAP Customer Data Platform, life gets really interesting.

In addition, it is of course also easy to use the SAP CDC together with non-SAP systems.

Keyword SAP Customer Data Platform (CDP): The two solutions sound very similar. What is the difference between SAP CDC and SAP CDP?

Exactly, the names sound very similar, so I have been asked this question many times. The SAP Customer Data Platform is technically based on the SAP Customer Data Cloud. Both have to do with data management, but their objectives are completely different.

Simply put, SAP CDC is responsible for merging identities and managing consents and preferences. SAP CDP enriches the generated customer data record across multiple systems and creates a consistent, harmonized customer master record. However, this is not just a matter of “raw data,” but of providing a service via the SAP CDP that makes information available or actively distributes it to the respective systems.

A small example to illustrate the difference: A football fan registers for a newsletter with his favorite club. The form that he fills out for this purpose is provided and entered by SAP CDC. The next day, he also buys a ticket for the next game in the club’s ticket shop. Behind this could be a ticketing system such as SAP Event Ticketing. To do this, he logs in to the ticket shop using screens provided by SAP CDC. SAP CDP also collects this data and adds it to its profile. When the marketing department is planning the next e-mail campaign (e.g. via the SAP Marketing Cloud or Emarsys), it can draw on the information from SAP CDP and personalize the mailing so that a voucher for the game is provided for a specific promotion.

However, not only the marketing department, but also all other departments in the company benefit from a holistic view of customers. The customer data can serve as the basis for the department-specific processes, activities, and solutions.

Thank you very much for the conversation, Tim!

Our colleague and interview partner Tim Baumgart was an SAP CX consultant at valantic and served international customers in the field of customer data management. As life goes, Tim has since moved on to a new career – but we are still allowed to use his great customer stories. Thanks a lot for that, Tim, and keep up the good work.