Accelerating Digital Transformation Through the Adobe + Microsoft Partnership

Since the partnership between Adobe and Microsoft was announced in September 2016, much has happened to drive this relationship forward. This includes significant native integrations, co-marketing efforts and customer momentum. We’re serving over 60 joint customers today, and even more exciting is the opportunities that lie ahead. By aligning Adobe’s Creative, Experience and Document Clouds with Microsoft’s Business Applications and Modern workplace solutions, built on Azure and leveraging the rich data & artificial intelligence (AI) framework and services from both companies, we offer a unique opportunity in the market. We have the ability to change the way our customers embrace digital transformation, enhance the way they engage with their customers and ultimately change the way they do business.

Why is this important? According to Econsultancy’s Digital Intelligence Briefing: 2018 Digital Trends, optimizing the customer experience is the most exciting opportunity for brands or agencies in 2018. This is followed closely by data-driven marketing that focuses on the individual and creating compelling content for digital experiences. This is very much what we are focused on at Adobe, and our value proposition becomes more compelling through our partnership with Microsoft.

Let’s take a look at how two customers – The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and 24 Hour Fitness – are leveraging our joint solutions.

Adobe and Microsoft help children who have been trafficked or enslaved

NCMEC is a private, non-profit organization established in 1984 by the United States Congress. The organization is focused on getting the faces of missing children in front of people, with the hope that they may be recognized and brought home to be reunited with their families. An astounding 460K missing children were reported by the FBI. And that doesn’t include the children the FBI isn’t aware of.

Understanding that it’s critical to get the faces of these missing children in front of people who may recognize them and lead to their rescue, NCMEC sought to revamp its website and mobile property. Its goal was to increase engagement with site content, accelerate content delivery, expand mobile engagement, personalize content for various audience segments and understand audience needs. To accomplish this, NCMEC looked to Adobe and Microsoft.

“Using Adobe Experience Cloud, we’ve redesigned our website to better deliver information to the public on missing children and exploitation of children, as well as prevention.” — Michelle DeLaune, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

NCMEC results have been fantastic to date, garnering increased engagement on the site, better campaigns interactions and with that enhanced fundraising efforts. But most importantly, Adobe and Microsoft’s technology is advancing NCMEC’s cause. This was all due to the ability to create an intuitive website and deliver relevant content to their users, powered by Adobe and Microsoft.

Leading fitness center chain reinvents the customer experience

As an industry leader for more than 30 years, 24 Hour Fitness serves nearly 4 million members in over 420 clubs nationwide with a variety of offerings to engage and inspire members to lead a full and healthy life both inside and outside of the club. When 24 Hour Fitness sought to deepen their relationship with consumers, the company determined that the Adobe + Microsoft partnership could help them move forward.

“Microsoft and Adobe presented us with a complete package. We looked at Adobe’s content, data, and delivery channels and Microsoft’s capabilities for how we’re managing content and applying it through our team members. It was a perfect integration.” — Frank Napolitano, President, 24 Hour Fitness.

24 Hour Fitness was able to leverage their existing data to customize workouts and enhance their relationship with customers to deliver experiences that separate them from the rest of the industry.

Breaking down silos across organizations

These successes are a result of many factors, but a key aspect is the ability to connect cross-functional teams across sales, marketing and service. The simple idea of aligning these teams through integrated solutions, sharing the same data, to understand a customer’s journey and engage them in a meaningful dialogue is happening – no matter where consumers are physically or within a buying cycle. But think about how we can evolve this idea even more significantly and efficiently through the use of machine learning and AI based on the most valuable data brands are gathering each day.

AI-powered chat tools, account-based marketing, voice-optimized content and the evolution of dynamic creative continues all with consumers privacy protection at the heart. And the key to success behind any of these initiatives is the quality, reliable availability and timeliness of data to power the algorithms behind them. Which is another reason why the relationship between Adobe and Microsoft is so important – we both help manage our customers’ data, have the infrastructure in place to centralize and compile that data, as well as the framework and cognitive services to feed our solutions that make delivering great customer experiences all possible.

And so, as we go into another Adobe Summit, we have continued to enhance this relationship across product integrations, sales planning and collaboration, go-to-market and marketing. Our executives from both companies are invested in ensuring we move forward and execute on our plans. With that, I’m thrilled that we continue to deliver more of the vision both companies share. You can read more about our new technology integrations and expansion into China with Microsoft here.

Please continue to watch as we continue to innovate beyond these latest announcements and broaden our relationships with customers and partners, all with the goal of making digital transformation a reality.