I had the pleasure of moderating our first International Women in Digital panel discussion on the Sunborn Yachtel in London on June 9^th during Adobe’s EMEA Summit.

We started the WID series at Adobe Summit in Las Vegas in 2017. The very first event was attended by less than 20 ladies who gathered around a board room table to discuss the challenges of being a female in a very male dominated industry.

In 2018 we hosted our first panel discussion and have been growing the experience ever since!

I have been blessed to host some of the most amazing female panelists in the digital space over the years. And without exception, our London panelist were delightful!

The London WID Panel June 2023

Our three panelists were Juliet Silver, GM EMEA for Perficient, Judolene Bergh, Global Head of Digital Analytics for Invesco and Claire Hepworth, Global Director/Head of CRN and Martech for Ford.

To kick off the discussion, we asked the panel: “What experience stood out for them on Day 1 of Adobe’s EMEA Summit?”

Juliet-Juliet was very impressed by the keynote. This was her first Summit experience and really embraced the stories that Adobe told. She loved seeing how Adobe can transform businesses end to end digitally. She really enjoyed Sneaks and seeing the art of the possible brought to life by Adobe.

Judolene- Judolene said she of course loved attending the analytics sessions and loved seeing how Adobe has transformed into customer journey analytics sharing the value a data realization.

Claire- Claire really loved seeing the opportunities in Generative AI. She embraced the possibilities of GenAI helping with content creation, making faster decisions, and automation that will help drive hyper-personalization.

Switching gears, I then asked the panelists: “What is the single most influential action you took in order to achieve the professional position you have today?”

Juliet-Juliet’s most recent move took her from the GM role in Healthcare and Life Sciences to a move back to the UK to become the GM of Perficient’s EMEA expansion. She said that she raised her hand to ask for the expansion role and in effect, charted her own course. Juliet also said that you must be prepared to put the “skin in the game”.

Claire- Claire commented that she had been building the digital experience at Ford over the past decade. She said what was key was the network she had built over 25 years at Ford and the fact that so many people knew her across the globe. Claire said that she created her own “brand” that included digital data, technical knowledge, and her passion for building global teams. Network building is super important.

Judolene- Judolene agreed that having a strong network of mentors, peers, and coaches is paramount. She built her network through mentoring and attending events where she could network. Judolene mentors’ young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and works to help them understand the opportunities in digital.

The third question of the morning to the panelists: “What initially inspired you to pursue a career in this industry and how has your journey shaped your understanding of Digital Experiences?”

Claire- Claire commented that her journey was not a straight path to her career at Ford. She worked many different roles and eventually landed in the digital space where Ford won a lot of awards for the work on Fiesta. Digital became her passion along with data and building teams. She loves driving the transformation at Ford.

Judolene- Judolene started her career as an analyst at British Airlines where she pivoted to the customer analytics team. Judolene learned to code while she was on maternity leave. That has been instrumental in her journey in digital story telling. She has learned to lean into her strength of explaining the data in a virtual way.

Juliet- Juliet had an interesting journey. She started as an engineer, a very technical discipline. She started working in digital when she started in the healthcare space. Digital has changed the way patients are able to navigate through digitally enabled technology. She was inspired by her own experience taking care of her husband when he was ill. It comes down to understanding the data to see the needs for the patient journey.

I shared as a follow up that she had seen a big change in healthcare marketing over the past 4 years. A shift happened where she no longer felt like she was treated like a patient but rather more like a customer.

The next question: “How has the Adobe stack helped meet your business needs?”

Juliet- Well obviously we are an Adobe partner, so it is core to our business. Perficient goes end to end with the Adobe stack which enables us to enable our clients to achieve their KPI’s to improve how they work with their customers to make them successful.

Claire- The Adobe stack helped Ford achieve their digital goals through Adobe’s constant evolution of the products. Staying ahead of the needs stands out as one of the best things about Adobe.

Judolene- She commented that Invesco uses AEM, Analytics and Target which allows them to better understand what works best for their customer base. Having all three drives the data to build better customer experiences. The solutions have helped them get much faster insights to share with senior leadership.

The final question of the morning: “Is there a summer reading list or series that you are trying to tackle?”

Judolene-Judolene is reading a book called Extraordinary. It is about how ordinary people manage extraordinary digital products. She is also passionate about mentoring the under represented female population in data so she recommended Reverse Mentoring by Patrice Gordan, who just happened to be in our audience.

Juliet- She has a couple books that she has on her list. Soul Catcher for personal reading and Drive by Daniel Pink for her professional growth.

Claire- She is into escapism and is reading Trust by Herman Diaz and she has just started watching Ted Lasso and has found it to be hilarious.

Until Our Next WID Event

As we wrapped up the panel discussion, I mentioned that I had noticed a theme over the years of monitoring this series for the past 8 years is that all of the diverse panelist all mentor others, have been mentored and have all been philanthropic. They give back either through their time, efforts or talents. It seems that successful women that find their passion and give back are truly inspiring.

The first International Women in Digital was a very special event with some extraordinary ladies!

Since Adobe has acquired Marketo and Magento, our team has been working to further enhance our depth in each. This work has been recognized by Adobe with designations as the first partner globally to achieve a Marketo specialization; and, we have also recently gained our Magento Commerce specialization. With these and four other specializations under our belt, we are excited to bring our team of experts to Las Vegas, March 29-April 1 for Adobe Summit and Magento Imagine. 

Adobe Summit

We are excited to return to Adobe Summit and will be exhibiting at booth #223 with experts available to guide you through business solutions and digital strategy. We are also super excited to cheer on our colleague, Ahmed Musallam, during his AEM Rockstar presentation.

Adobe Experience Manager Rockstar: The Finalists Face-off | Wednesday, April 1, 2-3 PM | Session ID: S201

The finalists of Adobe’s globe-wide Experience Manager rock star search share their best tips, tricks, and strategies. Each finalist will have a fixed number of minutes to discuss their topic, along with a live demo. The winner of the session will be determined at the end of the event by a panel of judges, including Jean-Michel Pittet, Adobe’s VP of Experience Manager Engineering, and a past rock star winner. Ahmed is thrilled to be presenting his topic, “AEM Cloud Manager Desktop: Cloud Manager at your fingertips.”

Magento Imagine

Occurring simultaneously with Adobe Summit is Magento Imagine. Our team of Magento Commerce experts will be at Caesars Forum at booth #401, just inside the main hall entrance. So, if you are attending Adobe Summit, don’t forget to stop by our Magento Imagine booth to hear about our expertise across Adobe product solutions. 

While setting up your event schedule, be sure to register for one of our two sessions:

• Taking the Pain out of Change: The Prescription for M2 Upgrades (MS904) – Wednesday, April 1, at 8:30 AM PDT. Perficient’s Kaushal Shah joins Benchmade’s Emily Sloan to give clarity around any uncertainty with your M2 upgrade and what to expect when the June 2020 upgrade deadline occurs. Contact us for a free assessment. 
• Reality Retail: Keeping Up With Customers Using Magento Order Management (MS804) – Wednesday, April 1, at 8:30 AM PDT. Perficient’s Steve Gatto presents with Adobe on meeting today’s multichannel expectations, emerging initiatives enabled by newer Magento capabilities, and more.

Are you attending Adobe Summit or Magento Imagine? Reach out to schedule time with our team, or to join one of our events throughout the week.

Here at Perficient, being an Adobe specialized partner means a lot to us. It says a lot about us too. It’s why we’ve worked tirelessly to achieve specializations in Adobe Analytics, Adobe Advertising Cloud, Adobe Experience Manager (AEM Sites and AEM Run & Operate), and Marketo Engage. 

Six Adobe Specializations

Today, we’re excited to share that we’ve achieved the Adobe Commerce specialization, marking our sixth Adobe specialization overall as a Platinum-level member of the Adobe Solution Partner Program. 

The distinction is a testament to our commitment to being the best of the best in the Adobe partner ecosystem. Adobe grants specializations to partners following rigorous skills testing, consistent customer success in a specific solution, and client references.

Adobe Commerce at Perficient 

Kaushal Shah, director of Adobe Commerce at Perficient, sought out and encouraged members of the practice to earn certifications.
“Earning the Adobe Commerce specialization demonstrates our belief in the power and value of the product and our extensive Adobe Commerce implementation expertise. It also confirms a growing Adobe partnership, and most importantly, the confidence our clients have in our ability to bring the right credentials and skills to improve their business,” said Shah. 
We’re honored to rank among the top Adobe partners in the world in terms of breadth and depth of expertise implementing Adobe Experience Cloud solutions. We’re particularly proud of the commerce experiences we’ve built that help us achieve this most recent recognition, including Benchmade, Barco, Kidde, and Watsco. 

Adobe Summit & Magento Imagine 2020 

Whether attending Adobe Summit or Magento Imagine, swing by one of our booths to learn more about our end-to-end Adobe Experience Cloud services. We also have two sessions at Magento Imagine: 

• On Wednesday, April 1, at 8:30 AM PDT, Kaushal Shah joins Benchmade’s Emily Sloan for Taking the Pain out of Change: The Prescription for an M2 Upgrade. Once registered to attend Imagine or Summit, you can add this session and others to your schedule.
• Also, on Wednesday, April 1, at 8:30 AM PDT, Perficient’s Steve Gatto presents a session with Adobe: Reality Retail: Keeping up with Customers Using Magento Order Management. Register for the session before it fills up.

Our Perficient colleagues share how they live and breathe our core values. Here, Lynn Brading, Alliance Director, talks about the pride she feels working with her talented Perficient Digital Adobe team.

Perficient; the name is just so valuable, and the company is one I’m proud to work for.

I find this value and pride specifically within the Adobe space; which is the area in which I live and play. Within this practice, we are very well known throughout the industry for creating and delivering great work to our clients. This is due to the outstanding team and the talent they deliver within Adobe.

Premier Status and Premier Talent

There are many special things that our team must do in order to keep our “premier status” within Adobe. One of these requirements is having to reach a certain amount of credentials and certifications. I constantly take so much pride in my team as they partake in these challenging training programs and as they pull together to get them done.

I am constantly amazed to see the talent we have here at Perficient. I’ve never seen a group of people that are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and do whatever it takes to make a project work or to win business. They are standouts in the industry and are truly an amazing group of individuals.

Delivering the Best and Brightest to Our Clients

The pride that everyone has in our teams and the integrity within the company, it’s a different level of anywhere I’ve ever worked before.

I believe, at the end of the day, it’s all about what you can deliver to the client, make the client happy, and fulfill their needs – and we do that day in and day out on projects. For me, being the face of our partnership and our practice to Adobe fills me with pride about the work that we do and deliver.

MORE FROM OUR COLLEAGUES

Perficient colleagues share what our core values mean to them as part of our special “We Value” series.

Learn more about what it’s like to work at Perficient at our Careers page.

Follow our Life at Perficient blog on Twitter via @PerficientLife.

Connect with us on LinkedIn here.

I had the pleasure of attending an Adobe Café in NYC earlier last week. The Cafés are a series of workshops Adobe is hosting for its partners. This one in particular was specifically geared towards business development in the financial services industry.
Christopher Young, director of industry strategy and marketing for financial services at Adobe, presented some great statistics on the retail banking industry. In a recent industry poll, one question pertained to digital marketing strategy plans. This is an industry traditionally built on one-to-one relationships, and one that still relies on offline interactions to drive sales. Study results showed the biggest concern was how to keep those relational benefits alive in a digital space.
As a whole, the survey showed companies plan to increase their digital spend by 22%. Where do they plan to invest, exactly?

• 42% will increase spend on content marketing
• 42% will invest more in analytics
• 41% will invest in personalization
• 39% will increase spend in social media

The industry standard is to see an increase of 16% in digital sales per year driven by the increases in these digital spaces. As a result of the increased digital spend, they will also decrease spend in the following areas to achieve their digital goals.
Decrease spend in:

• Display 11%
• Paid search 8%
• Webinars/virtual events 7%
• Social media 6%
• Video ads 5%

The retail banking industry is also keenly aware that acquiring new customers (or new accounts for existing customers) is happening in the mobile space. Mobile will play an ever expanding role in acquisition.
Mobile plans:

• 87% indicate mobile will be an equal or higher source of new accounts origination in next three years
• 19% say mobile will be primary source of new accounts origination
• 59% will extend analytics to their mobile app

In the ever disruptive world of the digital space, retail banking is at a crossroads, but are navigating their way to drive sales through digital channels. If they can continue to leverage first-party data with their customer’s digital behavior thus improving real time personalization, they will begin growing sales and acquiring new customers and accounts like they did back when business was conducted one on one.
 
Lynn Brading
Director of Alliances
Adobe | Rackspace | Google

The National Retail Federation’s annual Big Show is a visual overload of the latest and greatest retail technologies. I was fortunate to attend this year and came away with these thoughts:
Retail has become lower touch and no touch. I viewed the emergence of touch-screen vending machines that interact with you as a consumer. You have the option on one that was in Microsoft’s booth to see a large scale nutrition guide for the product prominently displayed after choosing the product. In the supermarket category, you now have the ability to self scan a full cart of groceries with a higher accuracy than when a clerk scans them. Not sure who handles the bagging at the end, though.
There were several vendors showing virtual dressing rooms. The thought behind this is that you get your body scanned and the virtual dressing rooms allows you “try on” different selections without having to get undressed. One even featured a POS right the in the virtual dressing room. The clerk then pulls the purchased items and you proceed to the checkout.
As I laid awake in bed last thinking about the changing landscape of retail, my takeaways are this: I started working in retail in the early ‘80s long before the advent of e-commerce. I was a commissioned sales person so I did my best to find what was best for the customer and recommend additional items. It was high touch. I built a loyal following because of the interaction and care that I took with my customers.
All of the low/no touch shopping through e-commerce and now adding lower touch at brick-and-mortar leaves me feeling sad. We all live on our smartphones and communicate through social media and texting. We rarely even have conversations on the actual phone. We are losing less and less touch with other humans.
I like to shop local where I have the opportunity to meet the owner of the shop and have special attention from the sales team. But I also shop equally as often online and have even started doing my grocery shopping online so all that I have to do is put the groceries away at home.
My hope is that we retain a nice mixture of both.