In the age of technological advancements happening almost every minute, upgrading a business is essential to survive competition, offering a customer experience beyond expectations while deploying fewer resources to derive value from any process or business.

Platform upgrades, software upgrades, security upgrades, architectural enhancements, and so on are required to ensure stability, agility, and efficiency.

Customers prefer to move from Legacy systems to the Cloud due to the offerings it brings. From cost, monitoring, maintenance, operations, ease of use, and landscape, Cloud has transformed D&A businesses significantly over the last decade.

Movement from Informatica Powercenter to IDMC has been perceived as the need of the hour due to the humongous advantages it offers. Developers must understand both flavors to perform this code transition effectively.

This post explains the PWC vs IDMC CDI gaps from different perspectives.

• Development
• Data
• Operations

Development

• The difference in native datatypes can be observed in IDMC when importing Source, Target, or Lookup. Workaround as follows.,
  • If any consistency is observed in IDMC mappings with Native Datatype/Precision/Scale, ensure that the Metadata Is Edited to keep them in sync between DDL and CDI mappings.
• In CDI, taskflow workflow parameter values experience read and consumption issues. Workaround as follows.,
  • A Dummy Mapping task has to be created where the list of Parameters/Variables needs to be defined for further consumption by tasks within the taskflows (Ex, Command task/Email task, etc)
  • Make sure to limit the # of Dummy Mapping tasks during this process
  • Best practice is to create 1 Dummy Mapping task for a folder to capture all the Parameters/Variables required for that entire folder.
  • For Variables whose value needs to be persistent for the next taskflow run, make sure the Variable value is mapped to the Dummy Mapping task via an Assignment task. This Dummy mapping task would be used at the start and end of the task flow to ensure that the overall task flow processing is enabled for Incremental Data processing.
• All mapping tasks/sessions in IDMC are reusable. They could be used in any task flow. If some Audit sessions are expected to run concurrently within other taskflows, ensure that the property “Allow the mapping task to be executed simultaneously” is enabled.
• Sequence generator: Data overlap issues in CDI. Workaround as follows.,
  • If a sequence generator is likely to be used in multiple sessions/workflows, it’s better to make it a reusable/SHARED Sequence.
• VSAM Sources/Normalizer was not available in CDI. Workaround as follows.,
  • Use the Sequential File connector type for mappings using Mainframe VSAM Sources/Normalizer.
• Sessions are configured to have STOP ON ERRORS >0. Workaround as follows.,
  • Ensure the LINK conditions for the next task to be “PreviousTask.TaskStatus – STARTS WITH ANY OF 1, 2” within CDI taskflows.
• Partitions are not supported with Sources under Query mode. Workaround as follows.,
  • Ensure multiple sessions are created and run in parallel as a workaround.
• Currently, parameterization of Schema/Table is not possible for Mainframe DB2. Workaround as follows.,
  • Use an ODBC-type connection to access DB2 with Schema/Table parameterization.
• A mapping with a LOOKUP transformation used across two sessions cannot be overridden at the session or mapping task level to enable or disable caching. Workaround as follows.,
  • Use 2 different mappings with LOOKUP transformations if 1 mapping/session has to have cache enabled and the other mapping/session has to have cache disabled.

Data

• IDMC Output data containing additional Double quotes. Workaround as follows.,
  • Session level – use this property – __PMOV_FFW_ESCAPE_QUOTE=No
  • Administrator settings level – use this property – UseCustomSessionConfig = Yes
• IDMC Output data containing additional Scale values with Decimal datatype (ex., 11.00). Workaround as follows.,
  • Use IF-THEN-ELSE statement to remove Unwanted 0s in data (O/P : from 11.00 -> 11)

Operations

• CDI doesn’t store logs beyond 1000 mapping tasks run in 3 days on Cloud (it does store logs in Secure Agent). Workaround as follows.,
  • To retain Cloud job run stats, create Audit tables and use the Data Marketplace utility to get the Audit info (Volume processes, Start/End time, etc) loaded to the Audit tables by scheduling this job at regular intervals (Hourly or Daily).
• Generic Restartability issues occur during IDMC Operations. Workaround as follows.,
  • Ensure a Dummy assignment task is introduced whenever the code contains Custom error handling flow.
• SKIP FAILED TASK and RESUME FROM NEXT TASK operations have issues in IDMC. Workaround as follows.,
  • Ensure every LINK condition has an additional condition appended, “Mapping task. Fault.Detail.ErrorOutputDetail.TaskStatus=1”
• In PWC, any task can be run from anywhere within a workflow; however, this is not possible in IDMC. Workaround as follows.
  • Feature request worked upon by GCS to update the Software
• IDMC mapping task config level is not capable due to parameter concatenation issues. Workaround as follows.,
  • Ensure to use a separate parameter within the parameter file to have the Mapping task log file names suffixed with the Concurrent run workflow instance name.
• IDMC doesn’t honour the “Save Session log for these runs” property set at the mapping task level when the session log file name is parameterized. Workaround as follows.,
  • Ensure to copy the mapping task log files in the Secure agent server after the job run
• If Session Log File Directory contains / (Slash) when used along with parameters (ex., $PMSessionLogDir/ABC) under Session Log Directory Path, this would append every run log to the same log file. Workaround as follows.,
  • Ensure to use a separate parameter within the parameter file for $PMSessionLogDir
• In IDMC, the @numAppliedRows and @numAffectedRows features are not available to get the source and target success rows to load them in the audit table. Workaround as follows.,
  • @numAppliedRows is used instead of @numAffectedRows
• Concurrent runs cannot be performed on taskflows from the CDI Data Integration UI. Workaround as follows.,
  • Use the Paramset utility to upload concurrent paramsets and use the runAJobCli utility to run taskflows with multiple concurrent run instances from the command prompt.

Conclusion

While performing PWC to IDMC conversions, the following Development and Operations workarounds will help avoid rework and save effort, thereby achieving customer satisfaction in delivery.

With the advancement of technology, machine learning and AI capabilities in the customer care space, customer expectations are evolving faster than ever before. Customers expect smoother, context-aware, personalized, and generally more effective and faster experiences across channels when contacting a support center. 

This calls for a need to revisit and redefine the success metrics for a Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) strategy. 

Let’s break this down into two categories. The first category includes key metrics that are still essential to be measured. The standards for these metrics though are raised and the way they are measured have evolved. The second category introduces new metrics that are emerging because of advanced CCaaS capabilities in a modern contact center landscape. 

Key Traditional Success Metrics Reimagined  

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) remains a cornerstone success metric. Every improvement a customer service center is looking to make, from improving operational efficiencies to enhancing agent and customer experience, will directly or indirectly impact the customer and is aimed at elevating that customer experiences. With automated personalized journeys being an important part of modern customer service, it is important to monitor real-time analytics on automated journeys in addition to live agent interactions. This helps better understand the customer experience and find opportunities to fine tune the friction points to improve customer satisfaction. Customer service is not only about resolving customer issues, but also about providing an effortless experience. 

First Contact Resolution is still a key success metric in the CCaaS space, but modern tools can revolutionize the extent a customer service center can go to improve this metric, so the standards for this metric have raised. Passing context effectively across channels, real-time monitoring, predictive analytics and insights, and proactive outreach can increase the likelihood of addressing customer needs on the first contact or even sometimes without the need for a live agent interaction. 

Customer Retention Rate metric has been revamped with the advancement of technology in customer service. Advanced predictive analytics can help track the customer experience throughout their journey and shed light on the underlying customer behavior patterns. This will enable proactive engagement strategies personalized to every customer. Real-time sentiment analysis can provide instant feedback to the customer service representatives and their supervisors to give them a chance to course correct immediately in order to shift the sentiment to a positive experience and retain customers. 

Emerging Success Metrics 

Agent Experience and Satisfaction has a direct impact on the operation of a contact center and hence the customer experience. Traditionally, this metric was not tracked broadly as an important metric to measure a successful contact center strategy. However, we know today that agent experience and satisfaction is a key metric for transforming contact centers from cost centers into revenue generating units. Contact centers can leverage modern tools in different areas from agent performance monitoring, training and identifying knowledge gaps to providing automated workflows and real-time agent assistance, to elevate the agent experience.

These strategies and tools help agents become more effective and productive while providing service. Satisfied agents are more motivated to help customers effectively. This can improve metrics like First Contact Resolution rate and Average Handle Time. Happy and productive agents are more likely to engage positively with customers to discuss potential cross-sell and upsell opportunities. Moreover, agent turnover and the cost associated with that will be lowered due to the reduced burden of onboarding and training new agents regularly and constantly being short of staff. 

Sentiment Analysis and Real-time Interaction Quality provides immediate insights to the contact center representatives about the customer’s emotions, the conversation tone, and the effectiveness of their interactions. This will help the contact center representatives to refine their interaction strategy on the spot to maintain a positive and effective engagement with the customer. These transforms contact centers into emotionally intelligent, customer-focused support centers. This makes a huge difference in a time where the quality of experience matters as much as the outcome. 

Predictive Analysis Accuracy represents an entirely new set of metrics for a modern contact center that leverages predictive analytics in its operation. It is crucial to measure this metric and evaluate the accuracy of the forecasts against customer behavior and demands as well as the agent workflow needs. Inaccurate predictions are not only ineffective but can also be harmful to contact center operations. They can lead to poor decision making, confusion, and disappointing customer experiences. Accuracy in the anticipation of customer needs can enable proactive outreach, positive and effective interactions, less friction points and reduced service contacts while facilitating effective automatic upsell and cross-sell initiatives. 

Technology Utilization Rate is an important metric to track in a modern and evolving customer care solution. While with the latest technological advancements a lot of intelligent automation and enhancements can be made within a CCaaS solution, a contact center strategy is required to identify the most impactful modern capabilities for every customer service operation. The strategy needs to incorporate tracking the success of the technology adoption through system usage data and adoption metrics. This ensures that technology is being leveraged effectively and is providing value to business. The technology utilization tracking can also reveal training and adoption gaps, ensuring that modern tools are not just implemented for the sake of innovation, but are actively contributing to improved efficiency within a contact center. 

Conclusion

The development of advanced native capabilities and integration of modern tools within CCaaS platforms are revolutionizing the customer care industry and reshaping customer expectations. Staying ahead of this shift is crucial. While utilizing these advancements to achieve operational efficiencies, it is equally important to redefine the success metrics that provide businesses with insights and feedback on a modern CCaaS strategic roadmap. Adopting a fresh approach to capturing traditional metrics like Customer Satisfaction Scores and First Contact Resolution, combined with measuring new metrics such as Real-time Interaction Quality and Predictive Analysis Accuracy will offer a comprehensive view of a contact center’s maturity and its progress towards a successful and effective modern CCaaS solution. 

We can measure these metrics by utilizing built-in monitoring and analytical tools of modern CCaaS platforms along with AI-powered services integrations for features like Sentiment and Real-time Quality Analysis. We can gather regular feedback and data from agents and automated tracking tools to monitor system usability and efficiency. All this data can be streamed and displayed on a unified custom analytics dashboard, providing a comprehensive view of contact center performance and effectiveness. 

I have been writing about the Redwood Experience with Supply Chain Management, especially with the Inventory Management. Oracle has gone all-in with Redwood Experience in Inventory Management in 25B.

The 25 Inventory Management readiness documentation lists all new features and how to use them, so I will not repeat this greatly written document: https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/readiness/scm/25b/inv25b/index.html

For the previous features in Redwood, please consider visiting the Readiness documentation: https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/readiness/scm-all.html

This page is my personal favorite since it provides easy to find features and documentation along with that.

 1. Why?

You may be asking the question: why is the Redwood so hot and why do I have to transform?

If you are an Oracle customer or you have been in Oracle space for a while (I have been in the space for almost three decades), you know that once Oracle sets a vision and starts delivering new technology it becomes the future.  We have witnessed this when Oracle moved the business applications from 10.7 Character mode to 10SC (Smart Client) 10NCA (Network Architecture). We went from character mode to GUI.  It wasn’t easy and quick, but it happened. Then we moved from major releases in EBS and got used to the Self Service architecture.

Oracle delivered the Fusion Applications long time ago and we have witnessed that each quarterly release has added more functionality.  Since 2024 Oracle has been improving user interface and adding mobility to the Inventory Management pages, but the most radical improvements have happened in 25A and 25B.  Now, almost 100% of the Inventory Management is in Redwood and it’s the next generation of Cloud applications.

Redwood brings better usability and better user interface that I explained in my past blog https://blogs.perficient.com/2025/05/30/starting-redwood-experience-with-25a-inventory-management/, but it also opens the door for Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Oracle is expected to release major AI improvements in 25C that  I plan to write a blog to talk about. Redwood Experience is a prerequisite for all cool AI technology to work.  Agentic AI features or AI Agents will be part of the Fusion Applications which is a topic for another blog.

So, while majority of the screens are optional, why not get ahead of the game and start adopting?

2. How

You may be asking the question: what actions do I need to take to use Redwood

Read Documentation.  In Customer Connect, we are seeing many questions from the Oracle Community about Redwood pages not populating items or screens are coming out blank.  Please see this documentation for the important considerations

https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/readiness/scm/25a/inv25a/25A-inventory-wn-t65792.htm

By the way, if you have not registered to Oracle Customer Connect, I highly recommend, so you can get in contact with the rest of your peer Oracle Community members and Oracle ACEs like myself who can possibly respond to your questions: https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/

Then please see the Profile options for the new features. You will have to flip the profile options at site level from No to Yes, so that the features are enabled.

The documents I previously mentioned have the profile option names and the navigation is to use the task bar from the Functional Setup Manager and search for Manage Administrative Profile Values.

3. What

You may be asking the question: what Redwood Pages I should use first

Adoption is very critical when changing the user experience. Change Management becomes critical migrating from traditional cloud pages to the newly designed Redwood Pages.  What I would recommend is to first enable the configuration pages, so that the internal Oracle team and business analysts have a feel of the Redwood Experience.

Then there are a few pages that users can be beneficial that I mentioned in my prior blog: https://blogs.perficient.com/2025/05/30/starting-redwood-experience-with-25a-inventory-management/

One bold move is to flip all features to Redwood and start testing internally first in a lower pod.  Oracle has designed this, so companies have time to take on as much as they can during the course of an unidentified period of time. As of today, Oracle has not announced when the Redwood Experience will be mandatory.  Most pages are possible to switch back and forth, but please read the feature’s release note to see if there is a not that will explicitly say that once it’s turned on, there is not a path to go back.

In conclusion, Oracle Fusion Application’s future is in Redwood Experience and built in AI, so I recommend that you try to adapt and use.

Contact Mehmet Erisen at Perficient for more introspection of this functionality, and how Perficient and Oracle Fusion Cloud can digitalize and modernize your ERP platform.

Oracle has delivered many features in Redwood Experience as of 25A. The purpose of this blog is to give a taste of a few Redwood pages and provide a recommendation to migrate to Redwood Experience on select pages to ease the transition and adoption. The pages I’ll cover in this blog are:

• Item Quantities (Manage Item Quantities)
• Inventory Transactions (Review Completed Transactions)
• Lot and Serial Numbers (Manage Lots and Manage Serials)
• Review Item Supply and Demand (Review Item Supply and Demand)

*names in parenthesis are the traditional cloud menu entries

Important Step before you start

Oracle has documented the Important actions to be taken before the Redwood enablement in 25A readiness notes.  We recommend that you read and follow this documentation for successful roll out https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/readiness/scm/25a/inv25a/25A-inventory-wn-t65792.htm This document also has a list of newly designed Redwood pages that you can pick and chose for your company. I wanted to cover a few that seems to be a good start with Redwood enablement.  

Item Quantities

“Manage Item Quantities” is one of the most visited pages in Oracle Fusion Inventory Management.  It’s a very functional page that one can see on hand quantities as well as incoming stock and stock in receiving.  The page also allows various actions and provides additional information.  I’ll share a few screenshots of the user interface to explain the look and feel of the Redwood Pages. The traditional page The page gave great functionality with the lack of exporting the results.  Also, the nodes in the page caused users to drill down multiple levels, for example from Item to Subinventory and Locator, to LOT number and project and task.  This multi-node architecture was good to see the information but prevented users from seeing all data in one place and exporting it. The Redwood Experience “Item Quantities” page takes the “Manage Item Quantities” page to the next level.  Immediately, the user will enjoy a more modern responsive experience.  The data is displayed in a tabular format The Redwood Experience gives the user a flexible layout. Easily add remove filters, follow the deep link to the Lot or Serial number, see the on hand quantities as well as other measures such as available to transact, available to reserve, inbound in receiving quantities all in one line. This is a huge improvement compared to the traditional Manage Item Quantities page. The Redwood Experience pages are user friendly and support download of the “on hand quantities” without needing additional reporting. In this case, I’m downloading all items that are in my inventory organization by clicking the export button. Clicking the Inbound deep link will show the user inbound details. Clicking the Lot under item Control will take the user to the Lot information page.   Please note that the user is now at the lot details page.   After testing the Redwood Item Quantities page, I was very pleased with the improvements:

1. Seamless navigation to various pages within the same user interface
2. Ability to export the tabular data (functionality highly sought after by users)
3. All information in one place, no nodes, no drilling
4. Additional functionality of directly creating subinventory transfers, transer orders, miscellaneous transactions and more

  One caveat I observed on this page is that the item description cannot be added at this time to Redwood Experience, but it is available if the user clicks on the item number.  There is also a need to scroll down to the last record, so the export includes all results. After carefully reviewing the new Redwood Experience, and testing the page thoroughly, I believe that this is one of the Redwood Pages that can be enabled to transition from traditional user interface to the Redwood Experience.

Inventory Transactions

This page with Redwood Experience replaces the Completed Transactions page.  Once again, it’s another Redwood Page that is easy to adopt and use.  It has all the bells and whistles of the traditional cloud page and more. What I like about the Redwood Experience is that it is so easy to add and remove columns.  One can quickly scroll through the available columns and check or uncheck multiple columns at a time, and use the Control+F (Find) feature of the browser.   Another improvement is that the user can share the saved searches with others leveraging the filter save tool. The one has been on the wish list for many users.

Lot and Serial Numbers

The newly designed Lot and Serial Numbers Redwood page is also a great way to start the Redwood Experience with one caveat.  If you frequently jump to Lot/Serial transactions or on hand quantities from the manage Lot/Serial pages, this feature is yet not available as of 25A in Redwood Experience.

Review Item Supply and Demand

Another easy to transform Redwood page is the Item Supply and Demand page.  All functionality is the same, but Redwood Experience has additional columns such as supply/demand quantity in separate columns, Party, Work Order Description, Shipping Priority and Created by to give the user better information. User acceptance and adoption comes with time, so the sooner the transition begins, the more successful the implementations will go. Perficient can help you with your transition from traditional Fusion or legacy on-prem applications to the SCM Redwood experience. When you are ready to take the first step and you’re looking for some advice, contact us. Our strategy is to craft a path for our clients that will make the transition as seamless as possible to the user community and their support staff.

Contact Mehmet Erisen at Perficient for more introspection of this functionality, and how Perficient and Oracle Fusion Cloud can digitalize and modernize your ERP platform.

Even highly capable teams with solid plans can fall into the same ol’ traps. It’s not really our fault, human biases are hardwired into all of us. Awareness helps, but under pressure and tight deadlines, it’s tough to recognize these mental pitfalls in the moment.

Seven Common Human Bias Problem Areas

1. Optimism Bias – Wanting the best-case scenario but failing to plan for realistic outcomes.
2. Confirmation Bias – Seeking and remembering information that supports your original belief.
3. Anchoring Bias – Overly focusing on one piece of information (often first impressions) while ignoring others.
4. Sunk Cost Fallacy – Continuing investment because of past effort or money spent, even when it no longer makes sense.
5. Dunning-Kruger Effect – Overestimating your skills if you’re not an expert, or underestimating them if you are.
6. Groupthink – Aligning with the group to avoid conflict and seem agreeable.
7. Authority Bias – Going along with leadership’s opinion simply because of their position. This is also known as the HiPPO effect (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion).

The Result of Human Bias in Action

The seven biases listed above are just a few examples, but there are many more where our brains use shortcuts based on beliefs and past experiences instead of facts. In the rush to move fast, seem knowledgeable, and avoid problems, we often introduce new risks.

This might mean killing promising ideas too soon (confirmation bias), underestimating challenges (optimism), or spinning our wheels because we focus too much on sunk costs. Sometimes, the desire for consensus leads teams to follow the crowd or get swayed by less experienced voices.

I’ve been fascinated by human bias for years. Even knowing about these traps, I still catch myself falling into them. Just recently, I had to discuss optimism and sunk costs with my teams and clients.

How to Mitigate Human Bias in Projects

The biggest mistake is believing you are immune to bias. Our brains are wired to take these mental shortcuts to manage daily cognitive load. While it may seem futile to fight against it, the best choice is to build processes that protect us from our own instincts.

These safeguards fit well in Q2 of the Eisenhower Quadrants of Productivity because it is important but not urgent. Though we don’t often see it, Project Managers should include bias mitigation in their risk registers.

Here are other ways to reduce bias in your projects:

• Psychological Safety – Encourage open debate and let team members play devil’s advocate without fear…avoiding psychological barriers.
• Foster Diversity – Beyond nationality, race, and gender, include diversity in thinking styles, experiences, and expertise. Wild card team members can provide fresh perspectives.
• Track and Learn – Track and compare project estimates to actual outcomes. Use this data to identify patterns and improve over time.
• Rely on Process – Be intentional about setting up structured processes. Emerging AI tools can also help spot bias creeping into decisions.

Conclusion

Human biases hide in plain sight…even in teams that believe they’re being open-minded and careful. The best approach is to acknowledge this reality and commit to continuously challenging our own habits and instincts.

Perfection will never be achieved…we’re only human. But with awareness and intentional processes, we can get as close as possible. Bias is inevitable, but it can be managed and designed around.

……

If you are looking to aim for excellence despite ourselves, reach out to your Perficient account manager or use our contact form to begin a conversation.

Choosing a provider is one of the most personal decisions in healthcare. Yet, one in five consumers abandon healthcare organizations due to poor digital experiences.

In our recent webinar “Reimagining Find Care: How AI is Transforming the Digital Healthcare Experience,” healthcare leaders explored how AI-powered search, recommendations, and personalization are redefining the “Find Care” experience. Hosts Tara Becker, Perficient principal of healthcare and life sciences, and Mike Raley, Coveo SVP of marketing, detailed why this matters more than ever for health systems seeking to grow, compete, and deliver better outcomes.

Below, we break down the most important takeaways from the session:

1. Find Care Is the New Front Door—and It Must Feel Like Commerce

Healthcare is increasingly judged by the same standards as consumer brands like Door Dash and Expedia. Patients expect to search, compare, and book appointments as easily as they would a hotel or a ride share.

Key Insights:

• Digital access is a revenue driver. A seamless Find Care experience builds trust, drives patient acquisition, and reduces leakage.
• Friction leads to churn. 41% of consumers consider switching providers if the digital experience doesn’t meet expectations.
• Convenience drives action. Patients want to search by criteria that matters to them—location, gender, language, availability—and they want to book instantly.

2. AI-Powered Search and Personalization Are Game-Changers

AI relevance platforms like Coveo are transforming how patients find care. By unifying content, provider data, and real-time intent signals, AI enables hyper-personalized, intuitive experiences.

What AI Enables:

• Smart search that understands intent. Patients can type “family doctor near me” and instantly see relevant, bookable options.
• Dynamic filtering and recommendations. AI surfaces providers based on availability, insurance, and patient preferences.
• Generative answers grounded in trusted content. Patients get accurate, contextual responses—without hallucinations.

3. Strategy First: Align Digital Investments with Business Outcomes

Technology alone isn’t enough. A successful Find Care transformation starts with a clear strategy aligned to organizational goals.

Strategic Best Practices:

• Define your North Star. Establish KPIs that serve as success criteria for your new Find Care experience and prioritize service lines (e.g., cardiology, oncology, primary care) that drive revenue and impact.
• Map patient journeys. Understand your personas (e.g., caregivers, chronic patients), their preferences, expectations, journeys, and friction points. Design a seamless experience that removes obstacles and guides healthcare consumers to conversion.
• Audit and optimize content. Ensure provider profiles are robust and updated. Service line pages need to be relevant, actionable, and conversion-focused.

4. Build a Scalable, Interoperable Tech Stack

Find Care must integrate seamlessly with your existing systems—EHR, CRM, DXP, and more. Flexibility and interoperability are key.

Technical Considerations:

• Platform-agnostic design. Because our AI-powered Find Care solution is DXP-agnostic, it can be tailored for your organization and preferred martech stack, whether that includes Adobe, Sitecore, Acquia, Optimizely, WordPress, etc.
• Unified data layer. Connect provider directories, appointment systems, and content repositories so the most relevant information is delivered to users.
• HIPAA-compliant AI. Ensure patient data is secure while delivering personalized experiences.

5. Measure What Matters: From Clicks to Conversions

Digital success must be measured in business terms—not just traffic. Establish an outcomes dashboard that ties digital engagement to revenue, access, and health outcomes—and report it to the C-suite.

Metrics That Matter:

• Appointment conversions and completions
• Search abandonment and content gaps
• Patient satisfaction and Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Operational efficiency (e.g., reduced call volume, fewer no-shows)

6. Start Small, Scale Smart

You don’t need to do everything at once. Begin with priority, high-impact experiences and service lines, then iterate.

A Phased Approach:

• Phase 1: Define a patient-centric Find Care blueprint.
• Phase 2: Implement Coveo for a powerfully integrated, unified search experience.
• Phase 3: Launch online appointment scheduling for primary care and urgent care.
• Phase 4: Expand to specialty services and guided journeys.
• Phase 5: Layer in generative AI and conversational experiences.

Final Thought: Find Care Is Not Just a Feature—It’s a Strategic Imperative

In an increasingly competitive and crowded health care marketplace, Find Care is your digital front door, your commerce engine, and your trust builder. AI-powered experiences are no longer optional—they’re expected.

Healthcare leaders who invest in intelligent, patient-centric digital pathways will not only win market share—they’ll improve outcomes, reduce costs, and build lasting loyalty.

Ready to Reimagine Your Find Care Experience?

If you’re exploring how to modernize your digital front door, consider starting with a strategic assessment. Align your goals, audit your content, and evaluate your tech stack. The path to better outcomes starts with a smarter, simpler way to help patients find care.

We combine strategy, industry best practices, and technology expertise to deliver award-winning results for leading healthcare organizations.

• Business Transformation: Activate strategy for transformative outcomes and health experiences.
• Modernization: Maximize technology to drive health innovation, efficiency, and interoperability.
• Data + Analytics: Power enterprise agility and accelerate healthcare insights.
• Consumer Experience: Connect, ease, and elevate impactful health journeys.

Our approach to designing and implementing AI and machine learning (ML) solutions promotes secure and responsible adoption and ensures demonstrated and sustainable business value. We are one of a select group of Coveo Platinum partners helping brands design, architect, and implement modern intelligent search solutions that empower users to be more successful and deliver a winning customer experience.

Discover why we have been trusted by the 10 largest health systems and the 10 largest health insurers in the U.S.  Explore our healthcare expertise and contact us to learn more.

We’re thrilled to announce that Perficient’s “What If? So What?” podcast, hosted by Jim Hertzfeld, area vice president, strategy, has been honored with a Gold Award in the podcast series category at the prestigious 2025 Hermes Creative Awards. This recognition is a testament to our commitment to providing listeners with insightful, engaging, and actionable content. 

The Hermes Creative Awards is an international competition that celebrates excellence in traditional and emerging media. This year’s competition attracted entries from more than 30 countries and showcased an impressive range of creative excellence. The judging process is rigorous, and Gold Awards, which recognize work that exceeds industry standards, are presented to only about 20% of entrants. 

Jim Hertzfeld shared his excitement about the award. “I’m grateful to our guests for sharing their real world ideas, and I am honored that the Hermes Awards have recognized the creative way that we’ve delivered those ideas to our listeners.”   

The Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP), which administers the Hermes Creative Awards, celebrates the work of creative professionals while supporting the industry’s philanthropic spirit. Through this program, AMCP has contributed more than $325,000 to charitable organizations. 

For more information about the Hermes Creative Awards and to view the full list of winners, visit Hermes Awards Winners. 

Thank you for being part of our journey and stay tuned for even more episodes of “What If? So What?” 

Subscribe or stream episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

In today’s hyper-connected world, the Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming industries, from smart manufacturing to intelligent healthcare. However, the real potential of IoT is to connect continuously with enterprise systems, providing real-time insights and automating. This is where MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform comes in, a disturbance in integrating IoT units and API to create an ecosystem. This blog explains how MuleSoft sets the platform for connection and introduces a strong basis for IoT and API integration that goes beyond the specific dashboard to offer scalability, safety, and efficiency.

Objective

In this blog, I will show MuleSoft’s ability to integrate IoT devices with enterprise systems through API connectivity, focusing on real-time data processing. I will provide an example of how MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform connects to an MQTT broker and processes IoT device sensor data. The example highlights MuleSoft’s ability to handle IoT protocols like MQTT and transform data for insights.

How Does MuleSoft Facilitate IoT Integration?

The MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform is specific to the API connection, native protocol support, and a comprehensive integration structure to handle the complications of IoT integration. This is how MuleSoft IOT does the integration comfortably:

1. API Connectivity for Scalable Ecosystems

MuleSoft’s API strategy categorizes integrations into System, Process, and Experience APIs, allowing modular connections between IoT devices and enterprise systems. For example, in a smart city, System APIs gather data from traffic sensors and insights into a dashboard. This scalability avoids the chaos of point-to-point integrations, a fault in most visualization-focused tools.

2. Native IoT Protocol Support

IoT devices are based on protocols such as MQTT, AMQP, and CoAP, which MuleSoft supports. Without middleware, this enables direct communication between sensors and gateways. In a scenario, MuleSoft is better able to connect MQTT data from temperature sensors to a cloud platform such as Azure IoT Hub than other tools that require custom plugins.

3. Real-Time Processing and Automation

IoT requires real-time data processing, and MuleSoft’s runtime engine processes data streams in real time while supporting automation. For example, if a factory sensor picks up a fault, MuleSoft can invoke an API to notify maintenance teams and update systems. MuleSoft integrates visualization with actionable workflows.

4. Pre-Built Connectors for Setup

MuleSoft’s Anypoint Exchange provides connectors for IoT platforms (e.g., AWS IoT) and enterprise systems (e.g., Salesforce). In healthcare, connectors link patient wearables to EHRs, reducing development time. This plug-and-play approach beats custom integrations commonly required by other tools.

5. Centralized Management and Security

IoT devices manage sensitive information, and MuleSoft maintains security through API encryption and OAuth. Its Management Center provides a dashboard to track device health and data flows, offering centralized control that standalone dashboard applications cannot provide without additional infrastructure.

6. Hybrid and Scalable Deployments

MuleSoft’s hybrid model supports both on-premises and cloud environments, providing flexibility for IoT deployments. Its scalability handles growing networks, such as fleets of connected vehicles, making it a future-proof solution.

Building a Simple IoT Integration with MuleSoft

To demonstrate MuleSoft’s IoT integration, below I have created a simple flow in Anypoint Studio that connects to an MQTT Explorer, processes sensor data, and logs it to the dashboard integration. This flow uses a public MQTT Explorer to simulate IoT sensor data. The following are the steps for the Mule API flow:

Step 1: Setting Up the Mule Flow

In Anypoint Studio, create a new Mule project (e.g., ‘IoT-MQTT-Demo’). Design a flow with an MQTT Connector to connect to an explorer, a Transform Message component to process data, and a Logger to output results.

Step 2: Configuring the MQTT Connector

Configure the MQTT Connector properties. In General Settings, configure on a public broker (“tcp://test.mosquitto.org:1883”). Add the topic filter “iot/sensor/data” and select QoS “AT_MOST_ONCE”.

Step 3: Transforming the Data

Use DataWeave to parse the incoming JSON payload (e.g., ‘{“temperature”: 25.5 }’) and add a timestamp. The DataWeave code is:

“`

%dw 2.0

output application/json

{

sensor: “Temperature”,

value: read(payload, “application/json“).temperature default “”,

timestamp: now()

}

“`

Step 4: Connect to MQTT

                Click on the Connections and use the credentials as shown below to connect to the MQTT explorer:

 Step 5: Simulating IoT Data

Once the MQTT connects using an MQTT Explorer, publish a sample message ‘{“temperature”: 28 }’ to the topic ‘iot/sensor/data’, sending to the Mule flow as shown below.

Step 6: Logging the Output

Run the API and publish the message from the MQTT explorer, and the processed data will be logged into the console. Below shows an example log:

The above example highlights MuleSoft’s process for connecting IoT devices, processing data, and preparing it for visualization or automation.

Challenges in IoT Integration and MuleSoft’s Solutions

IoT integration faces challenges:

• Device and Protocol Diversity: IoT ecosystems involve different devices, such as sensors or gateways, using protocols like MQTT or HTTP with different data formats, such as JSON, XML, or binary.
• Data Volume and Velocity: IoT devices generate high volumes of real-time data, which requires efficient processing to avoid restrictions.
• Security and Authentication: IoT devices are unsafe and require secure communications like TLS or OAuth for device authentication.
• Data Transformation and Processing: IoT data sends binary data, which requires transformation from Binary to JSON and needs improvement before use.

The Future of IoT with MuleSoft

The future of IoT with MuleSoft is promising. MuleSoft uses the Anypoint Platform to solve critical integration issues. It integrates different IoT devices and protocols, such as MQTT, to provide data flow between ecosystems. It provides real-time data processing and analytics integration. Security is added with TLS and OAuth.

Conclusion

MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform reviews IoT and API integration by providing a scalable, secure, real-time solution for connecting devices to enterprise systems. As I showed in the example, MuleSoft processes MQTT-based IoT data and transforms it for useful insights without external scripts or sensors. By addressing challenges like data volume and security, MuleSoft provides a platform to build IoT ecosystems that provide automation and insights. As IoT keeps growing, MuleSoft’s API connectivity and native protocol support establish it as an innovation, with new smart city, healthcare, and more connectivity. Discover MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform to unlock the full potential of your IoT projects and set the stage for a connected future.

Considering migrating your contact center operations to the cloud? Transitioning from a legacy on-premise solution to a Cloud Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platform offers significant advantages, including greater flexibility, scalability, improved customer experience, and potential cost savings. However, the success of this transition depends heavily on selecting the right vendor and ensuring alignment with your unique business requirements.  

Here are five essential questions to ask any CCaaS vendor as you plan your migration: 

1. How will your solution integrate with our existing systems?

Integration capabilities are key and may impact the effectiveness of your new cloud solution. Ensure that the proposed CCaaS platform easily integrates with or provides viable alternatives to your current CRM, workforce management solutions, business intelligence/reporting tools, and legacy applications. Smooth integrations are vital for maintaining operational efficiency and enhancing the customer and employee experience. 

2. What degree of customization and flexibility do you offer?

Every contact center has agent processes and customer interaction workflows. Verify that your CCaaS vendor allows customization of critical features like interactive voice response (IVR), agent dashboards, and reporting tools (to name just a few). Flexibility in customization ensures that the platform supports your business goals and enhances operational efficiency without disrupting established workflows. Assess included AI-enabled features such as IVAs, real-time agent coaching, customer sentiment analysis, etc. 

 3. Can you demonstrate robust security measures and regulatory compliance?

Data security and compliance with regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, or PCI are likely critical requirements for your organization. This can be especially true in industries that deal with sensitive customer or patient information. Confirm the vendor’s commitment to comprehensive security protocols, including the ability to redact or mask Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Ask your vendor for clearly defined compliance certifications and if they conduct regular security audits. 

 4. What are your strategies for business continuity and disaster recovery?

Uninterrupted service is critical for contact centers, and it’s essential to understand how the CCaaS vendor handles service disruptions, outages, and disaster scenarios. Ask about their redundancy measures, geographic data center distribution, automatic failover procedures, and guarantees outlined in their Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

 5. What level of training and support do you provide during and after implementation?

It is impossible to overstate the importance of good change management and enablement. Transitioning to a cloud environment involves adapting to new technologies and processes. Determine the availability of the vendor’s training programs, materials, and support channels.  

 By proactively addressing these five key areas, your organization can significantly streamline your migration process and ensure long-term success in your new cloud-based environment. Selecting the right vendor based on these criteria will facilitate a smooth transition and empower your team to deliver exceptional customer experiences efficiently and reliably. 

Cloud is easy—until it isn’t.

Perficient’s Edge: A Strategic Cloud Partner Focused on Business Outcomes

Cloud adoption has skyrocketed. Multi-cloud. Hybrid cloud. AI-optimized workloads. Clients are moving fast, but many are moving blindly. The result? High costs, low returns, and strategies that stall before they scale.

That’s why this moment matters. Now, more than ever, your clients need a partner who brings more than just cloud expertise—they need business insight, strategic clarity, and real results.

In our latest We Are Perficient episode, we sat down with Kiran Dandu, Perficient’s Managing Director, to uncover exactly how we’re helping clients not just adopt cloud, but win with it.

If you’re in sales, this conversation is your cheat sheet for leading smarter cloud conversations with confidence.

Key #1: Start with Business Outcomes, Not Infrastructure

Kiran makes one thing clear from the start: “We don’t start with cloud. We start with what our clients want to achieve.”

At Perficient, cloud is a means to a business end. That’s why we begin every engagement by aligning cloud architecture with long-term business objectives—not just technical requirements.

Perficient’s Envision Framework: Aligning Cloud with Business Objectives

• Define their ideal outcomes

• Assess their existing workloads

• Select the right blend of public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud models

• Optimize performance and cost every step of the way

This outcome-first mindset isn’t just smarter—it’s what sets Perficient apart from traditional cloud vendors.

Key #2: AI in the Cloud – Delivering Millions in Savings Today

Forget the hype—AI is already transforming how we operate in the cloud. Kiran breaks down the four key areas where Perficient is integrating AI to drive real value:

• DevOps automation: AI accelerates code testing and deployment, reducing errors and speeding up time-to-market.

• Performance monitoring: Intelligent tools predict and prevent downtime before it happens.

• Cost optimization: AI identifies underused resources, helping clients cut waste and invest smarter.

• Security and compliance: With real-time threat detection and automated incident response, clients stay protected 24/7.

The result? A cloud strategy that’s not just scalable, but self-improving.

Key #3: Beyond Cloud Migration to Continuous Innovation

Moving to the cloud isn’t the end goal—it’s just the beginning.

Kiran emphasizes how Perficient’s global delivery model and agile methodology empower clients to not only migrate, but to evolve and innovate faster. Our teams help organizations:

• Integrate complex systems seamlessly

• Continuously improve infrastructure as business needs change

• Foster agility across every department—not just IT

And it’s not just theory. Our global consultants, including the growing talent across LATAM, are delivering on this promise every day.

“The success of our cloud group is really going to drive the success of the organization.”
— Kiran Dandu

Global Talent, Local Impact: The Power of a Diverse Strategic Cloud Partner

While visiting our offices in Medellín, Colombia, Kiran highlighted the value of diversity in driving cloud success:

“This reminds me of India in many ways—there’s talent, warmth, and incredible potential here.”

That’s why Perficient is investing in uniting its global cloud teams. The cross-cultural collaboration between North America, LATAM, Europe, and India isn’t just a feel-good story—it’s the engine behind our delivery speed, technical excellence, and customer success.

Key Takeaways for Sales: Lead Smarter Cloud Conversations

If your client is talking about the cloud—and trust us, they are—this interview is part of your toolkit.
You’ll walk away understanding:

• Why Perficient doesn’t just build cloud platforms—we build cloud strategies that deliver

• How AI and automation are creating real-time ROI for our clients

• What makes our global model the best-kept secret in cloud consulting

• And how to speak the language of business outcomes, not just cloud buzzwords

Watch the Full Interview: Deep Dive with Kiran Dandu

Want to hear directly from the source? Don’t miss Kiran’s full interview, packed with strategic insights that will elevate your next sales conversation.

Watch now and discover how Perficient is transforming cloud into a competitive advantage.

Choose Perficient: Your Client’s Strategic Cloud Partner for a Competitive Edge

Perficient is not just another cloud partner—we’re your client’s competitive edge. Let’s start leading the cloud conversation like it.

We are thrilled to announce that Perficient has been recognized in Forrester’s recent report, “The Connected Product Engineering Services Landscape, Q2 2025.” Forrester defines connected product engineering services providers as:  

“Firms that conceive, design, develop, launch, and scale new connected (or embodied) products that combine a physical product with digital applications to directly deliver new revenue for their clients.” 

We believe this acknowledgment highlights our commitment to driving innovation and delivering exceptional value to our clients through connected product engineering services. 

Access The Connected Product Engineering Services Landscape, Q2 2025 to find out more. 

Driving Connected Product Innovation Across Key Industries 

Whether it’s enabling a shift to product-as-a-service models, managing the ongoing support and monetization of field-deployed connected products, or improving workforce productivity through modern workplace technologies, we believe our strategic and management consulting expertise empowers organizations to navigate complexity and deliver meaningful outcomes. Notably, we’ve achieved success for clients in pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, manufacturing, and utilities industries when it comes to connected product innovation. Our clients rely on us not only for engineering and implementation, but also for the high-value strategic work that drives connected product success. 

What Are Connected Product Engineering Services? 

From Perficient’s perspective, Connected Product Engineering Services are a comprehensive suite of offerings designed to create products that blend physical components with digital applications. These services cover the entire life cycle of product development, including: 

Conception: Ideating new connected products that meet market needs and client requirements. 

Design: Crafting designs that integrate both physical and digital elements to ensure seamless functionality and user experience. 

Development: Building and programming the product, including hardware and software integration. 

Launch: Bringing the product to market, including strategies for deployment and initial user adoption. 

Scaling: Expanding the product’s reach and capabilities to grow user bases and evolving market demands. 

The goal of connected product engineering services is to deliver products that not only function effectively but also generate new revenue streams for clients by leveraging the synergy between physical and digital technologies. Perficient’s expertise in this area runs deep and provides clients with improved data strategy, monetization, and user interfaces that ultimately instill customer trust and loyalty. 

Common Disrupters and Challenges  

With the results from Perficient’s own research, we have found that as the connected product landscape evolves, so do the challenges and disruptions organizations must navigate. One disruptor we’re seeing in the marketplace is the growing customer expectation for seamless interoperability between connected products. Namely, 50% of commercial users responded that their connected products integrated only “somewhat well” with their existing systems and infrastructure. 

Buyers are increasingly making purchasing decisions based on how well new products integrate with their existing connected ecosystems. This shift is creating a strong push for increased collaboration and partnerships between OEMs to enable cross-product connectivity, such as linking garage door openers with vehicles or syncing household appliances with mobile devices. 

Another challenge is overcoming negative customer sentiment toward connected features. Some consumers view these features as unnecessary luxuries or express concerns about privacy and data security. Only 19% of consumers feel aware of data collection practices. In industrial settings like manufacturing and supply chain, connected products are sometimes perceived as intrusive or overly surveillance-focused. 

Additionally, there’s often a gap in user education. Many OEMs struggle to implement the right structures for ongoing support and training, making it difficult for customers to fully understand and leverage all available product features. Addressing these concerns through thoughtful design, transparent data practices, and strong customer enablement programs is essential for long-term success in the connected product space. 

Perficient’s Approach to Connected Product Engineering 

At Perficient, we take a comprehensive, end-to-end approach to connected product delivery, combining strategy, engineering, prototyping, and testing to bring innovative ideas to life. Especially when it comes to connected products, we understand that it starts with a strong data foundation. That’s why we prioritize helping clients define a robust data strategy from the start.  

When the foundation is solid, identifying how to utilize that data and create new revenue streams is the next step. Subscription models are becoming a key driver of connected product monetization, and we guide clients in building scalable ecosystems that support recurring revenue. Additionally, we recognize that customer experience is a critical differentiator, often enabled through companion apps that provide seamless access to product features and functionality. These strategic considerations—data, subscriptions, and experience—are essential components of a successful connected product strategy, and they remain central to how Perficient delivers value to our clients. 

Real and actionable insights drive our strategy. We’ve based our approach for connected product manufacturers on our own research – a study on the sentiments of consumers, commercial users, and manufacturers of connected products – which you can explore here. 

Learn more about our manufacturing industry expertise. 

The objective of this topic is to explore how the Agile methodology enhances an individual’s agility. This blog highlights how Agile fosters adaptability, responsiveness, and continuous improvement by understanding and implementing Agile principles, practices, and frameworks.

The goal is to demonstrate how adopting Agile practices enables teams and individuals to:

• Effectively manage change
• Increase collaboration
• Streamline decision-making
• Improve overall performance and flexibility in dynamic environments

This study showcases the transformative power of Agile in driving greater efficiency and faster response times in both project management and personal development.

Let’s Get Started

In both professional and personal development, asking structured “WH” questions helps in gaining clarity and understanding. Let’s apply that approach to explore the connection between Agile and agility.

What is Agile?

Agile is a mindset and a way of thinking, based on its core principles and manifesto. It emphasizes:

• Flexibility
• Collaboration
• Customer feedback
• Over-rigid planning and control.

Initially popularized in project management and software development, Agile supports iterative progress and continuous value delivery.

What is Agility?

Agility in individuals refers to the ability to adapt and respond to change effectively and efficiently. It means adjusting quickly to:

• Market conditions
• Customer needs
• Emerging technologies

Agility involves:

• Flexible processes
• Quick decision-making
• Embracing change and innovation

Key Principles of Agile

• Iterative Process – Work delivered in small, manageable cycles
• Collaboration – Strong communication across teams
• Flexibility & Adaptability – Open to change
• Customer Feedback – Frequent input from stakeholders
• Continuous Improvement – Learn and evolve continuously

Why Agile?

Every project brings daily challenges: scope changes, last-minute deliveries, unexpected blockers. Agile helps in mitigating these through:

• Faster Delivery – Short iterations mean quicker output and release cycles
• Improved Quality – Continuous testing, feedback, and refinements
• Customer-Centric Approach – Ongoing engagement ensures relevance
• Greater Flexibility – Agile teams quickly adapt to shifting priorities

When & Where to Apply Agile?

The answer is simple — Now and Everywhere.
Agile isn’t limited to a specific moment or industry. Whenever you experience challenges in:

• Project delivery
• Communication gaps
• Changing requirements

You can incorporate the Agile principles. Agile is valuable in both reactive and proactive problem-solving.

How to Implement Agile?

Applying Agile principles can be a game-changer for both individuals and teams. Here are practical steps that have shown proven results:

• Divide and do—Break down large features into smaller, manageable tasks. Each task should result in a complete, functional piece of work.
• Deliver Incrementally – Ensure that you deliver a working product or feature by the end of each iteration.
• Foster Communication – Encourage frequent collaboration within the team. Regular interactions build trust and increase transparency.
• Embrace Change – Be open to changing requirements. Agile values responsiveness to feedback, enabling better decision-making.
• Engage with Customers – Establish feedback loops with stakeholders to stay aligned with customer needs.

Agile Beyond Software

While Agile originated in software development, its principles can be applied across a range of industries:

• Marketing – Running campaigns with short feedback cycles
• Human Resources – Managing performance and recruitment adaptively
• Operations – Streamlining processes and boosting team responsiveness

Agile is more than a methodology; it’s a culture of continuous improvement that extends across all areas of work and life.

Conclusion

Adopting Agile is not just about following a process but embracing a mindset. When effectively implemented, Agile can significantly elevate an individual’s and team’s ability to:

• Respond to change
• Improve performance
• Enhance collaboration

Whether in software, marketing, HR, or personal development, Agile has the power to transform how we work and grow.