Adobe announced that DTM is being sunset (effective from January 2021) to pave their way for the next-gen tag management system, Adobe Launch. While Launch offers great features, upgrading from DTM requires some planning and execution.
We helped many clients, big and small, to migrate to Launch. During these migrations, we have come up with and compiled good practices on top of Adobe’s recommendations. Before we get into those details, let us look at the reasons to switch to Adobe Launch and what benefits the platform will offer to its users.
Why Migrate to Adobe Launch?
One of the major reasons to migrate to Adobe Launch is – The Adobe DTM is being sunset. Here’s a breakdown of DTM deadlines:
- July 9, 2019 (Already Passed): Options to create new DTM properties no longer available
- October 14, 2020 (6 Months to Go): All DTM properties become read-only
- April 13, 2021 (1 Year to Go): DTM Servers go to sleep
No need to be panic, planning is key.
Benefits of Migrating to Adobe Launch
While the eventual retirement of DTM has forced organizations not to evaluate whether they wish to migrate to Adobe Launch, but rather come up with a detailed roadmap that can help them with the migration process. Instead of waiting until the end of 2020, it’s better to leverage the benefits of the following benefits now.
- Single Page Application (SPA) Support
- Multiple Event Type Support
- 3rd Party Extension Marketplace
- Centralized Rights Management
- Automated Tag Deployment
- Robust approval workflows and many more
The Migration: 4-Step Simple Process
Now that when you know the benefits, you must be wondering what does it take to migrate to Adobe Launch?
Well, some of the implementations are straightforward and can be implemented with the automated tools that Adobe provides. However, not all migrations are that simple and a few of them need proper planning and execution. For such migrations, based on our experience with other clients, we have put together below a 4-step process that you can follow for a smooth and flawless migration.
At NextRow Digital, we, taking into consideration the diverse needs of organizations, have helped several businesses to migrate to Adobe Launch using the same tips and had great success with other clients.
Step 1: Establish a Baseline
To achieve the successful migration of tags from one system to another, it is important to keep an eye on the analytics tracking status. And for that, you will need to create a baseline or a catalog for your reference and decide on the time you need to complete the process.
Make sure to follow a comprehensive approach to scan your website and take the backup of the highly valuable and sensitive data of all present technologies.
Step 2: Design a Strategy
The second phase includes analyzing your system’s requirements and designing a strategy that helps you evaluate the tags you need to change during the migration process. Although there can be innumerable ways to deploy the tags, you should proceed ahead with a roadmap that would be beneficial for you even in the future as well.
Include a testing strategy at the starting of the implementation phase to ensure that things are being deployed corrected at every step. Your QA testing can begin with manual testing, however, always remember that manual testing is time-consuming and prone to human errors. On the other hand, automation testing can deliver accurate results in less time. The choice is yours!
Step 3: Begin the Migration
After establishing the baseline and designing the foolproof strategy, you can start with the migration process. Let’s have a look at the two following approaches you can consider following for migration:
Lift and Shift
If you don’t have anything to change, you can adopt a Lift and Shift approach for a relatively simple implementation. In this approach, you just need to click the Upgrade to Launch button in DTM and that’s it! (Sometimes it may not be that simple, we can audit your instance and suggest you the best options).
Start Fresh
If you wish to start the implementation from scratch, you can go ahead with a Start Fresh approach. Ideal for large and complex implementation, this approach gives you full control over the functions.
Though it may take your several months, but if you work with full dedication, the end results will be much better.
Step 4: Test Everything!
Last but not the least, test everything!
Be careful about this step, and don’t hesitate of going the extra mile to get everything tested in detail. If you’re unsure about this process, take help from QA experts and ask them to assist you to ensure that the tags are successfully migrated from DTM to Adobe Launch.
Once the testing process is completed, you can have a sigh of relief and bask in the success of completing a great job.
The Bottom Line
These are the high-level steps, which should help you to put detailed processes around these steps. We understand you may not have enough bandwidth to migrate or enough expertise to complete the migration. No worries at all. We are here to help.
NextRow Digital is the new-age digital agency that delivers the “best of both worlds” of a digital agency and a system integrator to clients looking to boost their business growth and drive higher ROI through digital transformation. We are a born-in-digital company that uniquely combines the power of technology, analytics (Adobe Analytics), creative and content for digital transformation.
If you need any help with Adobe Launch migration or maintenance project, you can email to: adobe@nextrow.com or call +1-847-592-2920.
