Upgrade from Adobe Analytics to Customer Journey Analytics

When upgrading from Adobe Analytics to Customer Journey Analytics, Adobe recommends a new implementation of the Experience Platform Web SDK, in conjunction with the Analytics source connector, as described in Recommended upgrade steps for most organizations.

Depending on several factors, such as timeline and resource constraints, the recommended upgrade steps might not be practical for your organization. In that case, use the Adobe Analytics to Customer Journey Analytics upgrade questionnaire to dynamically generate upgrade steps that are tailored to your organization’s unique circumstances.

NOTE
The upgrade steps described in this section are the recommended upgrade steps that any organization could use to successfully upgrade from Adobe Analytics to Customer Journey Analytics.
However, depending on several factors, such as timeline and resource constraints, the recommended upgrade steps might not be practical for your organization. In that case, use the Adobe Analytics to Customer Journey Analytics upgrade questionnaire to dynamically generate upgrade steps that are tailored to your organization’s unique circumstances.

The recommended process of upgrading from Adobe Analytics to Customer Journey Analytics is a new implementation of the Experience Platform Web SDK, which is the preferred data collection method for Customer Journey Analytics. In conjunction with the Web SDK, Adobe also recommends using the Analytics source connector to help with your transition to Customer Journey Analytics. Use the Analytics source connector to retain historical Adobe Analytics data and to perform side-by-side data comparison.

After fully transitioning to Customer Journey Analytics, the Analytics source connector can be turned off and the Experience Platform Web SDK can be used exclusively.

  1. Implement the Experience Platform Web SDK

    A new implementation of the Experience Platform Web SDK is the best way to collect data for Customer Journey Analytics. It provides the best foundation to get the most out of Customer Journey Analytics because it is the most performant, straightforward, and future-proof method for implementing Customer Journey Analytics.

    • Highly performant reporting and data availability because Adobe Experience Platform is built to power real-time personalization use cases

    • Consolidate implementation for Adobe Experience Cloud data collection between other Experience Cloud products (AJO, RTCDP, and so forth)

    • Not reliant on Adobe Analytics nomenclature (prop, eVar, event, and so forth)

  2. Set up the Adobe Analytics source connector

    To help with a smooth transition to using the Experience Platform Web SDK with Customer Journey Analytics, Adobe also recommends using the Adobe Analytics source connector. This allows you to retain historical data and view data from your existing Adobe Analytics implementation in Customer Journey Analytics, side by side with the data from your new Experience Platform Web SDK implementation.

    The Analytics source connector allows you to:

    • Bring your historical Adobe Analytics report suite data into Adobe Experience Platform and Customer Journey Analytics.

      You can keep the Analytics source connector running for as long as you need to retain the historical Adobe Analytics data.

    • View the data collected with your original Adobe Analytics implementation (either AppMeasurement, the Analytics Extension, or the Web SDK Extension) within Customer Journey Analytics. You can compare this data side-by-side with that of your new Web SDK implementation.

      You can keep the Analytics source connector running until you are familiar and comfortable with the differences.

    The Analytics source connector as a stand-alone implementation is not a recommended long-term method for using Customer Journey Analytics. This is because of high latency, cluttered and complex schemas, reliance on Adobe Analytics nomenclature (prop, eVar, and so forth), and difficulty in eventually moving from the source connector to the recommended Web SDK implementation.

The following steps outline the recommended process for upgrading from Adobe Analytics to Customer Journey Analytics.

Each step provides a high-level explanation of a more detailed process. Follow the link for each step and complete its associated tasks, then return to this page and continue to the next step in the process.

  1. Plan your XDM schema architecture.

  2. Create your desired custom schema in Adobe Experience Platform.

    Consider the following options when creating your schema:

  3. Create a dataset in Adobe Experience Platform.

  4. (Optional) If you use classification data in Adobe Analytics, you can add classification data to your dataset in Customer Journey Analytics.

    To do this, create a lookup dataset for each dimension containing classification data.

  5. For Adobe Analytics implementations using AppMeasurement or the Analytics extension (tags), create a datastream in Adobe Experience Platform.

    For Adobe Analytics implementations using the Web SDK, a datastream already exists.

  6. Add Adobe Experience Platform as a service to your datastream.

  7. (Optional) If you want to integrate Customer Journey Analytics with Adobe Journey Optimizer, use the personalization object in your implementation for use in Adobe Journey Optimizer.

  8. Expand the section that describes how you want to implement the Experience Platform Web SDK for your Customer Journey Analytics implementation, then complete the associated steps:

    accordion
    Manual implementation (JS file)
    1. Add alloy.js to your site.

    2. Populate an XDM object and send it to the datastream.

    accordion
    Tags
    1. Implement the loader tag on your site.

    2. Create a tag property and add the Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK extension.

    3. Add XDM data collection logic to your tag.

    accordion
    API
    1. Use the Edge Network API to send data to the desired datastream.
  9. Validate that your Web SDK implementation is sending data to a dataset.

  10. Create a connection in Customer Journey Analytics.

  11. (Optional) Tie web data with data from other channels, such as call center data.

    You accomplish this by adding additional datasets to your Customer Journey Analytics connection.

  12. Create a data view in Customer Journey Analytics.

  13. Validate that data is flowing into Customer Journey Analytics.

  14. (Optional) Bring historical data from Adobe Analytics using the Analytics source connector:

    note note
    NOTE
    Use the following steps if you have not previously created an Analytics source connector.
    If you are already using the Analytics source connector with Customer Journey Analytics, follow the steps in Move from the Analytics source connector to the Web SDK for Customer Journey Analytics.
    1. Create an XDM schema for the Analytics source connector.

    2. Create the Analytics source connector and map fields.

    3. Add the Analytics source connector dataset to the connection.

  15. Migrate projects and components.

  16. (Optional) If you use marketing channels in Adobe Analytics, you can create a marketing channel derived field in Customer Journey Analytics.

    Derived fields are an important aspect of the real-time reporting in Customer Journey Analytics. A derived field allows you to define (often complex) data manipulations on the fly, through a customizable rule builder.

    One use for derived fields is to define a derived Marketing Channel field that determines the proper marketing channel based on one or more conditions (for example URL parameter, page URL, page name).

    Use the marketing channels function template in derived fields to quickly create a derived field for marketing channels.

  17. Compare data from your old implementation to that from your new implementation and make sure you understand any differences and why they exist.

  18. Learn about feature support in Customer Journey Analytics. Most Adobe Analytics features are supported in Customer Journey Analytics, and many additional features are available in Customer Journey Analytics.

  19. Plan user onboarding.

    Like in Adobe Analytics, Analysis Workspace is the main user-facing tool in Customer Journey Analytics. However, there are some key differences when using Analysis Workspace in Customer Journey Analytics that users need to be aware of.

    You should give your users ample time (3 - 6 months) to become familiar with the key differences of Analysis Workspace in Customer Journey Analytics.

    For information about some of the key differences between Adobe Analytics and Customer Journey Analytics, see User Guide for Adobe Analytics users.

  20. Disable AppMeasurement data collection.

  21. Disable the Analytics source connector.

    With the Experience Platform Web SDK implementation, the Analytics source connector is needed only for historical Adobe Analytics data and to compare data from your original implementation with that of your new implementation.

    When you have enough historical data from your new implementation and you are familiar with the reporting differences in Customer Journey Analytics, you should turn off the Analytics source connector.

Dynamically generate upgrade steps for your organization

Depending on several factors, such as timeline and resource constraints, the recommended upgrade steps described in Understand the recommended upgrade steps might not be practical for your organization.

To dynamically generate upgrade steps for your organization’s unique circumstances:

  1. Complete the Adobe Analytics to Customer Journey Analytics upgrade questionnaire.

    After completing this questionnaire, step-by-step instructions are provided to you, outlining the optimal upgrade steps that are unique to your organization requirements. These are the upgrade steps that best align with your existing Adobe Analytics environment and your goals for Customer Journey Analytics.

  2. Follow the generated step-by-step instructions to upgrade to Customer Journey Analytics.

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