If you're looking for a hybrid customer data platform (CDP) or have your data stored in a Snowflake data warehouse and want to power your marketing use cases, then you’ve likely heard of Simon Data. But is a hybrid CDP the best choice, or are there better alternatives?
This article will cover:
- What is Simon Data?
- How does Simon Data work?
- Pros and cons of Simon Data
- What are the alternatives to Simon Data?
What is Simon Data?
Simon Data is a fully managed CDP that uses Snowflake and offers CDP solutions to help marketers power their personalized marketing campaigns. The platform was founded in 2013 by data scientists Jason Davis and Matt Walker and aimed to simplify enterprise CDP for marketing teams. Since then, it's developed into a fully managed CDP and continues expanding its feature base to support Snowflake customers.
How Does Simon Data Work?
As a CDP, Simon Data offers the standard features you expect, such as data collection, identity resolution, audience management, and data activation.
- Data Collection: Simon Data provides the ability to collect and ingest batch and real-time data to collect data from sources such as databases, APIs, and Webhooks via traditional ETL pipelines.
- Data Storage: The data you store in Simon Data is held within Snowflake. It can either be replicated from your warehouse and stored in a Snowflake instance managed by Simon Data, or Simon Data can connect to your existing Snowflake deployment.
- Identity Resolution: Using a unique identifier (simon_id), you can merge, update, and create profiles based on customer behavioral events.
- Audience Management: Simon Data allows you to define your customers using logical conditions. You can send 1:1 personalized messages or more complex flows using their journey builder.
- Activation: Real-time capabilities fall into two products: Audience API and Real-Time Content, which offer ways to pull data into external systems when needed. Simon Data provides basic Reverse ETL capabilities, sending data from Snowflake to a selection of downstream destinations.
Pros and Cons of Simon Data
Here is a quick summary of Simon Data's pros and cons to help you decide if it’s right for you.
Pros
Stitch allows you to manage additional data sources via ETL pipelines so you can ingest as much of your data as possible. You can also use their built-in email service (ESP) via Simon Mail, allowing you to send emails directly from Simon Data as part of a flow or journey. And you can get AI predictions from five out-of-the-box models.
Cons
The identity rules are predetermined and not extensive. They require you to write SQL, and if you want to update the underlying logic, you have to contact an account manager. Another potential drawback is that part of their identity resolution solution relies on a third party, which introduces risk and potential security concerns. Additionally, certain tasks, like deleting a field in a dataset or updating identity resolution logic, require an account manager, which can introduce long delays.
What are the Alternatives to Simon Data?
Hightouch
Hightouch is a composable CDP that uses your existing data investment by sitting on top of any warehouse, not just Snowflake, allowing you to sync any of your customer data to your downstream tools to power your business use cases. The platform lets you customize your identity resolution algorithms and stores your identity graph within your warehouse. Getting up and running takes weeks, even days, unlike traditional CDPs, which can take months.
ActionIQ
ActionIQ is a hybrid CDP that collects and unifies your customer data so you can power your marketing use cases by sending your data to your downstream tools. The platform handles customer data to help customize interactions across multiple channels and includes machine learning and AI capabilities to automate segmentation, product recommendations, and churn reduction tasks.
RudderStack
RudderStack is customer data infrastructure (CDI) that offers open-source event tracking solutions to collect behavioral data, manage ETL pipelines, and segment audiences. Created as a cost-effective alternative to Segment, it has evolved into a warehouse-first CDP aimed at technical users for managing and activating customer data within data warehouses. Unlike traditional CDPs, RudderStack prioritizes customer data infrastructure over marketing-friendly features.
Conclusion
Simon Data may be a good option if you want a Snowflake CDP and want to use that data in your downstream tools. However, if you have a non-Snowflake warehouse, your data must be copied into Simon Data, which will cause you to pay twice for data storage.
However, a composable CDP like Hightouch connects to any data warehouse, not just Snowflake, without copying any data and assists you in syncing that data into your downstream tools, regardless of the data warehouse you use. Hightouch is flexible with your data schemas, preventing you from forcing your data into a rigid schema. You also get a full self-service solution without an account manager in sight. If you're interested in learning more, book a demo with one of our solution engineers.
