Act-On increases customer report usage by 60% via embedding ThoughtSpot Sage

Challenge

In the last decade, Act-On’s journey has been nothing short of a data-driven transformation, spearheaded by Act-On’s Principal Product Manager, Duessa Holscher and Syed Ahmed, SVP of Engineering, AI & Ops. Under their guidance, the product design and engineering team made it their mission to elevate product capabilities and ensure customers can wield data with confidence to make strategic decisions. However, this evolution was no leisurely stroll – Act-On was walking on a tightrope.

At the start of the process, customer data was scattered across different servers, making it difficult to extract insights. Without a 'single source of truth' for efficient data management, Act-On lacked the ability to provide customers with better KPI reporting. Undeterred, Act-On committed to revolutionizing its data infrastructure to drive product adoption.

Act-On is pushing the boundaries while bringing additional value to marketers. In order to accelerate the innovation, we had to break the silos and make a foundation for our data. Creating a Data Lake was essential in driving these objectives.

Syed AhmedSVP Engineering, AI & OpsAct-On

How was Act-On going to do this? Step one: build a modern data infrastructure. Act-On migrated all data to Snowflake, sitting on top of their AWS cloud environment. Next, Act-On began their search for an embedded BI tool – not only one that was customizable and easy to use, but that empowered customers to swiftly access data and pose critical questions about their marketing campaigns.

Previously, we had data really scattered across a lot of different servers for different customers. It wasn't being managed in a central or efficient way, and so we had a really hard time accessing the power of that data. The reporting that we did build into the application was pretty minimal—slow to load, and not customizable. This was a huge sore point for our customers.

Duessa HolscherPrincipal Product ManagerAct-On

Solution

Act-On wasn’t in search of just any embedded solution. They wanted a solution that would make the entire process of data exploration intuitive and engaging for its users. After an exhaustive search, Act-On chose ThoughtSpot Embedded. A key part of ThoughtSpot’s appeal was that it was powered by ThoughtSpot Sage and SpotIQ, an AI-Powered search experience that allows users to ask questions in natural language and get AI-assisted insights, visualizations, and recommendations.

The solution’s AI-Powered capabilities impressed the Act-On team Duessa, as did ThoughtSpot’s highly customizable Liveboards, which allow users to create interactive visualizations seamlessly without requiring much technical expertise.

I was excited about natural language search, and the AI-Powered search. The ability to just query and create charts and graphs and answers on the fly. It's so much more intuitive than most solutions and that blew us away. We felt our users would really be able to adapt to it and enjoy using it, instead of feeling intimidated by it.

Duessa HolscherPrincipal Product ManagerAct-On

Because ThoughtSpot seamlessly integrates with Snowflake, the initial deployment process, including the implementation of Act-On’s user authorization and security service, took just 30 days to complete. Post-deployment, Act-On users found themselves empowered to deep dive into their data with queries that run behind the scenes directly on Snowflake, stepping into a new era of data exploration.

We were easily able to embed and set up roles, privileges, and SSO to make it a seamless experience for our customers. Harnessing ThoughtSpot’s AI capabilities allowed us to surface insights, which unlocks the value in our data.

Syed AhmedSVP Engineering, AI & OpsAct-On

Impact

Act-On launched ThoughtSpot Sage Embed in September 2023. Within just 30 days, the company experienced over 60% higher report usage, far outpacing its old reporting.

When our sales team shares ThoughtSpot Sage with our customers it blows people away. It’s a great way to expose people to Search, especially in cases where people may feel a bit intimidated by data. This gives you answers fast. ThoughtSpot Sage makes something that could be complex, simple.

Duessa HolscherPrincipal Product ManagerAct-On

Powered by ThoughtSpot Embedded, Act-On’s reports went from static and limited to dynamic and powerful, allowing users to filter data, explore granular insights, compare performance, and boost both engagement and efficiency. “We had a standard email performance report, forms, and landing pages. We replaced those reports with Liveboards that are comparable and have more data on them. Now, we're giving customers more deliverability data, and instant insights into both top-level and more granular data with ease and flexibility.,” explained Duessa.

Crucially, the company also boosted its customer engagement. Advanced Analytics users are spending nearly twice as much time on page, as they are now able to accomplish more with their data, ask questions, and gain actionable insights into their marketing campaigns.

Customers were hungry for a solution like this. We’ve heard feedback like,‘I’m so excited I can dive into the root causes of trends I’m seeing from email responses and form submissions.’

Duessa HolscherPrincipal Product ManagerAct-On

Within the next 30 days, the team was able to recoup the cost of effort to embed through revenue gains in their Advanced Analytics offerings. But, that’s not all: Duessa and her team hope to drive even more revenue and page visits by leveraging ThoughtSpot to create new analytical functionalities and develop new sales and marketing use cases, ultimately putting the power of analytics in customers' hands.

What's next

Having laid the groundwork for a robust data infrastructure, now with the deployment of ThoughtSpot Embedded, Act-On is offering advanced analytics to their customers so they can go straight from insight to action. The team is planning to expand the data available in Act-On Analytics through 2024 to further help Act-On’s customers build smart, effective marketing programs and accelerate business growth.