Learn how architecting a Single Source of Truth for your regulated content can slash development costs by 30%, mitigate compliance risks, and accelerate time-to-market. I share practical steps to implement componentized content and build a compelling ROI business case.
Ever felt like your MarTech stack is held together with duct tape and hope? Yeah, me too.
You know the drill – launching a new campaign turns into this complex dance of integrating tools, syncing data, and getting website changes pushed live. And it’s never smooth, is it? Something always breaks at the worst possible moment. What should take days stretches into weeks (sometimes months!), and before you know it, everyone’s pointing fingers – marketing blames IT, IT blames the agencies, and round and round we go. Sound familiar?
Trust me, you’re not alone in this mess. I’ve been there.
Marketing Operations has evolved way beyond just managing email lists and pulling basic reports. These days, it’s the backbone responsible for orchestrating increasingly complex tech ecosystems to deliver those seamless, personalized customer experiences everyone’s after. The pressure is intense – faster, smarter, more efficient! Meanwhile, our traditional siloed operational models are cracking under the strain. (Let’s be honest, most marketing leaders I talk to feel completely overwhelmed by their MarTech stack’s complexity and cost, constantly wondering if they’re actually getting value or just managing chaos.)
But what if there was a better way? What if we could bring some order to this chaos?
There is. Enter DevOps thinking.
I know, I know – another buzzword. But stick with me here. Borrowed from software development, DevOps isn’t about specific tools; it’s a philosophy that emphasizes collaboration, automation, continuous measurement, and rapid iteration. When we apply this mindset to Marketing Ops (some folks call it “MarDev” or “Marketing DevOps”), we get a powerful framework for breaking down those silos, streamlining convoluted workflows, and dramatically improving both reliability and speed.
This isn’t just theory, by the way. I’ve seen it work firsthand.
The frustration you’re feeling isn’t in your head. It comes from fundamental mismatches between what modern marketing demands and how we’ve structured operations.
The marketing technology landscape has absolutely exploded. Industry analysts consistently report that the average enterprise now juggles over 90 different marketing tools. Ninety! But here’s the kicker – the real challenge isn’t even the number of tools, it’s that less than 30% of these tools are effectively integrated.
What does that mean in practice? Data silos. Fragmented customer views. Marketing Ops teams stuck in endless cycles of manual data wrangling between disconnected systems. I’ve watched talented marketing professionals spend hours – sometimes days – just copying and pasting data between systems. It’s mind-numbing, error-prone work that creates massive bottlenecks for campaign execution and makes reliable reporting nearly impossible.
Look, marketing has to operate at the speed of opportunity. When a competitor makes a move or a market trend emerges, you need to respond quickly – days, not months.
But here’s where things fall apart: those campaigns often depend on technical changes. New landing pages. Website modifications. Tracking pixel implementations. Backend integrations. And these technical tasks typically fall into traditional IT or development queues with release cycles measured in weeks or months.
What seems like a “simple” marketing request – like adding a field to a form – often requires navigating complex backend systems, undergoing security reviews, and competing for resources against other IT priorities. I had a client once who waited three weeks just to get a tracking pixel added to their website. Three weeks! That mismatch in expected timelines creates constant friction and frustration.
The disconnect isn’t just about timelines; it’s deeply cultural.
Marketing Ops, core IT, software developers, data analysts, sales operations, and external agencies often operate in distinct silos with different priorities, metrics, and even vocabularies. I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve sat in where marketers and developers seemed to be speaking entirely different languages.
This lack of shared goals and mutual understanding leads to miscommunication, duplicated efforts, wasted resources, and the inevitable blame game when campaigns underperform or technical issues arise.
I hear variations of this all the time: “Why does it take IT three weeks just to add a simple tracking pixel to the website?” The answer nearly always lies buried in those organizational silos and misaligned processes.
So how do we fix this mess? DevOps offers principles perfectly suited to address these Marketing Ops challenges. It’s about fundamentally changing how teams work together, with technology supporting that change.
At its heart, DevOps is a cultural shift. Why does this matter so much? Because no amount of fancy tech can fix misaligned goals or poor communication.
Implementing MarDev successfully requires establishing shared objectives focused on business outcomes (improving customer experience, increasing lead quality, accelerating revenue) rather than functional outputs (emails sent, code deployed).
It means creating cross-functional teams or pods where Marketing Ops specialists, developers, analysts, and agency partners work together from campaign inception through execution and analysis.
In practice, this looks like shared daily stand-ups, integrated planning sessions using tools like Jira or Asana, and relying on common communication platforms (Slack or Teams) for real-time interaction, instead of endless email chains.
I like to think of it like a Formula 1 pit crew – the tire changers, fuelers, and engineers all have distinct specialties, but they operate in perfect synchronization toward a single goal: getting that car back on track in seconds. That’s the level of collaboration we’re aiming for.
DevOps heavily emphasizes automating repetitive tasks to increase speed, reduce errors, and free up human talent for higher-value work.
Let’s be real – Marketing Ops is drowning in manual processes. Copying data between systems. Manually building campaign workflows. Resizing images. Generating reports. All this leads to team burnout, costly mistakes, and an inability to scale operations effectively.
MarDev seeks to automate aggressively. Key areas include:
The impact can be huge. In my experience, automating repetitive campaign setup and execution tasks can reduce time required by 40-60%. This frees up your skilled marketers to focus on strategy, creativity, and analysis – you know, the stuff they were actually hired to do!
You can’t improve what you can’t measure. DevOps brings rigorous focus on monitoring system health and performance – something Marketing Ops desperately needs.
It’s alarming how many marketing teams meticulously track campaign opens and clicks but have zero visibility into whether their underlying data integrations are actually working, or if their website forms are reliably capturing leads.
MarDev involves implementing monitoring for key MarTech integrations (tracking API uptime, data sync success/failure rates), establishing robust campaign performance tracking beyond surface-level metrics, and building infrastructure for reliable A/B testing.
Why is this continuous vigilance important? Because it allows teams to proactively identify technical issues before they derail campaigns or corrupt data. Nothing’s worse than discovering a broken API connection was silently failing for weeks, sending your carefully crafted leads into the digital void.
DevOps culture embraces continuous learning and improvement. For Marketing Ops, this means conducting blameless post-campaign retrospectives to analyze what worked, what didn’t, and why.
It also means prioritizing maintaining shared, accessible documentation – internal wikis detailing key processes, data dictionaries defining metrics and fields, documented integration flows – so knowledge isn’t trapped in one person’s head. (We’ve all had that moment of panic when the “only person who knows how this works” goes on vacation!)
Crucially, MarDev encourages an iterative approach to campaign development, similar to Agile software development. Instead of aiming for the “perfect” big-bang launch, focus on launching Minimum Viable Campaigns quickly, gathering real-world data, and rapidly refining based on performance.
I’ll admit, this embrace of Agile Marketing principles often clashes with traditional, waterfall-style campaign planning. Shifting to a more iterative mindset can be challenging and requires buy-in from leadership. But trust me – the benefits in terms of speed, adaptability, and reduced risk are substantial.
Let’s get practical. What does adopting DevOps principles actually look like in Marketing Ops?
Imagine planning campaigns in focused sprints or using visual Kanban boards for workflow transparency.
By involving developers early to scope technical requirements, using version control systems like Git to manage landing page code or email templates, and automating deployment processes, teams can dramatically accelerate campaign launches.
I worked with a financial services company that cut their campaign launch time from three weeks to three days by adopting these principles. The result is faster time-to-market, allowing marketing to capitalize on opportunities quickly, and increased agility to react to market changes or performance data.
Broken integrations and bad data are the absolute bane of Marketing Ops.
Consider the impact: a broken sync between your CRM and Marketing Automation platform might delay hot leads reaching sales reps by 24 hours. In competitive markets, that’s a lifetime – and directly translates to lost revenue.
MarDev tackles this head-on by implementing automated testing for API connections, defining and enforcing data validation rules within integrations, and establishing clear data governance policies managed collaboratively between Marketing Ops, data teams, and IT.
The payoff? Significantly improved data quality, more reliable reporting, far less manual data cleaning, and analytics you can actually base decisions on. One client told me they reduced data-related emergencies by over 70% after implementing these practices. That’s a lot of nights and weekends saved!
True personalization relies on accurate, integrated data and the ability to act on it quickly.
MarDev enables this by ensuring data flows reliably between systems. By leveraging integrated customer data and potentially connecting it to automated decision engines or personalization platforms via robust APIs, teams can deliver far more relevant content, offers, and experiences across multiple channels.
These complex systems are managed and monitored using DevOps practices to ensure reliability. The result is an improved customer experience and demonstrably higher conversion rates.
Things inevitably break. The difference MarDev makes is in detection and response speed.
This means setting up automated alerts for critical failures – a spike in 404 errors on key landing pages, a failed data sync job, or a sudden drop in conversion metrics. It also involves establishing clear incident response protocols outlining steps and responsibilities for both Marketing Ops and technical teams.
This proactive approach minimizes the negative impact of technical issues on marketing performance, budget, and customer experience.
Imagine the shift for your Marketing Ops team – instead of being helpless victims of broken tech discovered days later, they feel empowered, equipped with the monitoring to identify issues quickly and the collaborative processes to resolve them rapidly. That’s a game-changer for morale alone!
Transforming Marketing Ops doesn’t happen overnight. It requires a deliberate, phased approach focused on building momentum and demonstrating value.
Don’t try to boil the ocean. Don’t attempt a massive, organization-wide overhaul immediately.
The key is to pick one significant, visible pain point – perhaps the notoriously slow process for deploying new landing pages, or the unreliable data feeding your lead scoring model – and apply DevOps principles to solve it as a focused pilot project.
Success here builds credibility and provides a tangible case study for broader adoption. People need to see results before they fully buy in.
Break down those silos brick by brick.
Initiate regular, even informal, meetings between Marketing Ops and the IT or developer teams they depend on. I’ve seen coffee chats work wonders! Create shared dashboards displaying metrics relevant to both teams (campaign performance alongside website uptime or API success rates).
Often, the challenge isn’t technical, but relational. I constantly hear, “How do I get our developers to care about marketing deadlines?” The answer lies in fostering empathy, focusing on shared business goals, and clearly demonstrating the business impact of their work on marketing initiatives.
In other words: make friends with your developers! Buy them lunch. Learn about their challenges. Help them understand yours.
While culture is primary, tools are essential enablers.
Evaluate and invest strategically in tools that support MarDev goals: iPaaS platforms for integration, workflow automation tools, monitoring systems, and robust collaboration platforms.
Equally important is investing in upskilling your Marketing Ops team. This includes training on basic technical concepts (APIs, data structures), improving data literacy, and understanding agile methodologies. Your team doesn’t need to become developers, but they do need to speak enough of the language to collaborate effectively.
Lasting change requires top-down support.
Frame the shift to MarDev not merely as a technical upgrade or an internal process change, but as a strategic initiative essential for improving marketing agility, operational efficiency, campaign effectiveness, and ultimately, driving measurable ROI.
Use the results and learnings from your pilot projects to build a compelling business case for broader investment and organizational change. Numbers talk!
The complexity of modern marketing isn’t going away. If anything, it’s accelerating.
Embracing DevOps principles within Marketing Operations is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s rapidly becoming a competitive necessity. It provides the framework to manage MarTech chaos, accelerate campaign velocity, improve data reliability, and ultimately deliver better customer experiences.
MarDev represents a fundamental shift away from siloed functions towards integrated, cross-functional teams aligned around shared business objectives.
It’s about building bridges between marketing strategy, creative execution, and the underlying technology infrastructure, enabling smoother workflows and faster feedback loops. It’s about working smarter, not harder.
The journey starts with acknowledging the current friction points and committing to a new way of working.
Whether it’s initiating that first conversation with IT, identifying a pilot project for automation, or investing in training, the time to start building a more agile, automated, and collaborative Marketing Operations function is now.
The teams that successfully bridge the gap between campaigns and code will be the ones leading the market tomorrow. Will yours be one of them?
Let’s be honestโLLMs are everywhere right now. The hype train has left the station, and every executive I meet is scrambling to figure out how these models can transform their customer service, content creation, data analysis… you name it. The potential seems boundless.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: beneath all that promise lurks a mess of compliance, security, and ethical landmines just waiting to blow up in your face. I’ve spent the last decade watching organizations rush into new tech only to get hammered with fines, PR disasters, and operational nightmares when they inevitably screw up the implementation.
Remember when we thought we could just throw chatbots on our websites without proper oversight? Yeah, those were simpler times.
The real question isn’t can you deploy LLMsโit’s should you? And if so, how do you avoid becoming tomorrow’s cautionary headline about AI gone wrong? The answer lies in what I call AI Guardrailsโand no, this isn’t just another buzzword to slap on your LinkedIn profile.
Look, I’m not here to dampen your AI dreams. I’m here because I’ve seen what happens when organizations deploy powerful technology without proper controls. It’s not pretty. And it’s completely avoidable.
If you think you’re deploying AI in a regulatory vacuum, I’ve got some waterfront property in Arizona to sell you. The reality? You’re walking a tightrope, and the safety net below is getting thinner by the day.
GDPR was just the beginning, folks. The regulatory landscape has evolved faster than most compliance teams can keep up with:
EU AI Act: This beast categorizes AI systems based on risk and slaps high-risk applications (hiring, credit scoring, critical infrastructure) with requirements so stringent they’ll make your head spin. Non-compliance? Prepare for fines that’ll make your CFO weep.
GDPR & Data Privacy: Still very much alive and kicking. Your shiny new LLM better have legal grounds for processing personal data, minimize what it touches, and stick to stated purposes only. No exceptions.
NIST AI Risk Management Framework: Not technically a regulation, but ignore it at your peril. I’ve watched countless organizations scramble to retroactively apply these principles after the fact. Spoiler alert: it’s WAY harder than baking them in from the start.
Industry-Specific Mandates: The kicker? Your specific industry probably has its own special regulatory sauce. Healthcare? HIPAA will eat your lunch if your LLM mishandles PHI. Financial services? Good luck navigating that maze of regulations. PropTech? SOC 2 compliance isn’t optional if you want enterprise clients to even look at you.
I had a client last yearโlet’s call them OptimisticTechโwho deployed an LLM for customer service without proper PII controls. Six months and one data leak later, they’re facing fines and a customer exodus. Don’t be OptimisticTech.
“It won’t happen to us” is the battle cry of the unprepared. Trust me, the stakes are higher than you think:
Financial Penalties: We’re not talking slaps on the wrist. GDPR violations can cost up to 4% of global annual revenue. I watched a mid-size fintech burn $2.3 million in fines and remediation costs from a single AI compliance failure.
Reputational Damage: Quickโname a company whose AI made a hugely biased decision that hit the news. That company is STILL dealing with the fallout years later. Some wounds don’t heal, especially in the public eye.
Operational Setbacks: Nothing kills innovation momentum like having to pull your flagship AI product from the market because your compliance team finally caught up with what you built. I’ve seen entire digital transformation initiatives derailed this way.
The Silicon Valley mantra that worked for social media apps? COMPLETELY incompatible with enterprise AI. Full stop.
Pro tip: The cost of retrofitting compliance into an AI system already embedded in your business processes is roughly 5-10x more expensive than building it right the first time. I learned this one the hard way with a client who’s still untangling their non-compliant AI mess two years later.
Alright, so I’ve probably scared you sufficiently. But fear notโthis is where guardrails come in. And no, I don’t mean those superficial content filters the vendors are trying to sell you.
Real guardrails are a multi-layered systemโthink defense in depth, not a single magic bullet. They include:
The goal isn’t perfection (doesn’t exist in this space). The goal is responsible, defensible deployment where you can confidently say, “We took reasonable measures to prevent harm.” Trust me, that statement alone is worth gold when things inevitably go sideways.
After implementing these systems across dozens of organizations, here’s what I consider the non-negotiable technical guardrails:
Input Validation & Sanitization: Your first line of defense against those sneaky prompt injection attacks. I once watched a banking chatbot get completely hijacked because someone figured out the right prompt to bypass its filters. Not. Pretty.
Topic Control: Keep your LLM in its lane! A customer service bot has NO business giving medical advice, political opinions, or financial guidance unless that’s explicitly its purpose.
PII Redaction & Data Masking: For the love of all things holy, don’t let sensitive data hit your LLM unless absolutely necessary. This one simple guardrail would have prevented about 60% of the AI disasters I’ve helped clean up.
Output Filtering & Content Moderation: Just because your LLM can generate certain responses doesn’t mean it should. Toxic, biased, harmful content needs to be caught before it reaches humans.
Bias Detection & Fairness Checks: I know, I knowโ”but our model is unbiased!” Spoiler: it’s not. None of them are. The question is whether you’re monitoring and mitigating that bias.
Factual Grounding: AKA the “stop making stuff up” guardrail. LLMs are MAGNIFICENT bullshitters. They’ll confidently tell your customers completely fictional information unless you anchor them to reality.
Security Scanning: That LLM-generated code better get scanned before execution. I’ve seen LLMs suggest vulnerable code that would make a security professional’s hair fall out.
I get itโall of this sounds restrictive. But here’s the paradox I’ve observed over and over: the organizations with the strongest guardrails are actually the ones innovating FASTER with AI.
Why? Because guardrails build trust. And trustโfrom your users, your regulators, your boardโis the currency that lets you experiment and deploy at scale. Without it, you’re constantly fighting uphill battles for every new AI use case.
Enough theory. Let’s get practical. Here’s how real organizations are implementing these guardrails:
Privacy regulations will eat you alive if you get this wrong. Here’s what works:
The Pipeline Approach: First, use Named Entity Recognition to spot the obvious PII, then pattern matching for structured data, and finally secure masking protocols to redact before hitting the LLM.
Think of it this way: imagine your LLM as that friend who can’t keep a secret. Would you tell them sensitive information? Nope. You’d redact it first.
The Gotchas: False negativesโmissing PIIโare your biggest enemy here. In one healthcare implementation, we found basic NER was missing roughly 12% of patient identifiers. Unacceptable. We had to layer three different approaches to get to 99.9% accuracy. And yes, even that 0.1% keeps me up at night.
I know what you’re thinking: “Our data isn’t biased.” I’ve literally never encountered an organization where this was true. Not once in 15+ years.
Regular Bias Audits: Systematically testing your LLM across demographic groups isn’t political correctnessโit’s risk management. Period.
The Perpetual Challenge: You can’t “solve” bias once and forget about it. One client’s perfectly balanced model started showing gender bias three months post-deployment because of drift in their user queries. Continuous monitoring caught it before it became a PR crisis.
The hallucination problem is REAL, people. I’ve watched demo after demo derailed when the LLM confidently made up product features or company policies that don’t exist.
RAG to the Rescue: Instead of letting your LLM wing it based on its training data, connect it to YOUR sources of truthโproduct docs, knowledge bases, approved content.
How It Actually Works: User asks a question โ System retrieves relevant documents from your trusted sources โ LLM gets both the question AND these documents โ LLM answers based ONLY on what you’ve provided.
The Game-Changer: This approach reduces hallucinations dramatically while ensuring answers stay consistent with your approved messaging. One financial services client saw their accuracy rate jump from 67% to 94% after implementing RAG. That’s the difference between “useless” and “transformative.”
The security challenges with LLMs are evolving WEEKLY. What worked six months ago is insufficient today.
From my security trenches: Implement aggressive input sanitization. Scan outputs for malicious content. Use rate limiting and access controls like your business depends on itโbecause it does.
I recently helped a client discover that their “secure” LLM implementation was vulnerable to a clever prompt injection attack that could have extracted customer data. Their vendor had assured them this was impossible. Lesson: Trust, but verify. ALWAYS.
Regulators are increasingly demanding visibility into how AI decisions are made. Are you ready?
Practical Approaches: Detailed logging is non-negotiable. Document EVERYTHINGโinputs, outputs, guardrail interventions. Create comprehensive Model Cards detailing capabilities, limitations, and known issues.
One manufacturing client avoided a massive regulatory headache because they could produce audit logs showing exactly which data their LLM had accessed when making a contested recommendation. Their competitor, using the same underlying technology but without proper logging, wasn’t so lucky.
Here’s where most organizations mess up: treating AI guardrails as a purely technical problem. It’s not.
The most successful implementations I’ve seen share one thing: cross-functional collaboration from DAY ONE.
Your legal team’s interpretation of regulations needs to inform your compliance team’s standards, which drive your risk management approach, which shapes your security controls, which define your AI team’s technical implementation.
One client tried having their AI team build guardrails in isolation, then “run them by legal.” Spoiler: they had to rebuild almost everything from scratch. Don’t make that mistake.
Every organization serious about AI should have an AI Governance Council with actual teeth.
I’ve seen these councils work wonders when they have clear authority to define acceptable use policies, set risk tolerances, review implementations, and adapt to emerging regulations.
I’ve also seen them fail spectacularly when treated as a rubber-stamp committee. Give yours real power, or don’t bother.
The biggest myth in AI governance? That you can set it up once and move on. NOPE.
The Reality Check: Threats evolve. User behaviors change. Models drift. Regulations update. Your guardrails need to evolve accordingly.
The Maintenance Cost: Budget for ongoing monitoring, regular updates, and periodic adversarial testing (yes, actively trying to break your own guardrails). It’s typically 15-20% of your initial implementation costโannually.
If that sounds expensive, let me tell you about my client who didn’t budget for this. Their “minor” compliance issue snowballed into a $1.7M remediation project. Prevention is ALWAYS cheaper than cure.
Look, I get it. LLMs are exciting. The potential is real. But rushing in without proper guardrails is like skydiving without checking your parachuteโthe fall feels amazing until it suddenly doesn’t.
I’ve seen organizations transform AI from a risky experiment to a trusted business capability by taking guardrails seriously. I’ve also watched the train wrecks when they don’t.
The choice is yours. But after cleaning up too many AI messes, I can tell you this with absolute certainty: baking compliance in from the start isn’t just the responsible approachโit’s the ONLY approach that scales.
Building effective AI guardrails requires both technical expertise and deep understanding of enterprise compliance needs. If you’re feeling overwhelmed (most people are), there’s no shame in getting help.
Ready to build trust and safety into your AI initiatives?
The AI revolution is happening whether you’re ready or not. The question is: will you be leading it responsibly, or scrambling to fix the damage after the fact?
Accessibility in PDFs is an often overlooked aspect of corporate communication, but it is crucial for ensuring that all users, regardless of ability or disability, are able to access important information. In this blog, we will discuss the importance of accessibility in PDFs, as well as the standards that ensure that these documents are accessible to everyone.
First, let’s define what we mean by “accessibility” in the context of PDFs. Essentially, an accessible PDF is one that can be easily read and understood by users with disabilities, such as those who are blind or visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, or have mobility impairments. This can be achieved through the use of features such as alternative text for images, properly formatted headings and lists, and the use of clear and concise language.
But why is accessibility in PDFs important, especially for enterprise investor relations executives of publicly traded companies? There are several reasons:
source: https://f.hubspotusercontent30.net/hubfs/3280432/Remediated-2021-Year-End-Report-FINAL.pdf
So, how do you ensure that your PDFs are accessible? There are two main standards that you should be aware of: the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and Section 508 compliance.
WCAG is a set of guidelines developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to ensure that web content is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. WCAG 2.1 is the most current version, and it outlines four principles for accessibility: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. These principles cover a wide range of accessibility issues, including the use of alternative text for images, proper formatting for headings and lists, and the use of clear and concise language.
Section 508 is a specific set of guidelines that apply to electronic and information technology (EIT) used by the federal government. These guidelines ensure that EIT is accessible to users with disabilities, and they are based on the WCAG 2.0 guidelines.
While both WCAG and Section 508 compliance are important for ensuring the accessibility of web content, they are often overlooked when it comes to corporate PDFs. This is likely due to a lack of awareness of the importance of accessibility, as well as a lack of understanding of the standards and how to implement them.
However, it is crucial that enterprise investor relations executives of publicly traded companies ensure that their PDFs are accessible. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it is also a legal requirement and can lead to improved user experience, increased reach and engagement, and a positive impact on your brand reputation.
You are probably curious what an audit looks like? there are two main tools we use
Taking a random IR document from a publicly traded client website we can quicky process it to see these results:
From Adobe:
adobe accessibility report
from PAC
and PAC WCAG
In conclusion, accessibility in PDFs is an important but often overlooked aspect of corporate communication. By ensuring that your PDFs are compliant with WCAG and Section 508 guidelines, you can ensure that all users, regardless of ability, can access and understand the information contained within. This is important for legal compliance, as well as for improving user experience, increasing reach and engagement, and protecting your brand reputation.
The good news is that we can help. If you would like to learn more about accessibility in PDFs and how to ensure that your documents are compliant with WCAG 2.1 and Section 508 standards, just let us know. We recommend starting with an audit of your most recent communications to assess the current state and then set a plan for roping in our team to figure publishing workflows. Send us a couple of your PDFs and we will deliver a free analysis of what we have discovered.
As more and more businesses move to the cloud, the concept of multi-tenancy has become increasingly important in the world of software-as-a-service (SaaS). Multi-tenancy is a software architecture model where a single instance of an application serves multiple customers, or tenants, simultaneously. This approach can offer significant benefits for both SaaS providers and their customers, but it can also introduce some complexities. In this article, we’ll explore the concept of multi-tenancy in SaaS, including what it means to be a tenant, why multi-tenancy is important, and the benefits it can offer for SaaS companies. We’ll also compare multi-tenancy with single-tenancy models, and discuss the advantages and trade-offs of each. By the end of this article, you’ll have a solid understanding of multi-tenancy and how it can benefit your SaaS business.
As the demand for online services continues to grow, more SaaS companies are adding ecommerce functionality to their platforms. By allowing users to purchase and manage subscriptions online, SaaS companies can increase revenue, improve customer satisfaction, and streamline billing and payment processes. However, adding ecommerce to a SaaS system is not a simple task. In this article, we’ll go through some of the key decisions and features that SaaS companies should consider when adding ecommerce to their platforms.
One of the first decisions that SaaS companies need to make when adding ecommerce is which payment processor to use. There are several options available, but one of the most popular and reliable is Stripe. Stripe is a payment processor that is specifically designed for online businesses. It is easy to set up, has competitive rates, and offers a wide range of features and integrations.
Stripe’s features include support for multiple currencies, automated billing and invoicing, and fraud prevention. Stripe also offers a user-friendly dashboard that allows SaaS companies to manage subscriptions, view revenue, and monitor customer behavior.
Another important decision that SaaS companies need to make is which billing mode to use. There are several billing modes available, including usage-based, seat-based, and server-based. Each billing mode has its own pros and cons, and SaaS companies need to carefully consider which one is right for their platform.
Another important consideration is dunning, which is the process of recovering failed payments. When a customer’s credit card is declined, the dunning process kicks in to try and recover the payment. SaaS companies need to be careful with their dunning process to avoid annoying their customers or accidentally violating regulations.
SaaS companies also need to have a clear and easy-to-use upgrading and downgrading process. This is important because users may want to change their subscription plans at any time. SaaS companies need to make sure that the upgrading and downgrading process is clear, easy to understand, and automated as much as possible.
Another important decision is whether to provide users with invoices and whether to use Stripe’s invoicing system. Stripe’s invoicing system is user-friendly and has an API for easy integration. SaaS companies also need to consider whether different customers will have different billing tiers, depending on the features they need or the number of users they have.
SaaS companies also need to decide whether to allow offline payments, such as payments via purchase order. They also need to consider how to handle upgrades and downgrades in terms of proration or other billing adjustments.
SaaS companies need to consider tax rules based on customer location when configuring Stripe. They also need to decide whether to email users when they are billed or before and after they are billed.
Adding ecommerce functionality to a SaaS system is a complex process that requires careful consideration of several key decisions and features. At CURTIS Digital, we have extensive experience in developing ecommerce solutions for SaaS companies. Our team of experts can help you navigate the complex decisions involved in adding ecommerce to your SaaS system, from choosing a payment processor to handling upgrades and downgrades.
With our help, you can ensure that your ecommerce functionality is integrated seamlessly into your SaaS platform, providing your customers with a convenient and user-friendly experience. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you add ecommerce to your SaaS system and take your business to the next level.
A user story workshop is a dynamic and engaging activity that brings together people from different backgrounds and expertise to collaborate and create a product that meets the needs of its users. Here’s how I would explain it to a non-technical stakeholder in a more fun and interactive way:
Imagine you’re part of a team of superheroes who have been tasked with creating a product that will make the world a better place! Your mission is to understand the needs of the people who will use the product and come up with features that will make their lives easier and happier.
To achieve this mission, you’ll be joining forces with other superheroes, including the product owner, development team members, and other stakeholders who share your passion for making the world a better place. Together, you’ll unleash your creativity and imagination to brainstorm user stories that capture the needs of the users.
You’ll start by putting on your superhero capes and gathering in a room with a big whiteboard or a virtual collaboration platform. You’ll be led by the product owner, who will explain the product vision and the goals of the project.
Then, you’ll dive into an exciting and interactive brainstorming session where you’ll put yourselves in the shoes of the users and think about their needs and desires. You’ll use colorful post-it notes, stickers, or digital tools to write down your ideas and share them with the team.
As you work together, you’ll learn from each other’s expertise and perspectives, and you’ll come up with innovative and creative solutions that will make the product stand out. You’ll laugh, you’ll share stories, and you’ll have fun!
Once you’ve created a long list of user stories, you’ll use your superhero powers of prioritization to identify the most critical needs and rank them based on their importance to the users and the business.
Finally, you’ll create a product backlog, which is like a to-do list for the development team. This backlog will help you keep track of all the features that need to be developed for the product, and you’ll get to watch as your superhero colleagues bring those features to life.
By the end of the user story workshop, you’ll feel empowered and energized, knowing that you’ve contributed to making the world a better place through your superhero collaboration and innovation!
If you are looking for a good source of training for Agile User Story Workshops please visit – https://www.betteruserstories.com/ย
Accessibility in PDFs is an often overlooked aspect of corporate communication, but it is crucial for ensuring that all users, regardless of ability or disability, are able to access important information. In this blog, we will discuss the importance of accessibility in PDFs, as well as the standards that ensure that these documents are accessible to everyone.
First, let’s define what we mean by “accessibility” in the context of PDFs. Essentially, an accessible PDF is one that can be easily read and understood by users with disabilities, such as those who are blind or visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, or have mobility impairments. This can be achieved through the use of features such as alternative text for images, properly formatted headings and lists, and the use of clear and concise language.
But why is accessibility in PDFs important, especially for enterprise investor relations executives of publicly traded companies? There are several reasons:
source: https://f.hubspotusercontent30.net/hubfs/3280432/Remediated-2021-Year-End-Report-FINAL.pdf
So, how do you ensure that your PDFs are accessible? There are two main standards that you should be aware of: the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and Section 508 compliance.
WCAG is a set of guidelines developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to ensure that web content is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. WCAG 2.1 is the most current version, and it outlines four principles for accessibility: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. These principles cover a wide range of accessibility issues, including the use of alternative text for images, proper formatting for headings and lists, and the use of clear and concise language.
Section 508 is a specific set of guidelines that apply to electronic and information technology (EIT) used by the federal government. These guidelines ensure that EIT is accessible to users with disabilities, and they are based on the WCAG 2.0 guidelines.
While both WCAG and Section 508 compliance are important for ensuring the accessibility of web content, they are often overlooked when it comes to corporate PDFs. This is likely due to a lack of awareness of the importance of accessibility, as well as a lack of understanding of the standards and how to implement them.
However, it is crucial that enterprise investor relations executives of publicly traded companies ensure that their PDFs are accessible. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it is also a legal requirement and can lead to improved user experience, increased reach and engagement, and a positive impact on your brand reputation.
You are probably curious what an audit looks like? there are two main tools we use
Taking a random IR document from a publicly traded client website we can quicky process it to see these results:
From Adobe:
adobe accessibility report
from PAC
and PAC WCAG
In conclusion, accessibility in PDFs is an important but often overlooked aspect of corporate communication. By ensuring that your PDFs are compliant with WCAG and Section 508 guidelines, you can ensure that all users, regardless of ability, can access and understand the information contained within. This is important for legal compliance, as well as for improving user experience, increasing reach and engagement, and protecting your brand reputation.
The good news is that we can help. If you would like to learn more about accessibility in PDFs and how to ensure that your documents are compliant with WCAG 2.1 and Section 508 standards, just let us know. We recommend starting with an audit of your most recent communications to assess the current state and then set a plan for roping in our team to figure publishing workflows. Send us a couple of your PDFs and we will deliver a free analysis of what we have discovered.
At CURTIS Digital, Inc., we build tailored software solutions that fit our clientโs business needs. With over 20 years of experience, we already established a great reputation in delivering and executing the best ideas for problem solving. We aim to make a difference in the lives of everyone we work with. Above all, we value significance over accomplishments.
We’ve all seen it: UX designers think like end users, and developers think like… well, developers. Instead of working together as a team, designers and developers wage war with each other, and nothing gets done. Here are a few tips UXers can use to make great user experiences, not war.