Retailers can deliver a smooth migration free of downtime by taking advantage of the following unique capabilities provided by the PingOne for Customers platform.
Customer Journey Orchestration
Every journey for every customer is powered by the PingOne DaVinci orchestration platform, which provides unparalleled flexibility and agility to retailers aiming to create, test, and optimize tailored customer experiences. From hundreds of prebuilt connectors into existing CRM and ecommerce platforms, to pixel-perfect control over every aspect of UI, DaVinci handles integration complexity behind the scenes while minimizing front-end complexity for the consumer.
Just-In-Time Migration
Many retailers opt to take a just-in-time or “lazy” approach to migrating customers, using DaVinci to provide a login journey that handles migration from old to new behind the scenes.
The above image provides an example of how the flow logic would typically work: the first time a user logs in after the upgrade, they will be authenticated against the old system via a backend API call, thus proving ownership of the account password. Should the authentication succeed, provisioning into the PingOne platform directory happens automatically with the same password. Subsequent logins will be performed directly against PingOne.
This approach minimizes friction for active users, while also removing the complexity associated with big bang data migration as well as password migration. Instead of migrating customers all at once or in batches, each customer is migrated as they arrive.
Lazy migration does require that both old and new systems run in parallel and works well in a scenario where the retailer wishes to allow a window for active user migration in order to “clean up” the customer base and avoid bringing across stale account information.
Co-Existence via Synchronization
The PingOne Identity Platform additionally includes the Ping DataSync component, which allows retailers to configure and run uni- or bi-directional synchronization pipelines between legacy customer data stores and the PingOne Directory.
DataSync supports both initial snapshot migration – for migrating all user records at a point in time – as well as ongoing scheduled synchronization tasks to keep both repositories aligned. With support for a wide variety of standard password hashing and encryption algorithms, we can even migrate user password hashes directly from old to new, thus allowing for uninterrupted logins via the new platform.
The benefits of Data Sync are that all user profiles, whether active or inactive, can be migrated using a single approach; however, this does imply fewer opportunities to perform clean up of the user base.
Full Migration
For situations where a decommissioning deadline affects availability of the legacy system, a full migration of data at a point in time may be required. This option has benefits in terms of ongoing operational simplicity, but is typically an exercise that needs to be carefully planned as part of a cutover process in order to minimize disruption. As described above, it is often possible to fully migrate all customer profile attributes in one go, including password hashes, provided these use a standard hashing algorithm.
Progressive Profiling
In line with the goal to decrease friction, many retailers prefer to collect user profile information only on an as-needed basis; initial registration is typically lightweight, with only as much information gathered as is strictly necessary to fulfill an order and collect payment. The PingOne platform allows for progressive profiling user journeys, making it possible for additional information to be solicited from a user at any point in any journey. This approach fits well with both lazy migration as well as coexistence synchronization, as customers can be asked to confirm or update any incorrect profile information that may have been brought across from the old system.
Account Recovery
It is important to provide as many options as possible for inactive customers to re-engage through regaining access to their accounts. The PingOne platform allows retailers to define account recovery journeys that offer flexibility and choice to the end user; typically through delivering a one-time link or passcode to a known email address or mobile number, although the flexibility of the DaVinci platform allows for many other options as well.