Adobe is ready to sunset Dynamic Tag Management (DTM) and has recommended that all organizations migrate to Adobe Launch. If you are a DTM user, you will certainly face the current challenge of DTM to Adobe Launch migration. Why do it? And why now? The deadlines of sunsetting DTM might creep up on you. Here’s the sunset timeline for Adobe DTM:

Oct 14, 2020: All the DTM properties shall enter the read-only mode.

Apr 13, 2021: Sunset of DTM servers.

What Does the DTM Sunset Mean?

All the DTM properties are going to be read-only

How many of you have realized that we are no longer able to create new properties in DTM? Yes, since July 9, 2019, no user is allowed to create new properties in DTM (existing properties are not affected). From Oct 2020, DTM properties will enter read-only I.e., users cannot create or edit tools, data elements, or rules. New publish functionality will no longer be available.

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Sunset of DTM servers

DTM is inaccessible and dark. None of the existing tags will work and the worst part is, users can not go to the existing property and see how the configurations are made in the tag management system. The servers will be decommissioned, and communities will be removed. This may be considered as a complete shutdown of the DTM Servers.

The Migration Process: From Start to Finish

As now we know the deadlines and the next immediate action to be taken, let us now deep-dive into HOW to do it and look at the steps to migrate from DTM to Launch.

Step 1: Maintaining the status quo

The main goal of this phase is to maintain the status quo of analytics while moving from DTM to Adobe Launch. For this, a baseline needs to be established (a snapshot or a catalog of the current DTM implementation) to check against, as the new implementation is being created in Launch. This can be done in a couple of ways:

a) Manual migration

SDR is a known term for almost all Adobe Analytics users. It is a documentation of what is deployed on the website. This can be used for migrations because SDRs give you a baseline to compare against. If you have chosen the manual migration method, then make sure to have the SDR ready. Building SDR from scratch can be really time-consuming. If you are falling short of time, then automation can speed up the process.

b) Automated migration

As an alternative to manual migration, automated solutions can be used to conduct a comprehensive scan of the website and create a record of all technologies on the website. You can use this solution as a migration tool to incrementally migrate over to Launch and compare each step of the way.

Step 2: Evaluate the tagging strategy

At this phase, one must come up with a strategy to deploy tags via the tag management system onto the website. So, all possible strategies must be considered to serve you better in the long run. It is to be noted that, the “UPGRADE TO LAUNCH” feature provided by Adobe Experience Cloud has some limitations. Depending on the complexity of the implementation, one must either adopt a “lift-and-shift” approach or build from scratch.

Step 3: Migration

Once the baseline is ready (either from a static SDR or from audits of your site) and have decided on the migration strategy, you can begin to migrate over to Adobe Launch. The migration process will look different depending on whether you’re lifting and shifting or starting afresh.

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Step 4: Validation/Testing on all the environments

Validation is the last step in the migration process, though incremental tests need to be performed every time a new tag is added to Adobe Launch. The purpose of this phase is comparison. It is comparing the Launch implementation against the documentation. Testing can be done either manually or via automation. When testing, parts of your website, such as critical conversion paths, top pages, data layers, etc., have to be prioritized.

Step 5: Going Live on production

Once it passes the QA phase, it can be pushed to production. This is the final step. You may now release a sigh of relief and go treat yourself.

The Transition Turmoil

The transition can be a bumpy ride. It can be stressful and can have some hiccups. We believe that the migration process gives the freedom to audit and clean the current implementation and the potential danger of implementation gaps during the process. The challenges faced may be diverse and can be restricted by the implementation of a systematic and well-defined procedure.  We at TA Digital (Specialized Partners with Adobe on Adobe Analytics) will help you with the full setup required to get your property ready to create rules and extensions as we have the required expertise to make the migration process flawless.

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