Qualtrics announces new data privacy and governance capabilities

Qualtrics, the experience management provider, has announced a new suite of data protection and governance capabilities to help organisations comply with the latest global data protection and security policies. The new capabilities will help organisations standardise the collection of experience data (X-data) — the opinions, beliefs, emotions and sentiments that people have about their experiences with the organisation.

XM Controls will allow XM programme managers to manage users, permissions, data, compliance, security and costs as they build customer, employee, Product and Brand Experience solutions on the Qualtrics XM Platform.

A recent Qualtrics study of data privacy professionals found that 65% of all organisations use multiple survey tools and 45% of these organisations don't even know how many survey accounts exist within the organisation. This fragmentation leads to data silos, security and compliance risks and disjointed customer experiences.

"As organisations look to close experience gaps, we are seeing a wave of CIOs and IT leaders mandate the breakdown of X-data silos and institutionalise a standard governance model for managing their customer, employee, brand, and product experiences," says Zig Serafin, President of Qualtrics. 

"XM Controls provide IT leaders the confidence to standardise on the Qualtrics XM Platform, enabling them to seamlessly manage thousands of employees collecting, analysing and acting on X-data across the organisation."

The new XM Controls include:

Admin Dashboard - intuitive reports that provide actionable insights to Qualtrics admins for monitoring the health of an organisation's XM deployment. The reports are built around usage, consumption, activity and user engagement. 

Access Controls - IT leaders can enable their employees to sign up for a Qualtrics account through a personalised, self-enrolment workflow while managing permissions at scale.

Data Controls - Infosecurity and compliance leaders can now govern all data collection and user management from one place. The Controls include XM Directory, which acts as a single system of record of all individuals providing X-data, and GDPR One-Touch Data Deletion, which makes it easy to service GDPR Right to Erasure requests by locating and deleting a data subject's surveys, responses, tickets and contact information. 

Cost Management - With resource tagging capabilities, Qualtrics enables business and IT leaders to easily meter and monitor consumption and track it back to the specific user, team, department or project.

Security Controls - Announced in 2018, the security controls allow Qualtrics admins to set up security policies governing their XM deployments - from multifactor authentication to account lockouts to password strength management.

The company recently shared that over 100 organisations have joined the Qualtrics Partner Network (QPN) in the first 12 months since its launch. These include Deloitte, HubSpot, Korn Ferry, ServiceNow, and Zendesk. Within its first year, QPN member companies delivered experience management to over 1,000 customers across more than 40 countries.

The QPN includes five programmes that enable customers to implement XM capabilities and measure their experience data, gather insights, and drive breakthrough results efficiently and at scale:

· Delivery Partners are trained and certified to implement the Qualtrics XM Platform for customers of all sizes. Enterprise organisations can also work with Delivery Partners who receive a QPN Certified Master accreditation on custom scoping, training with Qualtrics best practices, and ongoing XM projects.

· Alliance Partners help customers understand how experience management can benefit their organisation across the four core experiences - customer, employee, brand, and product. Customers work with Alliance Partners to evaluate their current business needs and desired outcomes.

· Advisory Partners are trusted XM scientists and consultants who identify the experience gaps within customers' organisations. Customers work with Advisory Partners, who are trained on the Qualtrics XM Platform, to design detailed plans and roadmaps for starting their experience management journeys.

· Innovation Partners bring experience management into customers' existing IT ecosystems. They leverage the the Qualtrics Developer Platform to design integrations and solutions that extend and customise the Qualtrics product functionality for customers.

· Strategic Partners are all-in on experience management and work with Qualtrics to define the future of the industry. Strategic Partners offer a full suite of capabilities to accelerate XM within customers' organisations, including implementation, consulting, and building integrations.

"The best customer experiences are built on the Zendesk platform. As such, we are excited that Qualtrics has partnered with us to build a Zendesk integration that combines our CRM and conversational record with Qualtrics' experience data," said Billy Robins, Director of Technology Alliances, Zendesk. CRM stands for customer relationship management.

"The new integration allows us to enable our shared customers around the globe to work collaboratively and seamlessly across marketing, customer experience and customer support teams. We look forward to a stronger connection between two companies focused on creating great experiences."

"Our mission is to help organisations design and deliver better customer experiences," said Raj Mendes, Managing Director, The Customer Experience Company. "Our partnership with Qualtrics has empowered our clients to take their Voice of the Customer platforms to the next level by taking action on their data across the organisation," said Raj Mendes, Founder and Managing Director, The Customer Experience Company.

"As a result, they have been able to continuously improve on their processes and enable a culture that values both customer and employee feedback. We are excited to continue working with Qualtrics to ensure our clients' successes."

To celebrate the first year of the QPN, Qualtrics is also announcing its inaugural Partner of the Year Awards. Winners are recognised for their commitment to experience management and for helping organisations advance and scale their customer or employee experience programmes.

"The growth we experienced within the first year of the Qualtrics Partner Network alone is a significant validation of the experience management industry," said John Torrey, Chief Ecosystem Officer, Qualtrics.

"Our partners have unparalleled expertise in helping customers build and scale experience management programmes unique to their business and industry - from employee experience to customer experience. Combined with the Qualtrics XM Platforlm, the Qualtrics Partner Network provides access to the best technology and services in the industry today. We will continue to grow our network to ensure the best possible outcomes for our customers and their experience management programmes."