Unica Interact Triggered Actions integration with Apache Kafka

Triggered Actions (previously known as Triggered Messages) is a powerful module within Unica Interact that allows the presentation of Offers to a different Channel from the one where the incoming request is originating; for example an inbound action by a customer from a website could prompt an offer presentation as an in-app notification to the customer’s mobile phone. This allows for greater flexibility with the use of multiple channels.

In the below example we’ll look at the use of Triggered Actions to send an SMS message based on a customer’s transactional data.

Implementation example

In this use case, Apache Kafka is employed as both the inbound source of the transactional data and the outbound dispatcher to send to the Channel. REST API calls are made to Interact Runtime, with the Triggered Actions flow specifying the criteria for that customer as to whether they are eligible to receive an SMS message, based on information about the transaction as well as the customer’s profile data. The eligibility criteria can utilise incoming session attributes passed through as part of the API call, profile attributes as defined in the audience Profile table, and/or whether the customer exists in a smart segment.

Also within the Triggered Actions flow is where Offers are applied. This could be where the SMS message text is defined e.g., as an Offer Attribute. Suppression rules can be applied here to limit how often a customer is eligible to receive the same or different messages, to avoid fatigue.

So that the Apache Kafka dispatcher can communicate with the company’s SMS Gateway, a custom Java application could be developed to parse the Kafka message and transform the contents into a valid XML format. This XML is then sent to the SMS Gateway which executes the SMS message send.

Whilst this is just one use case for Apache Kafka and Interact Triggered Actions, there are many opportunities available to Unica customers to utilise this integration.

Additional technical details for configuring Apache Kafka as a Triggered Actions outbound channel can be found in this blog from HCL. If you would like to know more how this could benefit your marketing strategy and processes, then please do get in touch with us – we are here to help you get the most from your marketing technology.