Implementing Altcraft CDP for On-Premises: A Detailed Guide

A CDP (Customer Data Platform) is a system that collects, stores, and connects fragmented customer data so you can better understand your audience and create personalized offers. Altcraft CDP is a marketing platform that brings together all your customer communication channels in one place.

Such a platform is essential for companies that want to build effective communication with customers via email, push notifications, SMS, and other channels, using a single point of control for all data and campaigns.

In this guide, you’ll find a step-by-step explanation of how to implement Altcraft CDP for on-premises: from data auditing to launching your first campaigns.

Support from Altcraft

When implementing Altcraft CDP, you are not left alone with the platform — a team of specialists guides you through every stage.

From the very beginning, you work with an account manager and a project manager. They coordinate the process, monitor deadlines, help resolve organizational issues, and stay in touch if something goes off track. These are your main contacts for all questions — both technical and organizational.

On the technical side, Altcraft specialists assist you. They advise on how to best migrate data, plan domain warming, connect external systems, and use the platform’s tools effectively. If necessary, a technical consultant joins the process — answering your IT team’s questions and helping with the specifics of the API, data import, segmentation, and other important details.

Step 1. Data, Services, and Integration Planning Audit

At the first stage of implementing Altcraft CDP, it is important to prepare the data and plan integrations. You need to determine what data to collect, how to connect your website, applications, and various systems such as CRM or call tracking. If you previously used other mailing services or CDPs, it is worth planning a separate data migration. You should also think through which systems the CDP will interact with and how to implement integrations so that everything works correctly.

Before starting the implementation of the CDP, it is crucial to assess the current state of customer data within your infrastructure. If the data is already structured and free of duplicates, you are ready for the next stage.

However, in practice, data often turns out to be fragmented, containing errors or duplicates, and requires additional work. Preparation may take considerable time — in some cases up to a year, especially if the volume of information is large.

We recommend setting aside time in advance for checking and cleaning your customer database. This will significantly simplify and speed up the implementation of the CDP.

Solution Architect for Marketing Platform Implementation at Novardis "One of the projects in the CIS showed that CDP implementation often runs into issues not with technology, but with the state of the data. The client purchased a CDP from an international vendor, formed a project team, and began implementation. Already at the first meeting, it became clear that in the database, under a single phone number, there could be up to 600 records — both family members and completely unrelated people, with matching or different names. Before setting up communications, the issue of data quality had to be resolved to eliminate duplicates and avoid sending unnecessary messages. This process took an entire year, and only after that did the project move on to technical implementation.

Plan for Connecting the Website, Applications, and Services

Migration Plan from the Previous Marketing Platform

If you are switching to Altcraft CDP from another solution (ESP, CRM, or marketing platform), it is necessary to plan the migration of all data. This migration plan should cover:

• Audit of current processes and data. Start by taking inventory of what was used on the previous platform:

• Priorities and migration sequence. It’s not necessary to migrate everything at once. Break the migration into stages: customer data, key templates, then the remaining less critical mechanics and historical data.
• Migration validation. After importing data into Altcraft, it is very important to check its integrity. Does the number of active subscribers match? Are all profile fields in place? Were customers correctly distributed across segments?

Step 2. Contract Agreement

During the agreement stage, responsible parties on both sides are also defined. Typically, a project manager from Altcraft is assigned to oversee the implementation. On the client’s side, it is important to designate the implementation team: an IT specialist responsible for infrastructure and a marketer responsible for business requirements. Some companies may be able to handle the entire implementation on their own, but many prefer to involve system integrators with experience in deploying and configuring the system. After signing the contract and paying for the license, you move on to the preparatory work.

Step 3. Coordination and Preparation of Equipment and Infrastructure

Coordinate the equipment requirements with the Altcraft team:

• Minimum and recommended specifications. Altcraft provides server configuration recommendations depending on the expected load. For example, to handle a database of up to several million customer profiles and send about one million emails per day, a basic two-server configuration is sufficient. If a higher load is expected, more powerful servers will be required. If you are unsure which resources you specifically need, the Altcraft team will help calculate the optimal specifications for your tasks.
• Fault tolerance. If high availability is required, plan for a cluster with multiple nodes.
• Software requirements. Make sure that the servers run a supported OS (the Altcraft CDP platform operates in Linux environments: Ubuntu LTS or SUSE Enterprise Server). Certain system components are also required (MongoDB and SSDB databases, RabbitMQ message broker, Nginx web server, etc.).
• Preparation of client infrastructure. Check in advance whether you have sufficient network resources (IP addresses, bandwidth) for mailings.

Step 4. Platform Deployment

The platform is installed by the client’s administrators (possibly with the involvement of a system integrator), who deploy it on dedicated servers in accordance with the architectural structure defined in the previous step.

Step 5. Domain and Network Access Configuration

Step 6. Integration with the Website, Application, and Other Services (Optional Step)

At this stage, you connect your website, mobile application, and other digital touchpoints to the CDP in order to collect real-time user behavior data and launch personalized scenarios. If your company only needs to work with the existing customer database and has no need to collect online activity, this step can be skipped. What is done:

Step 7. Organizing Customer Data Storage and Transfer

The goal is to establish the import of customer data (profiles, transactions, events) from the company’s internal systems (CRM, ERP, web databases, SQL data) into Altcraft. The plan includes the following steps:

• Configuring the data structure. Set up profile fields (customer attributes) according to your data: in addition to standard ones (Email, Phone, Name), add custom fields — for example, ClientID, etc. Define the type of each field (string, number, date).
• Initial data import. Perform a one-time upload of the full customer database using files (CSV, Excel, etc.). This allows you to load all data into the system at the initial stage.
• Automating data transfer. Configure integration with internal systems for automatic data updates. Altcraft offers several approaches: direct connection to an SQL repository, API integration, or the use of integration platforms.
• Incremental import. Define how the data will be updated in the future. For example, set up automatic uploads of new and modified records each night or in real time.
• Data validation. After importing, check a sample of records to ensure that all fields are filled in correctly and match expected values.
• Duplicate handling. Define a strategy for data deduplication. The CDP merges data based on a unique identifier (e.g., email or phone). If a customer has multiple contacts, Altcraft will merge the profiles.

Step 8. Launching the Email Channel

Step 9. Setting Up and Connecting Other Channels (SMS, Mobile and Browser Push, Messengers)

Configuring the push channel

Push notifications are connected through browser and mobile services. In Altcraft, parameters for Web Push and Mobile Push are configured, and if necessary, the subscriber base is migrated from previous platforms.

Connecting the SMS channel and messengers

SMS and messengers are connected via external providers. In Altcraft, integration details are specified, message templates are set up, and test sending is performed. Before launching campaigns, it is important to ensure correct delivery and that sufficient funds are available in the provider’s account.

Conclusion

Implementing Altcraft CDP is a step-by-step process that begins with setting up infrastructure and migrating data, and ends with launching channels and the first campaigns. Everything is done in close collaboration with the Altcraft team, which provides support at every stage. As a result, you have a unified platform where all customer data is consolidated and key channels are connected: email, push, SMS, and messengers. This provides a strong foundation for personalized marketing and improved efficiency. Make full use of the platform’s capabilities — and the results won’t take long to appear.

• WhatsApp is a project of Meta Platforms Inc., whose activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation.

• At the time of writing, Viber is blocked in the Russian Federation.