Read the story behind it…

Data security is always a key priority for system administrators. This is especially true in cases that involve exchanging sensitive personal data with cloud-based services through network firewalls. This is precisely the situation that I addressed with documentation that described the integration of IBM Campaign, an on-premises campaign management application, and IBM Engage, a cloud-based email marketing application.

I created procedures for using a web proxy server to establish a secure connection between a local network and a cloud-based email marketing application. The procedures also include steps for encrypting the traffic.  I describe the specific changes that administrators need to make in system configuration files and commands they must run to verify connections and encrypt communication.

Ordinary marketing users are unlikely to tackle these tasks, but they are essential work for system administrators who support email marketing efforts.

Audience: System administrators who support email marketers.

Noteworthy: The set of topics in this example includes a snippet that administrators can use to modify configuration files. Notice that the snippet contains comments that provide instructions for configuring each property.

I added similar comments throughout the actual configuration file that was delivered as part of the product. This was a simple way to embed guidance for the administrator at the point of use. We did this in case a system administrator failed to read the documentation, which they sometimes do.

This example is an excerpt from the IBM Campaign and IBM Silverpop Engage Integration Guide, published in 2015. This was five years after IBM acquired Campaign when it bought Unica and 1 year after IBM acquired Silverpop.

Tools:

• IBM DITA & Oxygen XML editor for authoring
• Adobe Acrobat Pro for reviews
• Inkscape to create illustrations
• Techsmith Snagit for screen capture and editing
• Notepad++ for modifying the configuration file

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What are IBM Campaign and IBM Engage?
IBM Campaign was a campaign management application that marketers used to define target audiences. It was installed in the local network, behind the company’s security firewall. Marketers used Campaign to extract personally descriptive information from customer databases to create precisely targeted mailing lists.

IBM Engage was an email composition and delivery tool that marketers used to engage target audiences with personalized email marketing messages. Integrating with Campaign meant that email marketers had a powerful tool that they could use to identify customers that they might reach through targeted, relevant email campaigns.