2026 Program Goal · North Star · by Dec 31, 2026
By December 31, 2026, the MarTech Program will have a selected and contracted platform live in production, with core integrations complete, the first migrated customer communications sending, and IP warm-up underway, keeping the program on track to retire SFMC and AWS SES ahead of the SFMC May 2027 renewal.
This Week's Big Rock Deliverables · week of 8/31 · quick current state (one line each)
1. Get the TELUS SOW signed and open the partner engagement.COMPLETESOW signed (WOW! first, TELUS final via Patrick Higgins); Braze fully executed; kickoff booked Tue 9/8, 2 to 3 PM MT.
2. Land the dedicated developer seats on Sept 1.METJohn Rotello and Ana Sousa joined the daily standup Tue 9/1; first work is the Braze to WOW! integration (Party = source of truth).
3. Move the trigger & logic documentation toward the Sept 25 target.IN PROGRESSStory-pointing with Amrita and Lynn underway; dev review of the write-ups is the gate before TELUS; inside the Sept 8 to Oct 12 discovery window.
4. Settle the architecture demarcation before the TELUS kickoff.MOVINGA material piece landed at the Wed 9/2 standup: trigger logic stays inside WOW! and Braze is called via API to send, so trigger conditions are not replicated in Braze. Mike, Chad and the wider room are aligned; Braze and TELUS capability on that pattern is still to be confirmed. TELUS builds inside Braze, WOW! owns data and integration; still open with Chad: transformation layer and Process Flow listener. Chad is out Wed 9/2, so Thu 9/3 remains the target to close it, held on its own merit now that the kickoff date is moving.
Program backlog, milestones, features, KDDs and decisions live in Smartsheet, which is also where the TELUS delivery plan sits and where the partner works directly (WOW! credentials requested for the TELUS team 8/31). Jira is the internal WOW! Dev board only and holds the squad's active dev-discovery work below; its detail is brought into Smartsheet so both sides are visible together.
Discovery spikes
21 spikes
Per-communication trigger conditions, business logic and variables for transactional email & SMS, captured to hand to the implementation vendor
Status
14 To Do · 2 In Progress · 2 Done · 3 Canceled
Bucketed by communication pattern; ranked for the vendor handoff. Re-verified Wed 9/2, 1:00 PM against the saved MarTech filter: 14 To Do / 2 In Progress / 2 Done / 3 Canceled. Non-pay communications closed since the 8:00 AM check, taking the Done count to two alongside Order Confirmation. The two still in flight are Bill available communications (email and SMS) and packageDelivered, now running with the dedicated developer seats in place. All 21 spikes return cleanly on the filter and there are no flagged blockers
Owner
Amrita's team (Ines Garrinhas on the pipeline work), with Jen Jeck
Transactional email & SMS inventory and trigger logic
| Day | Time (MT) | Meeting |
|---|
| Mon 8/31 | 10:00 AM | WOW! | TELUS Digital SOW session · signature routing on day one of the partner start |
| Mon 8/31 | 10:45 AM | MarTech Squad Daily Standup · TELUS partner start; Simon back in |
| Tue 9/1 | 10:00 AM | Weekly status prep, squad and executive (post by 11:00 AM MT) |
| Tue 9/1 | 10:45 AM | MarTech Squad Daily Standup · dedicated developer seats in seat |
| Tue 9/1 | 11:00 AM | MarTech PM weekly sync (Bonita) |
| Wed 9/2 | 10:45 AM | MarTech Squad Daily Standup |
| Wed 9/2 | 11:00 AM | TELUS/WOW! (Rachael | Ross Connect) · review the How We Will Work Together document · 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM MT · sets the working model ahead of the Tue 9/8 kickoff |
| Wed 9/2 | 1:30 PM | MarTech Program Weekly Connect (Marketing) |
| Thu 9/3 | 10:45 AM | MarTech Squad Daily Standup |
| Fri 9/4 | 10:45 AM | MarTech Squad Daily Standup |
| Milestone | Date | Status |
|---|
| Scope & Use Cases | Jun 19 | COMPLETE |
| Scope approved | Jun 19 | COMPLETE |
| Discovery Sessions complete | Jun 22 | COMPLETE |
| RFP issued to 3 vendors | Jun 23 | COMPLETE |
| Inventory audit · 3 inventories: (1) Procurement vendor contract details (Steve) — pending · (2) Comms inventory (Jennifer J) — Simon provided updates, counts still needed · (3) SFMC campaign inventory (Simon) — recurring sends done 7/2, volumes to follow | Jun 30 | IN PROGRESS · carrying past 6/30 |
| Initial epics & user stories for Sprint 1 (+ backlog) | Jul 24 | WATCH · Aug 3 Braze decision confirmed with the C-suite at the Thu Aug 6 exec call; refinement reopens once the two contracts are signed and the TELUS kickoff sets the build plan |
| Vendor selection / award (sign-off) | Aug 3 | COMPLETE · Braze selected 8/3 (over ServiceNow/Tenon); narrowed to 2 on 7/15; formalized with the C-suite at the Thu 8/6 exec transformational call; contract execution next |
| Contract & legal review complete | Aug 31 | COMPLETE · all contract paper is closed. The Braze Order Form and MSA are fully executed (8/25), the TELUS MSA is fully executed (8/31) and the TELUS SOW is fully executed (9/1). Frank signed both MSAs via Procurement (Patrick Higgins). One term carried forward rather than lost: TELUS removed the warranty and defect-correction language on the basis that the MSA already covers it, so the mitigation is reporting built into the implementation to monitor usage against the order form allotments |
| TELUS MSA + SOW signature | Aug 31 | COMPLETE · Tue 9/1: the TELUS SOW is fully executed, countersigned by TELUS, with the MSA fully executed 8/31. Signature routed through Procurement (Patrick Higgins) with WOW! signing first and TELUS as final signee. No contractual step is outstanding; onboarding and credentialing of the TELUS team continues |
| Dedicated developer seats in seat | Sep 1 | COMPLETE · Tue 9/1: the seats landed. John Rotello (onshore, full-stack) and Ana Sousa (dev lead, offshore) joined the daily standup, with Ines Garrinhas continuing and Amrita staying on in support. The wider intake is roughly 28 developers in two batches, the first Aug 31 and the second Sept 8, which is what the MarTech seats draw from |
| Working model agreed with TELUS · How We Will Work Together | Sep 2 | BOOKED · Rachael and Ross Koon (TELUS Digital) review the How We Will Work Together document Wed 9/2, so the working model is agreed ahead of the kickoff rather than settled inside it |
| TELUS kickoff | Sep 8 · moving | RESCHEDULING · Wed 9/2: Monica has asked for the kickoff to move off Tue 9/8 so she can attend; the new date is being confirmed with her. The session is framed as high level, introductions, working norms and schedule planning. Previously booked Tue 9/8, 2:00 to 3:00 PM MT and being moved earlier in the day so the offshore members can attend; recorded for those who cannot, and Amrita is out that day. Full squad on both sides, TELUS and WOW!. Opens with the discovery handoff and carries a security review on TELUS access to data. Amrita, Chad and Mike lead the initial direction setting (8/27). The technical demarcation needs to be settled before this session rather than on its agenda |
| Discovery phase | Sep 8 – Oct 12 | TARGETED · dated at the Fri 8/28 standup; may start earlier if onboarding allows. Feeds the build sequence and the MVP scope refinement, since discovery is what turns the broad scope into a per-communication decision |
| Documentation package to TELUS | Sep 25 | TARGETED · set at the Tue 8/11 resourcing session: the trigger and logic documentation TELUS needs to begin dev work, delivered at the lighter consistent level agreed 8/10 (triggers and data points rather than full sourcing) |
| Braze platform start | Oct 1 | CONFIRMED · set at the Wed 8/19 Weekly Connect: dated off dev-seat readiness rather than signature, which avoids paying for an idle month and gives TELUS four to five weeks of onboarding and discovery before it needs the Braze instance; the renewal cycle runs from October and IP warm-up still clears the end-of-Q1 target |
| Implementation phase | Oct 13 – Jan 25 | TARGETED · dated at the Fri 8/28 standup: build, migration and IP warm-up, with the Salesforce Marketing Cloud move as the priority inside it and transactional email plus SMS carried alongside. Read as aggressive by the squad and held deliberately, with the buffer sitting between Jan 25 and the May 31, 2027 deprecation |
| Salesforce Marketing Cloud deprecation | May 31, 2027 | HARD DATE · the contractual backstop the whole plan is dated against; everything has to be off SFMC before it |
