Peter Kulupka
Businesses exist to create customers. So why don't more businesses place greater value on their customer information? Why isn't customer information managed with the same discipline that any other corporate asset would be?
The answer is largely because until recently the management of any data domain, be it customer, product, etc.. has been reactive. Need a view of data across the enterprise? Build a data warehouse and plug in a reporting or analytics tool. But that approach only tells you what happened at some point in the past. How can you run a business in today's real-time world by relying on days old (okay usually weeks old) data?
You can't. At least if you want to be competitive you can't. If you want to be innovative you absolutely can't.
Customer master data management is no longer an extravagance. It is a mission critical business function. But what exactly is customer master data management and why is it mission critical?
Managing customer information effectively means knowing who your customers are while they are interacting with you. From a customer's perspective, it means that your business appears to recognize them. But that is only the start. Ultimately, you want to be able to influence their decisions.
Notice that I am not taking about customer master data management in the terms of a single technology like a hub. That is because a hub is just one more repository of data, it is not in and of itself what drives value. So what does?
A customer information ecosystem means having the right data at the right place and the right time.
That requires that operational systems become event aware. When one system learns something new about a customer, other operational systems should benefit from that information. That brokering of information must be coordinated between systems by an intermediary such as a service bus that analyses the data traversing it, and applies rules that intelligently route relevant information to the various other systems that would also benefit from it.
The basic building blocks for customer master data management are;
1. Operational systems that support open systems standards for the purpose of integration.
2. A service bus that provides the integration between the operational systems, backline systems and third party providers.
3. Backline systems such as business rules engines, business process automation, customer data integration capabilities, enterprise data warehouses
4. External providers for data services to recognize customers whether they are known (but may represent themselves differently) or unknown (new), fill in the whitespace to build a complete customer record, and give you a headstart on building a portrait of them.
Many businesses will focus on only one of these building blocks. Often with limited success in realizing their goals. Successfully leveraging customer information requires a comprehensive approach.
The answer is largely because until recently the management of any data domain, be it customer, product, etc.. has been reactive. Need a view of data across the enterprise? Build a data warehouse and plug in a reporting or analytics tool. But that approach only tells you what happened at some point in the past. How can you run a business in today's real-time world by relying on days old (okay usually weeks old) data?
You can't. At least if you want to be competitive you can't. If you want to be innovative you absolutely can't.
Customer master data management is no longer an extravagance. It is a mission critical business function. But what exactly is customer master data management and why is it mission critical?
Managing customer information effectively means knowing who your customers are while they are interacting with you. From a customer's perspective, it means that your business appears to recognize them. But that is only the start. Ultimately, you want to be able to influence their decisions.
Notice that I am not taking about customer master data management in the terms of a single technology like a hub. That is because a hub is just one more repository of data, it is not in and of itself what drives value. So what does?
A customer information ecosystem means having the right data at the right place and the right time.
That requires that operational systems become event aware. When one system learns something new about a customer, other operational systems should benefit from that information. That brokering of information must be coordinated between systems by an intermediary such as a service bus that analyses the data traversing it, and applies rules that intelligently route relevant information to the various other systems that would also benefit from it.
The basic building blocks for customer master data management are;
1. Operational systems that support open systems standards for the purpose of integration.
2. A service bus that provides the integration between the operational systems, backline systems and third party providers.
3. Backline systems such as business rules engines, business process automation, customer data integration capabilities, enterprise data warehouses
4. External providers for data services to recognize customers whether they are known (but may represent themselves differently) or unknown (new), fill in the whitespace to build a complete customer record, and give you a headstart on building a portrait of them.
Many businesses will focus on only one of these building blocks. Often with limited success in realizing their goals. Successfully leveraging customer information requires a comprehensive approach.
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