Getting Customer Data Integration Right the First Time

Leveraging multi-domain master data management takes CDI to the next level and enables software vendors and customers to realize a greater ROI from their investments.

By Ravi Shankar, Siperian

The early pioneers of Customer Data Integration (CDI) had a primary goal - to create the most reliable customer data for the company by bringing together and resolving inconsistent, and oftentimes incomplete, customer data which was at the time siloed in disparate applications across the enterprise.

The CDI promise was to have reliable customer data available to benefit a myriad of customer-facing operations in marketing, merchandising, contracting, account management and invoicing, to name a few. Focusing on these priorities, many organizations selected a CDI technology that enabled them to solely optimize customer data. Other enterprise data such as products, locations, and accounts, for example, were considered out of scope and not necessary for the initial CDI project. While incremental benefits were gained with this approach, many companies that were caught up in this early CDI gold rush soon realized in hindsight that their CDI projects missed the big picture.

Today, CDI models have evolved. By adopting multi-domain master data management (MDM), data integration moves beyond the single class of customer data and greatly improves the potential benefits of the technology.

Executive Briefing: Leveraging the Cloud

Sand Hill Group and Cognizant invite you to a special Executive Breakfast Briefing and panel discussion, “Leveraging the Cloud - A Multi Dimensional View”. The event will take place on Nov 12, 2009 from 7:45 - 10:00am PST at the Sofitel, San Francisco Bay. Gain real-world insight into Cloud Computing and hear how Business, IT and Product Engineering leaders are leveraging this paradigm in a “no-holds barred” executive panel discussion moderated by SandHill.com publisher, MR Rangaswami and featuring Malcolm Frank of Cognizant Technology Solutions, Preeti Somal of VMware and Tony Young of Informatica. Attendance is limited.

Email events@cognizant.com to find out more information and to RSVP.

8 Signals that Your Pipeline is Bogus

David Taber of SalesLogistix explains what to look for in your bookings forecast as a sign that revenue may not come in as predicted. Read the signals in this post to the SandHill.com Blog on software sales.

The New Economics of IT

Jake Sorofman of rPath acknowledges the disconnect between the IT reality and the quest for “lean IT.” Read about the three fundamental changes in systems management that need to take place in this post to the SandHill.com Blog, “New Era, New Thinking.”

Publish Your Perspective!

SandHill.com wants your opinions. Send your thoughts on the enterprise software industry to SandHill.com editor, Maryann Jones Thompson (maryann@sandhill.com) and have your opinions published on our site.

McKinsey Conversations with Global Leaders: John Chambers of Cisco

The CEO and chairman of Cisco Systems explores approaches to decentralized management and leadership and also offers perspective on the future of Web technology and the opportunity that an economic downturn provides for strategically minded companies in this article from The McKinsey Quarterly.

The Week in Review: Winning Numbers

Software jobs on the rise; plus IBM challenges cloud players, Windows phones chase iPhones, and Microsoft gets social. Read these stories and more software news of the week in the latest SandHill.com Software News Summary.

Poll: Importance of MDM?

How important is MDM to realizing software value?
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More at SandHill.com:

Oracle-Salesforce shocker: Benioff to speak at Oracle World
Read the most important enterprise software industry news of the week >>

VC fundraising down during Q3.
Monitor the latest software venture capital deals >>

Sykes to pay $263 million for ICT Group.
Size up last week’s software M&A deals >>

Sales forecasting vendor, Right90 named Arthur Wong as CEO.
See who’s made it to the top in our list of recent software executive appointments.

Send us your feedback on this newsletter and the SandHill.com site.

Parting Thought

“The world leaders in innovation and creativity will also be world leaders in everything else.”
— Harold R. McAlindon

Courtesy of Malcolm Kusher, The Kushner Group

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