How Customer 360 Revolutionized a Retail Client’s Business
The Need for Change
A well-renowned software vendor found itself navigating the complex aftermath of an ambitious acquisition strategy that had left them with a fragmented technology ecosystem. Their portfolio contained more than six distinct customer relationship applications, each operating as a siloed repository of critical business information. Operating across multiple geographies, this fragmentation created significant operational challenges across the entire organization.
The consequences were far-reaching and impacted core business functions:
- Marketing teams struggled to develop cohesive, targeted campaigns without a unified customer view
- Sales teams faced revenue allocation discrepancies, with both global and local account managers unable to accurately track client relationships
- Customer support teams operated blindly, lacking visibility into clients’ software portfolios and service entitlements
- Finance departments wrestled with payment reconciliation issues, creating cash flow and reporting complications
Without a single, authoritative view of their B2B clients, the organization was experiencing diminishing returns on their acquisition investments and risking customer satisfaction and loyalty.
The Blueprint
We implemented a strategic, multi-phase approach to unify the client’s disparate data ecosystem:
Our journey began with comprehensive stakeholder engagement across departments to document specific pain points and thoroughly map their business application landscape. The dual objectives emerged clearly: synchronize customer records across all business applications while simultaneously eliminating duplicate entries across six separate CRM systems.
We conducted a meticulous analysis to identify critical customer data attributes required by all enterprise applications. Each attribute underwent rigorous evaluation to determine its relevancy score across data sources. This process revealed valuable insights—for instance, discovering that email addresses were updated more frequently in one transactional system than others, which became crucial for golden record generation.
After transforming and loading data from all source applications into the target repository, we engaged subject matter experts in a systematic deduplication process through a purpose-built user interface. This human-in-the-loop approach ensured accuracy while leveraging domain expertise.
Simultaneously, we established real-time data propagation processes using a messaging queue architecture and an enterprise canonical model to maintain ongoing synchronization across all applications, ensuring new information would flow seamlessly throughout the ecosystem.
The Big Win
The customer master data management solution was deployed in record time, serving as a catalyst for the client’s acquisition strategy. As a cornerstone of the company’s operations—with most departments and applications depending on a unified customer view—the solution’s outcomes were enthusiastically embraced by the business community.
The program delivered transformative results:
Dramatic Data Consolidation: Reduced an overwhelming 500,000 customer record copies to 80,000 definitive golden records, creating clarity and efficiency across the organization.
Enhanced Sales Intelligence: Enriched customer profiles with third-party data sources to creat sophisticated cross-border customer hierarchies based on legal entities, empowering sales teams with complete relationship visibility.
Improved Risk Management: Linked customer records to enterprise risk profiles, allowing for more informed decision-making and reducing potential financial exposure.
Elevated Customer Experience: Enabled support teams to access comprehensive views of customer products and licenses, dramatically improving service quality and response times.
Future-Proofed Growth Strategy: Established a sustainable foundation for ongoing merger and acquisition activities, turning what was once a business challenge into a competitive advantage.