Today, I will finish commenting on the remaining Top 10 Business Priorities in 2009 from the Gartner EXP Worldwide Survey and how they relate to CDI/MDM. For the introduction and discussion of the some of the Priorities that I had commented on Monday, please see Part 1.
Priority #5 Increasing the use of information/analytics
One of the dirty little secrets of business intelligence tools is that you cannot use them across multiple data silos unless the data is properly correlated. Even with single data sources, counts of organizations and contacts are not going to be accurate if the entities and contacts have multiple contacts, multiple locations, lack of data uniformity for organization and contact names, and data entry errors for the same entity or contact in your data files. The matching algorithms from a CDI/MDM solution match and link the same and related entities and contacts and correlate the data by hierarchies based on the solution’s numbering schema. Without a correlating numbering schema, the business intelligence tool cannot properly report counts and provide business intelligence based on information using a combination of separate data silos.
Priority #6 Creating new products or services (innovation)
There are many ways that an organization can go when it comes to creating new products and services. Typically, an organization wants to leverage its existing customer base, service capabilities, or something else related to the organization when developing a new product or service. Analyzing an organization’s data is the key to understanding where the opportunities for leverage exist. The CDI/MDM solution’s ability to correlate data so that report counts are accurate and information from separate data systems can be combined for reports are critical in performing the analysis that will help determine the new product or service and how it is marketed, sold, and delivered.
Priority #7 Targeting customers and markets more effectively
A CDI/MDM solution can help with targeting customers and markets more effectively in many different ways. Here are some examples:
- By properly counting the number of contacts for an account or prospect that meet the criteria for follow-up, unnecessary expenses of sales and marketing follow-up with duplicates or other contacts who do not meet the criteria can be eliminated.
- By properly counting the number of customers, prospects and linking information located in separate data sources (firmographics, products purchased, revenue earned, contract renewal dates, outstanding service issues, etc.), decisions on target marketing can be made more effectively.
Priority #8 Managing change initiatives
Similar to my commentary on Priority #1 Business Process Improvement, CDI/MDM software’s ability to properly count and to utilize information from multiple data sources can play an important role in measuring and managing the change initiatives that have been targeted for improvement.
Priority #9 Expanding current customer relationships
A Single Customer View across separate data sources (sales, financial, customer service, external data, etc.) can help a sales rep see the opportunities for up-selling. Further, if the sales rep can see all the organizations and contacts that are related to a customer as part of the Single View of the Customer, the rep now has the opportunity to cross-sell to those related entities and contacts. Similarly, marketing can use the Single Customer View to develop up-sell and cross-sell campaigns.
Other departments, such as customer service and accounting, can also use the Single View of the Customer to help build relationships with current customers. For example, customer service reps that see in another data source that has been linked that a proposal is being considered by a customer, can take even greater care than usual with that customer. Accounting, if they spot an issue with customer service, may want to inquire first before sending out a payment past due notice.
Priority #10 Expanding into new markets and geographies
Analysis of internal data assets along with external data is critical in determining where to make investments in new markets and geographies. Proper counts of customers, prospects, and suspects combined with information such as revenues, SIC codes, and other information that is found in separate data sources provides the insight as to what markets and geographies have potential for successful expansion. A CDI/MDM system makes the counting and querying across systems possible.
Top Technology Priority in 2009
One final point, the Gartner EXP Worldwide Survey also stated that Business Intelligence is the Top Technology Priority in 2009. As mentioned above under Business Priority #5, to increase the use of information/analytics across separate data silos data needs to be correlated by a numbering schema. CDI/MDM applications make the data correlation happen so that you can get the most out of your Business Intelligence applications.