Customer Relationship Management

by Venkataraman Ramanathan

"Rocky cuts an upper and a jab to the ribs, boy is the champ getting his due or what!!" Yeah, a Rocky fan where reruns are never boring with Eye of the Tiger running at the background. The series cannot be more inspiring than the spirit that was showcased in the final Rocky movie Rocky Balboa. But, let me bring this to context quickly. What I am looking at are the sharp jabs and cuts that he was able to take and was still able to win and stand tall. Well, how about pitching MDM and BigData in the ring and see how the ol' one-two matches up with the size/volume of data in the emerging enterprise-scape? MDM in an indomitable spirit is what a business needs to realize and benefit from.

Interesting it is, that we see many instances of huge amount of data in projects at client sites where there is a struggle to identify the number of master data attributes in a domain (be it customer, location, asset, product, chart of accounts et.al). Is there a nominal value for example, 60 or maybe 70? In that case what has been the volume of records that have been observed when you have more than one data domain in picture? We are seeing a shift in the way MDM needs to work in the future and the transition is something that is visible across many experiences across the world.  It goes without saying how the Cloud (yeah, it helps the TCO) will help the future of MDM in an enterprise but, it cannot assume more importance given the shift that we are seeing in terms of the data volume that the MDM system in an enterprise has to handle. Recent "outings" on various assignments made me face this question which was inherent given the regulations that companies need to adhere to and the number of master data entities that they need to handle as part of their enterprise business. Couple that with M&A's and you are staring at that one big Red glove closing in on your face faster than you expect.

The MDM world is an ever-expanding one given the context of the amount of structure and unstructured data that enterprises stare at every day. So time for some introspection -
1. How should I handle unstructured data?
2. What are all the sources of unstructured data that matter for my business?
3. How can BigData help me? - The big red glove can be a helping hand rather than the one cutting you across the face
4. How do I need to factor in BigData in my MDM journey?
5. Does the market or my existing vendor have good profiling and integration tools to handle BigData?
6. How will MDM and BigData costs pare against each other in a multiple vendor situation?
7. Will the business encounter issues on the Integration front that can sideline the original plan?

Oh, there are many more but this should get us thinking of how this will affect our business in particular. Data itself is a complex maze that needs to be looked through with a fine lens and then sorted and used. System integrators will need to factor in the handling of this giant Red Glove as part of their workspace to cater to the ever increasing needs of their clients. Big Master Data Management - now that is a new ring and a new acronym which we need to quickly factor in and separate the essentials (more of that in another rant). It is important to realize that the influence a disruptive technology or concept can bring in will spawn newer areas to handle that change. So is the case, where as we speak, data will be and is available to you in a distributed form and in a network where it is more service centric. This fuels the journey towards more efficient data management in particular to master your data in the context of the 'big brother' - BigData.

I will leave you with the following from the Eye of the Tiger (= data for me) which cannot emphasize more of the change that we all are part of.
"It's the eye of the tiger, it's the cream of the fight
Risin' up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he's watchin' us all in the eye of the tiger"
What is your POV on this thread? Have you experienced and handled issues of BigData on a strategic and tactical level in your organization or line of work in the context of MDM?

Posted by Guest Blogger at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In this age of Social CRM, the ability of any company to successfully engage with their customers depends a great deal on a well-defined "Social" MDM strategy.

Social MDM by its very nature presents unique challenges and thus opportunities as well to companies as well as technology partners.

One of the basic outcomes of any Master Data Initiative is to create a golden view of a profile from disparate sources. In case of Social MDM, this profile is that of a customer (existing or prospective)

One of the biggest challenges in Social MDM is to identify correctly all the sources of this customer information.  Google Plus, Google's latest and perhaps the most compelling competitor to Facebook thus far adequately underscores this challenge. All companies who have a social CRM strategy in place overnight need to tweak it to make sure they are reaching out to all the prospective customers who decide to move or to Google+ or at least maintain a dual presence across the networks.

As individuals become more and more concerned about their online presence, it may become more challenging for companies to reach out to customers.  Some feel Facebook today is about transparency; the more information we put about ourselves, the more the marketers stand to gain from it. Not everyone is comfortable with this and Google Plus sensing a need offers various enhanced security options to users so that they can decide what kind of information they would like to share and with whom? Increasingly social networks are likely to become less transparent and more "closed" to everyone beyond a select set that the user chooses. In such a case the traditional "push" strategy of marketing is unlikely to work. Companies need more a "pull" strategy where in prospective customers see definitive value in the company's offerings.

The initial success of Google Plus also shows that the nothing is permanent in the realm of social networks. Facebook was once considered the last word in social networking; however the initial success of Google Plus (20 million? and counting) is likely to encourage many more players to enter this space targeting niche customers. A fully mature social networking model is likely to have a slew of social network sites each targeted towards a specific audience. The challenge in this case will be for a company to correctly identify the social networking sites that its intended audience frequents else it would be talking to wrong audience in the first place.
500 million profiles on Facebook seem like a huge captive audience for marketers but as discussed above, it is likely that we are going to have an end state of several social networks of significantly smaller subscriptions. The challenge for companies is to trace their customers as they move across social networks to ensure that changes in the customer's social networking habits do not lead to break in the "conversation" with the customer. The company's MDM should store relevant information to enable the marketing team to identify the same customer as he moves across the web.

In addition to retaining the existing customer, the challenge is to identify new prospective customers in a changing social networking landscape. It is here that companies need to rethink their social MDM strategy. A social Master Data hub will in time need to evolve to  beyond storing demographic  and financial data and store subjective information like attitudes, moral beliefs, aspirations etc. so that marketers can align their brands promise to the correct target audience as it moves across the cyber world.

Google Plus may succeed or fail. Only time will tell. But the writing is clear on the wall- companies need to rethink their social marketing strategy and therefore their social MDM strategy so that they can meaningfully engage their target audience on the World Wide Web.

Posted by Gautam Prabhakar Begde at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Guest Post By

Jakki Geiger, Director, MDM Marketing, Informatica

It's no secret that outstanding customer strategies produce positive business outcomes, including stronger customer loyalty and higher revenue. Yet the art of achieving a high degree of customer centricity within a business has been a challenge in all aspects--organizational, processes, and systems.

Now organizations are turning to master data management (MDM) to address these challenges and are realizing remarkable results. In fact, leading industry analysts have called MDM the "secret sauce" of CRM 2.0--a technology that enables companies to finally achieve the complete customer view they need to power highly effective sales and service.

But what are the key considerations in using MDM for customer centricity? How do you choose the best architectural style and integrate MDM with CRM and data quality tools? How can you use MDM to improve cross-sell and up-sell, and manage consumer privacy and compliance with such regulations as the Do Not Track Bill, now under consideration in the U.S. Congress?

Infosys address these and other questions in a new and informative white paper, "MDM--The Cornerstone of Customer Centricity", which highlights the root cause of customer data issues that organizations are tackling with MDM. Unless yours is one of the few truly customer-centric organizations, these issues probably sound familiar:

• Incomplete customer information owing to lack of data, including missing data attributes and lack of relationships and hierarchies (household, business, etc.)
• Incorrect customer information due to multiple systems capturing the same information differently
• Multiple customer records since multiple systems duplicate records resulting in more than one record
• Inability to capture and display historical interactions appropriately owing to a lack of one consolidated record

These problems can't be solved simply by throwing MDM at the wall and hoping it sticks. Companies embarking on the MDM journey need to assess their unique challenges and tailor the MDM solution to their specific needs and IT environments. They also increase chances of success by following some of the MDM best practices that are emerging from deployments at organizations in a variety of B2B and B2C industries, including:

• Consider MDM as an integral part of the customer management program, along with CRM initiatives
• Focus on sales- and service-related MDM impacts across the landscape (ERP/CRM/web, etc.)
• Focus on cleaner data flow throughout the organization--starting at the source systems
• Ensure governance to educate data custodians of the impact of their data operations across the organization
• Provide an organizational structure to address governance issues at regular intervals

For insights and practical guidance on how your organization can put MDM to use to power customer centricity, I'd recommend downloading the new Infosys white paper.

Posted by Jakki Geiger at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

by Sinoi Daniel Mathai

The most compelling reason for a customer to want to 'friend' you on the social web is when a connection based on similarity in values and interests is established.
As touted often, a significant benefit Social CRM enjoys over Traditional CRM methods or even traditional channels is the intimacy of the relationship a business can establish with its customer. The level of engagement and experience one can have with an existing and a potential customer is unmatched compared to other sales/communication channels. Getting into the friend's circle of a customer is thus central to the strategy for a business targeting customers on social media. However, getting into the special, sought-after zone is, biblically speaking, similar to a camel passing through the eye of a needle.

Put simply, customers do not want to be your friend.
Now, if you own a cult brand, your customer already loves you. But if not, a normal customer, even a loyal one at that, does not actively try to be your spokesperson. (By the way, did I mention how absolutely in love with my iPad2 I am?)  
A not so scientific, but a detailed scan through my friend's list and a thorough snooping through my friends' friends in my social network reveal that my extended network consists of roughly 4 categories of friends. As modern marketer you aim should be to get your brand into one of these friend circles and get your customer to advocate on your behalf to these friend circles.
1. The Cool ones - This includes my paleontologist friend from Denver who goes on fossil hunting expeditions from time to time or my pilot friend who moonlights as an urban landscape photographer.
Cult brands typically own the space for cool friends and it is difficult for every brand to attain this status. However, to gain new customers a brand needs to enter this circle of friends. Companies could always associate themselves with social causes and activities which its target audience considers relevant and attempt enter this space.

2. My Real friends -I hang out with them often, in the real or virtual world. We share similar interests, like the same brands and are outraged by the same things. I have multiple groups of such friends and they are mostly like me.
For a brand to enter this inner sanctum, it needs to be like me. The most compelling reason for a customer to want to 'friend' you on the social web is when this connection based on similarity in values and interests is established. This circle is the most powerful, as users unconsciously advocate on behalf of your brand. A quaint little Vietnamese restaurant in my neighborhood is frequent hangout of my friends after one of us had a great experience dining there and tweeted about it quite persuasively.

3. The Other friends - My acquaintances, I know them from school, college, previous workplaces. In my case, they make up for most of the bulk in my friend's list.
Typically an existing customer, loyal to your company, considers you in the 'other friend's' circle. Being in this friend's circle is akin to being part of the pile of unread mailers in a mailbox. Companies need to constantly endeavor to graduate into the circle of real friends where the customer can be actively engaged.

4. Family - To get into this circle you need to be family.  So, it is difficult to conceive that any customer would consider a corporation a part of this circle. However, the customer's ability to influence and persuade members in this circle is very high and hence a company could always market products and services specifically to this circle. Outside the social media, companies constantly market products to cater to one's family and similar promotions can be performed on the social web too.
To sum up, it is a well-known fact that customers prefer to give their business to a friend rather than a corporation. For a modern marketer in the present climate of the growing influence and popularity of social media, becoming a 'friend of your customer is the means to exploit this behavioral trait of a customer.
Adding a word of caution, if you manage to become a friend of your customer, you need to consistently act like one. As difficult as it is to penetrate into the friend's circle of a customer; the easier it is for the customer to de-friend you, if you start behaving like a business again.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)