Being an MDM manager certainly means being in demand and at the center of attention. The reason is as simple as it is awe-inspiring: as an MDM manager, you’re leading the charge for providing high-quality data, developing the master data strategy and overseeing system acquisitions and integrations. You collaborate with a variety of stakeholders – planners, program managers, product developers, marketing professionals, supply chain managers, senior management and executives. If your organization has a chief data officer (CDO), it’s likely your work contributes to the decisions that person is making.

If you’re like most organizations, chances are you are struggling to understand the connections found in your disparate silos of information. We live in a virtual, technologically advanced world, and the reliance on technology by both companies and their customers for conducting day-to-day transactions and interactions only continues to increase. The number of systems holding this critical data is vast and fragmented, each operating independently of one another. The challenge of identifying and reconciling data across these disparate and siloed systems makes creating a complete and accurate view of a company or customer almost impossible. This is because no single system contains this view across all departments or lines of business or is designed to manage the complete lifecycle of the data.

In my previous post, I discussed the next evolution of CRM, which involves using master data management (MDM) as the foundation to provide a comprehensive understanding of your target audiences. I covered data issues present in many CRMs today, including missing, antiquated and inaccurate data, and how MDM can help overcome them. In this post, I reveal the many ways complete, unified customer data improves business outcomes and delivers value to organizations and customers alike.

“The purpose of a business is to create a customer.” - Peter Drucker

Every day, businesses around the world deploy customer relationship management (CRM) in the hopes of selling faster and smarter, building engaging experiences, delivering personalized messages and more. Gartner estimated CRM software revenue reached $39.5 billion in 2017, overtaking database management systems revenue to become the largest software market globally. 

As a marketing manager with the responsibility of qualifying leads and serving users with relevant content, CRM is your most valuable tool.

Of all customer data systems, your CRM should contain the most fine-grained view of your customers. There are some caveats, though. In order to address customers and users in the most relevant and personalized way, it's crucial to keep the data clean and trustworthy.

What is business ethics? And, when is a company being ethical (enough)? Once a simple question, that was fairly easily answered, by taking a look at the products or services the company was offering and how they did it. Today, it’s so much more complicated, as data now is part of the business mix—and with it, an enormous responsibility to act ethical beyond the obvious.

As a marketer, there is nothing more aggravating than launching a campaign that you have been working on only to get bounce backs rolling into your inbox, or even more embarrassing, a pile of direct mail returned straight to your desk.  Sadly these events are more common place than we want to admit, but they don’t have to be.

Every year marketers across the world waste millions of dollars because of poor data. Poor data can not only impact your company’s bottom line, but it can also devastate your brand’s image.

You live in an era where you need to prioritize building offerings around individual customers.

Do you know what one of your customers bought from you last month? Can you predict what they’re going to buy from you this month? Are you able to call them by their first name?

If not, then you could be missing out on additional revenue, since "93% of companies see an uplift in conversion rates from personalization." Your customers expect a personalized and relevant experience when they interact with you. Whether you’re able to deliver that depends on how well you know them. And, how well you know your customers relies on your data management.

The National Retail Foundation’s annual Big Show conference in New York is always a great opportunity to assess the state of the industry, see what new trends and technologies are coming around the bend and, most importantly, hear what’s on the mind of retailers as they continue to adapt to a rapidly changing consumer environment. The consumers imagination and expectation is that all systems and processes are connected, but a reality check shows that business are catching up with meeting those expectations.