In my previous blog post I explained master data management (MDM) and its importance in the context of the consumer and the customer experience. In this post, I look ahead and shed some light on what we can expect from a technology and customer experience perspective in the near future, as the growing expectations from consumers are currently driving businesses in new directions - and with that, they are also driving MDM.

Several Stibo Systems employees recently attended the Gartner Data and Analytics conference, the largest they’ve hosted, with over 4,200 people in attendance and the most vendors to date. Our booth enjoyed excellent traffic, with multiple prospect conversations across verticals, titles and business needs. We conducted several very positive analyst meetings, shared a presentation in the Gartner Showcase area and even celebrated our 225th birthday with a great cake and interview with Niels Stenfeldt! Over the three and a half days, the team and I, as well as the other attendees were bombarded by a lot of hype around emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and Internet of Things (IoT). Some of the hype was similar from previous summits, and some was new. The one constant across the last few years is, while master data management (MDM) is not as sexy as these technologies, desired business outcomes cannot be delivered without clean, high-quality, trusted data enabled by the foundation of robust MDM.

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by TAG’s (Technology Association of Georgia) Julie Bryant Fisher. As someone who works in the master data management industry, it was an interesting and eye-opening reminder for me. It made me realize that most people not working directly with data management, data governance, ecommerce systems, etc., often do not know exactly what master data management (MDM) is – or even what master data is – much less what a significant impact it has on the average consumer.

With this in mind, I want to take this opportunity to explain MDM from a consumer perspective.

To reiterate what Tom Redman – aka the “Data Doc” – discussed in his Customer Data: Conquering the 360-View of Your Customerswebinar, the lifeline to business success lies in building customer loyalty and retention as they generate higher revenue. This seems self-explanatory; however, he went on to tell attendees that to achieve this loyalty, “… best-in-class organizations must have a complete 360-view of their customer data in order to respond accurately and intelligently to their customer demands, trends and expectations.”

As marketers, we are constantly challenged to create superior customer experiences that can leave a positive impact on the brand. That is no easy task because customer data and the related information needed to understand them is often located in disparate/siloed systems that prevent us from seeing the whole picture. Thanks to the explosion of the digital economy, we no longer need to convince the C-suite that a 360° customer view is necessary to provide the experience that consumers demand. The real challenge lies in creating that all-encompassing customer view, as a large majority struggle to establish this holistic view.