Data Duets: The Intricate Dance of Customer Data Platforms and Master Data Management

muscular female dancer rehearsing in spacious studio

Modern data management sometimes seems not dissimilar to choreography, two principal dancers take center stage—Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and Master Data Management (MDM) systems.

Picture, if you will, a ballet unfolding in the customer data management arena, where the movements of these entities, though distinct, create a symphony of strategic decision-making and personalized customer experiences.

Gazing upon the prima ballerinas, the Customer Data Platforms, gracefully twirl personalized customer engagement. Imagine them as the virtuosos of real-time data processing, they seamlessly weave a tapestry of customer profiles from myriad touchpoints—websites, mobile apps, and CRM systems.

This data ballet not only captures the nuances of each customer but does so with an agility that allows organizations to engage in a pas de deux, delivering precisely timed, personalized content.

The elegance of CDPs may lie in their ability to create unified customer profiles that evolve in real-time, reflecting the ever-changing interactions and preferences of individuals. It’s not just data; it’s art, where segmentation and targeting become the variety in costumery for tailored marketing campaigns. The grand finale is the cross-channel activation, where CDPs seamlessly synchronize customer data across marketing and advertising channels, creating a harmonious experience that resonates like a well-composed concerto.

Pivoting to the background stalwarts, Master Data Management maestros, they orchestrate the timeless ballet of data integrity. You could envision them as the custodians of a grand library, safeguarding the definitive versions of core business entities such as customers, products, and employees.

MDM in general terms ensures a single source of truth, eliminating the cacophony of inconsistencies and ensuring a unified narrative across the organization.

MDM’s brilliance lies in its commitment to data quality management—the meticulous process of validation, cleansing, and the imposition of robust data governance. This focused attention ensures that master data remains the steadfast foundation, enabling the organization to navigate the complexities of decision-making with a reliable compass. It’s not just about systems; it’s the meticulous archival process where every entry is a carefully curated piece in the organizational entourage.

Comparing these two performances reveals a ballet of contrasts and complementarity.

CDPs take enter stage in the dynamic world of real-time, personalized customer engagement, offering insights that inform targeted marketing campaigns and responsive interactions. In the wings, MDM solutions provide a steady rhythm for broader organizational functions, fostering cross-business unit consistency in the understanding of the customer.

The magic unfolds in the integration of these performances—a dance where CDPs waltz with marketing tools and CRMs, creating a seamless tapestry of customer activation. Simultaneously, MDM performs a lock-step progression of data excellence with diverse enterprise applications, ensuring that customer master data remains the backbone of organizational decision-making.

This collaboration isn’t just about the steps; it’s about the nuanced narratives that emerge. It’s an ensemble with case studies—real-life vignettes that illustrate the successful implementation of these ballets across industries. In retail, CDPs create personalized marketing crescendos, complemented by Customer MDM ensuring consistency in product information. In financial services, CDP insights lead to tailored financial product recommendations, supported by Customer MDM maintaining the accuracy of customer account information.

Pretectum CMDM provides business differentiation from traditional MDM on several levels principally because there is a strong focus on Customer MDM in particular.

With CMDM the difference when compared with general-purpose MDM includes the table stakes characteristics of Integration, Data Quality Management, Data Governance, Data Mastery, Data Lifecycle Management, RBAC, Metadata Management, Data Syndication, Hierarchy Management, Audit and Compliance, Scalability, and Performance but is augmented by deduplication services, consent, zero and first-party data collection and verification through the lens of federated customer master data management.

Yet, like any ballet, there are nuances to navigate. The challenge lies in pirouetting through the nuances of data privacy and security, orchestrating scalability, and ensuring budgetary harmony. Change management becomes a graceful arabesque—a cultural shift within the organization that requires finesse and communication.

Peering into the future, emerging trends become the avant-garde movements of this exhibition. AI and machine learning take center stage, infusing sophistication into data analytics and predictive modeling. Technologies like blockchain potentially become the prima donna, lending an air of immutability to data integrity. Cloud-based solutions, like Pretectum CMDM; the rising stars, offer flexibility and efficiency in a world where agility is paramount.

Customer Data Platforms and Master Data Management are not merely technological integration; they are ballet performances of strategic collaboration. Organizations that embrace the pas de deux, recognizing the unique movements each brings to the stage, find themselves in a duet of innovation and excellence. The symphony of data management, conducted by CDPs and anchored by CMDM, becomes a masterpiece—a narrative that transcends individual transactions and customer interactions, resonating as a timeless piece of art in the business world.

Comparing Customer Platforms

There are several types of customer platforms that businesses use to manage their customer data.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platforms are used to help businesses manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer journey.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) ERP systems integrate customer data from various sources, such as sales, marketing, and customer support, into a single location. Overall, ERP systems can provide valuable tools and functionality for managing and analyzing customer data, and can help businesses to more effectively engage and retain customers.

Helpdesk/ticketing systems allow customers to submit support requests and track their status.

Live chat platforms enable businesses to communicate with customers in real-time through a chat interface.

Social media management tools allow businesses to monitor and respond to customer interactions on social media platforms.

E-commerce platforms provide businesses with tools for managing online sales and customer data.

CDPs (Customer Data Platforms) collect, store and manage customer data from multiple sources in a single location, providing a unified view of the customer; allowing businesses to segment and target audiences, personalize communication, and optimize marketing campaigns.

DMPs (Data Management Platforms) are systems that collect, store, and organize data from various sources in order to create audience segments for targeted advertising. They allow businesses to target specific groups of customers with relevant ads and content, and track the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns.

BI (Business Intelligence) platforms, provide businesses with tools for analyzing customer and transactional data and help with making informed decisions. These platforms typically include tools for data visualization, reporting, and analytics. They allow businesses to gain insights into their operations, customer behavior, and market trends and use that information to optimize their strategies and improve their performance.

These are just a few examples, and there are many other types of customer platforms available depending on the needs of a specific business. Each of these platforms is specialized in a specific field and serves different purposes, but all of them provide valuable insights and allow businesses to make more informed decisions.

An MDM (Master Data Management) platform targets managing, cleansing, and maintaining a single, accurate view of the customer. A CMDM, dedicated to customer master data management focuses on all this functionality but exclusively in the context of customer data management.

A CMDM provides the business with tools to ensure the accuracy, completeness, and consistency of customer data by providing data quality management, data validation, and data auditing capabilities.

The consolidated customer data from multiple sources into the CMDM, from systems such as CRM, ERP, social media, eCommerce, etc results in a single, unified view of the customer helps the business to more effectively focus marketing efforts, improves customer service, and helps to make more informed decisions.

CMDM solutions can help businesses to protect sensitive customer data by providing data encryption, user access controls, and data masking capabilities.

CMDM solutions can integrate customer data with other systems, such as data analytics platforms, to gain insights into customer behavior and preferences.

Overall, CMDM solutions can help businesses to improve the quality and accuracy of their customer data, which can lead to more effective customer management and engagement.

Defining some differences

A CDP (Customer Data Platform) typically ingests, stores, and manages customer data from various sources in real time. The focus is on creating a single customer view by combining data from different sources, such as website interactions, email campaigns, and CRM systems. The main goal is to make customer data available in real time to other systems, such as marketing automation, analytics, and personalization platforms.

Any CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is commonly used to manage customer interactions and relationships. The focus is on managing sales, marketing, and customer service activities.
The main goal is to provide a centralized view of customer interactions and to support sales and marketing activities.

A DMP (Data Management Platform) is used to manage and segment large amounts of data. DMPs focus on collecting and managing data from different sources, such as website interactions, email campaigns, and CRM systems. The main goal of a DMP is to segment and target customers for advertising and marketing campaigns.

A CMDM (Customer Master Data Management) manages and maintains the accuracy and consistency of data across the organization. Focused on creating a single version of the truth for the customer master, the main goal of the CMDM is to ensure that data is accurate, consistent, and up-to-date across the organization.

The optimal solution for your organization may depend on many factors, however, don’t assume that your organization doesn’t potentially need any or all of these types of systems.

Each needs to be considered for its own merits.

Feature*CRMCDPDMPPretectum
CMDM
Zero Party Data
1st Party Data
2nd Party Data
3rd Party Data
Reports and Dashboards
Data Storage
Data Cleansing and Enrichment
Privacy and Consent Management
Integrate many data sources
Real-time functionality
Notes and tags
Deduplication
Single Customer View
Identity Resolution
Sensitive Data Handling (PII)
Data Anonymization
Long Term Data Retention
Schema/Model Definition
Data Segmentation
Audience Creation
Data Quality Management & Reporting
Used for Advertising
Used for Email List Creation
Multi Data Set Support
Used for Website Chat Integration
Role-Based Access Control
Used for Website CX Personalization
Used for Mobile Integration
Used for CLI Integration
Multiple Department Uses
Data Syndication
Open Platform (API Integrations)

*These are general features of platforms that use these terms, specific feature sets will vary from platform to platform and between different vendors

Contact us to learn more about how you can take advantage of the Pretectum CMDM advantage

Working the customer data master

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Acquired data comes with a myriad of potential issues. Whenever possible you want to originate your own data or at least have some understanding of the heritage of that data. This is particularly true when it comes to customer data.

Collecting customer data as the primary is largely considered an expensive exercise and one that not everyone can afford to engage in.

Owning your own data is by far and wide an advantage. Owning the sourcing and curation of customer master data, in particular, is something that with the Pretectum CMDM is now possible and in fact improved, even for organizations that have strong data traditions or no data collection heritage at all.

Irrespective of whether you have just a few thousand records or hundreds of millions, the approach is fundamentally the same.

Define the data, define the business rules, define the distribution and then incrementally build the data. cycle data through as many streams of finishing until you are happy with it and only then commit it to your master data repository.

Splice, merge, slice, and dice it into as many shapes and super and subsets as makes sense for the needs of the business.

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When examining the data you have, or data that has been made available to you, you need to consider at least three key elements.

Meaning

What is the fundamental meaning or significance of this data to the organization? Is the data meant to serve as a single source of truth a golden record, an immutable reference that you will always point to as an external keyed identifier for the customer and definition?

Purpose

What do you have in mind for what you want to do with this data? Is the purpose of this data integration, selling, reselling, targeting, redistribution, marketing, finance and accounting, logistics, and health? What are the consequences of potentially duplicating or missing data in the customer records, who will it affect, and what costs might be incurred or benefits forfeited?

Fitness

The topic of data quality is a focus for all types of data held by the enterprise but the data that is stored in the customer master is of particular importance because the customer is a point of convergence for so many areas of organizational data processing.

In healthcare, having multiple copies of the same patient can make for ill-informed healthcare decisions as administrators and healthcare professionals struggle to take advantage of a unified patient profile and history. In the banking, insurance, and financial services sector it obscures the credit exposure and vested interest of the individual making it tough to assess the risk and value of a client. In the public sector, having a person defined more than once risks oversubscription to public and social benefits, under-reporting of repeat offenders, and over distributions of concessions or access.

In retail and anything that involves marketing, not only does it provide only partial views of customers, it also leads to confusion, transactional friction, and unnecessary additional costs, particularly in relation to communications.

With Pretectum CMDM you have complete control over not just the meaning, but also the purpose and fitness of your customer master data whether you created it, migrated it, or simply acquired it.

If you’re building data for CRM, ERP, CDP, or an EHR, Pretectum will be an indispensable help for you in support of any and all of these objectives. Why not consider a free trial?

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