The data volume in our world today is exploding at an alarming pace, and the IDC estimates that the digital world is going to increase to 40 zettabytes of data by 2020. In research done by Northeastern University, it was discovered that 2.5 EB (exabytes) of data are produced on a daily basis; this is equivalent to the storage availability in 150 million iPhones. Social media, brand websites and mobile phones interactions are the locations where data generation occurs. For most brands, they struggle to keep updated with the growing data volumes in the market.
To solve this problem, Master Data Management (MDM) aims to normalize all data that is collected into a canonical record. But what is master data management? Companies like Profisee who understand MDM know that it is a company’s effort of creating a single master source of preference for the business data, to reduce errors and lower redundancy.
In MDM, different data sources are joined on specific topics like customer data from the website or CRM, and a centralized database is created to process, cleanse, and unify all the information that is related. To this end, MDM creates a central location for the availability of data. This is a critical solution considering the increasing volume of data and the multiple sources of generation.
The MDM solution can have a significant impact on strategies of customer engagement. Since we live in the era of the connected and empowered customer, any solution that enables strategies of customer engagement has to be implemented.
Master Data Management (MDM) and the empowered & connected customer
IT experts have been the ones who have been handling master data management because IT has historically been the controlling factor of data in an enterprise. Unified data is the solution to the era of the connected and empowered customer. Customers seem to be visible in all channels, both physical, and digital. When a company has a centralized point of collecting customer information, then they can provide great interaction to enhance engagement.
At this point, an MDM solution will help you have more detailed customer records that involve customer preferences, behaviors, and history of the interaction of the whole customer base. The capacity of an MDM to ensure that there is data quality is essential for engaging with an omnichannel customer. Without adequately managed quality data, brand executives cannot provide meaningful interactions that customers need. But by using an MDM solution, it can help your business to come up with insightful customer engagement strategies.
Master Data Management (MDM) for customer engagement success
The capabilities of MDM regarding data governance, data deduplication, and data stewardship are vital to the success of customer engagement. If the business has a single defined view of the customer, then they can quickly get the content they want to pass to the customer.
One of the challenges of the MDM is that updating the master data requires human input that involves regular placement of batch updates which can be slow. Since customers are present in different channels throughout the purchasing process, even the fastest data patch update cannot be useful in this type of environment.
When you add MDM capabilities into a CDP, Customer Data Platform, you will accomplish the task of updating the master customer data and ensure that it is actionable at the pace of the customer. The good thing about a customer data platform is that it allows an always-on and always processing profile of a unified customer at low latency. When you add the MDM functionality, it ensures that data stewardship is applied in a flexible manner that is adaptable. When the MDM is paired with scalability and flexibility of the CDP, it becomes more powerful.
MDM has gained a lot of attention over the last few years. MDM ensures that users operate from a centralized location of records using the most recent data. Since the omnichannel consumer continuously generates more data, brands need to concentrate on maintaining a customer’s single-view. MDM enables this functionality and uses this kind of capability with a CDP to ensure that companies can benefit from the insights they need at any given time and within a short time.
As we see more data explosion every day, brand executives need to be focused on maintaining a single customer view if they want to meet the needs of the connected user with meaningful interactions.
In summary, when you think about “what is master data management, and how it can impact your business” consider implementing it in your company to truly understand how it works to help you build a more profitable business.