Headline
Development of legacy systems into class leading entity resolution engine supporting Customer Data Integration requirements for global Marketing Services Organisation.
Details
Achieving a Single Customer View (SCV) is often seen as the holy grail of marketing / CRM programs. Reaching this goal can be very difficult in large complex organisations where customer data exists in multiple formats and locations and may be continuously changing.
A key component of any SCV solution is the decision making engine which has to decide, when presented with data on two or more customers, are these the same entity. A sophisticated and useful entity resolution engine must be capable of:-
- Delivering multiple data views – same individual, same family, same household.
- Dealing with ambiguity e.g. J Smith vs John Smith vs James Smith.
- Using reference data to resolve uncertainty.
- Managing incomplete / poor quality / changing data.
- Correcting decisions based on new data being available.
Lessons Learned
- Relationship between data quality and matching rules can be delicate.
- Continuous improvement is essential.
- 100% accuracy is unlikely – think defensively.
- Maintain vision and focus.