| Customer data integration can be seen as the practice | | | | integration is about working within the scope of the |
| of collecting, collating and then managing customer | | | | current application structure so that it results in high |
| information that may have come from a variety of | | | | quality information. |
| sources available within your company. Once this data | | | | There are five major levels of integration that most |
| has been consolidated will includes the details of the | | | | public and private sector organizations in UK use |
| customer, customer valuation data, as well as | | | | integration for: |
| information that has been acquired using direct | | | | User interfaces or portals |
| marketing or interaction, such as campaign that require | | | | |
| a "call to action". | | | | 1. Collaborative tools |
| If integration is performed correctly with targeted data | | | | 2. Business processes or associated systems |
| models then this results in the relevant departments | | | | 3. Applications integration |
| within the company to have constant access to the | | | | 4. ETL (extract, transformation and loading), enterprise |
| most current and complete customer information | | | | information integration and enterprise content |
| available. | | | | management tools. |
| Therefore customer data integration is itself a | | | | The ability to be able to integrate data using data |
| significant element of the total Customer Relationship | | | | integration techniques reduces such time-intensive |
| Management. Customer Relationship Management | | | | processes such as data entry, printing of reports, and |
| allows you to use methodologies; software and | | | | the manual consolidation of data produced by different |
| contact capabilities that enable an company manage | | | | applications. |
| customer relationships effectively. | | | | Point of sales systems, payment processing solutions |
| A proper integration strategy minimizes risk and | | | | and bookkeeping systems can also be interfaced via |
| ensures the delivery of projects on time and within | | | | the use of integration techniques meant to eradicate |
| budget. But data integration is not just about matching | | | | the need for duplicate entry saving you loads of time |
| and linking data but is also about being able to access | | | | and money. Planning for automation and it will enable |
| correct data sources when it is required. Data | | | | you to enhance your business. |