PeopleSoft Cleans Data Warehouse
PeopleSoft ( Nasdaq: PSFT - news) announced that it has integrated its enterprise data warehouse application with information-quality software from Firstlogic -- the first data-cleansing vendor chosen by the company for this task, according to PeopleSoft vice president Paola Lubet.
Data quality has been a stumbling block for a number of early CRM efforts, analyst say. Moreover, data discrepancies will become more of an issue for enterprises in the near term, as customers gain greater access to data warehouses through Internet and self-service systems, Aberdeen Group research director Guy Creese told CRMDaily.com.
Cleaning House
Data warehouses are becoming more popular as central repositories of information used for many purposes, and the chances for data irregularities or errors are correspondingly on the rise.
"Through 2005, more than 50 percent of data warehouse efforts that integrate data from multiple systems will fail as a result of lack of attention to data-quality issues," Gartner ( NYSE: IT - news) senior research analyst Ted Friedman said.
"Poor quality of data is a primary reason that most large enterprises do not get the return on investment they are seeking from their business intelligence strategies," he added.
The Big Picture
Lubet told CRMDaily that the value of actions taken that are based on highly touted analytics depends on data brought together from a range of sources.
The PeopleSoft executive offered an example of how data compilation can improve customer relationship management:
If marketing analysts notice that a particularly profitable customer had a dip in spending in a certain quarter, they might attribute it to late bill payments or other reasons. However, if the same report also showed that the company had problems with order fulfillment during that period, the customer's actions reducing the orders made could be understood better and the fulfillment issues could be addressed to prevent ongoing customer frustration.
Drilling Down
While integration has been a buzzword in CRM circles for a good while, it means different things to different stakeholders.
When industry experts talk about system integration, they often speak of the technical complexities of getting one application to communicate with another. However, another meaning of the term is the ability to merge information from one application with data from other apps, as in the case of data cleansing.
Issues arising from that level of integration are beginning to get the attention of executives responsible for CRM initiatives, Aberdeen analyst Creese said.
Self-Service Perils
Creese explained that Internet-based CRM applications have introduced opportunities for more data-entry errors and more opportunities for customers to see those errors.
For instance, a customer entering a shipping address when making an online order might incorrectly type "River Street" instead of "River Road." Then, when the shipment does not arrive, the customer will call the company with a complaint.
"This can get very expensive from an operational point of view," said Creese. "Not only does the company have to eat the cost of the first shipment and [the cost of] making a second shipment but it might also have to issue a gift certificate or discount to the irate customer."
It is not sufficient to blame the problem on the customer who entered the incorrect data in the first place, he said.
The Real Data
Back when the content of databases was displayed only to internal company personnel, data discrepancies could be handled discreetly. A customer service representative, said Creese, could handle a data-error issue with a customer and then correct the database later.
However, as more companies make their customer records available to the customers themselves, the problems with "dirty data" are there for everyone to see.
Companies consolidating multiple CRM systems are especially vulnerable, Creese said. The customer master record from a sales force automation system may have been entered several years ago -- and then along comes a new billing system, or a service application, and the newer apps might contain additional or different sets of data for that customer.
"Even if you're well meaning, and you type correctly," said Creese, "it's a mine field." |
