I have several times witnessed how a sales department for a lot of good reasons has forced the implementation of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software package disconnected from the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system and other applications where customer master data have been handled until then.
The good reasons have been that the current applications didn’t fit the business processes in a dynamic sales department and perhaps that the current monolithic enterprise solution was too inflexible for the business needs in sales.
While this move may have been a great success in sales force automation the downside is often that the single customer view has been limited to a single customer view seen from the windows in the sales department offices.
In order to have a 360 degree view of customer you have to cover all the view points in the enterprise embracing all departments being in contact with the customer and thereby accessing and maintaining customer master data.
Those who feel the pain when a company doesn’t maintain such a view is the customer and those who enjoys when a company have that view is the customer.
Lately I had two experiences as a customer. A bad experience facing a lousy approximately 110 degree customer view from a phone company and a well executed 360 degree view from an insurance company. Both cases haven’t been around one of my favorite subjects being identity resolution. Both companies have my citizen ID.
It is just so that some companies cares more about single department business needs than true customer relationship management. IT’s a mess.
Liliendahl on Data Quality 