Executive Summary:
A B2B customer, renowned for its strong customer relationships and commitment to the community, aimed to migrate its on-premises MDM solution to a SaaS-based MDM platform (IDMC) to optimize the management of customer data. The primary objective was to enhance the existing implementation with more robust solutions and build a comprehensive SaaS MDM system from the ground up, leveraging advanced features such as Data Integration (CDI), Data Quality (CDQ), Data Profiling, Reference 360 (R360), B360, C360, and CAI. These capabilities were utilized to create “golden records,” empowering the Marketing and Customer Relations teams to deliver highly personalized customer experiences and refine communication strategies.
This transformation underscores the significant advantages of adopting a modern, cloud-based MDM platform, enabling the organization to address legacy challenges while unlocking new opportunities for growth and engagement.
Customer Challenge:
A B2B customer relied on an on-premises MDM system supported by multiple platforms like PowerCenter and Data Quality to manage customer data. This fragmented approach resulted in several challenges:
- Maintenance Complexity: Managing multiple platforms such as PowerCenter, Data Quality, MDM, and databases required significant effort and multiple teams, leading to increased maintenance challenges.
- Disjointed Communication: Marketing and Sales teams struggled to deliver consistent engagement across channels due to poor data quality, making it difficult to obtain accurate golden records.
- Limited Data Visibility: Teams operated in silos, with restricted access to unified customer insights, hindering collaboration and decision-making.
To address these issues and modernize its data infrastructure as part of a cloud transformation initiative, the customer required a greenfield Master Data Management (MDM) implementation. The goal was to centralize data management on a single platform, enabling the standardization of customer data, creation of master records, and generation of actionable analytical reports for data analysts and stewards.
Why Informatica’s IDMC SaaS?
The customer chose Informatica’s Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) for its robust suite of MDM tools. Featuring components such as CDI, CDQ, C360, and B360, IDMC provided a comprehensive, end-to-end solution tailored to their needs, facilitating seamless master data management and delivering improved customer insights.
The Solution:
A modernized architecture was developed and implemented using:
- Oracle for Data Warehousing.
- Informatica IDMC for Master Data Management.
- Power BI for generating audit and analytical reports.
Key Implementation Steps:
- Data Integration: Informatica CDI was utilized to ingest data from customer sources, including SFDC, DNB and OC, into Oracle’s Raw Zone.
- Data Transformation: IDMC’s self-service tools, such as Smart Fields, DaaS Validation, and Address Verifier, were employed to validate customer addresses, phone numbers, and emails.
- Golden Record Creation: Match-and-merge rules were configured to create unified Golden Records, with the C360 UI allowing data stewards to manage and resolve merging exceptions effectively.
- Data Accessibility: The transformed data was moved to Oracle’s Analytical Zone, enabling analysts to access it for generating insights and building reports using Tableau.
The implementation provided several key benefits:
- Improved Data Visibility: Verified and up-to-date customer records are now readily accessible across all departments.
- Enhanced Marketing Efficiency: The Marketing team can now create personalized messaging tailored to specific customer segments.
- Consistent Customer Communication: Seamless engagement across all channels and teams ensures consistent and unified messaging.
- Actionable Insights: Accurate audit and analytical reports drive better decision-making and strategic planning.
- Instant Data Access: Being a cloud-based platform, IDMC facilitates real-time access to data whenever needed.
- Reduced Maintenance Complexity: Managing the cloud platform is significantly easier with fewer teams, resulting in decreased complexity.
By embracing cloud modernization and Master Data Management (MDM), the B2B customer has significantly enhanced the visibility, accuracy, and accessibility of its customer data. This scalable solution also opens the door for advanced use cases, ensuring it is well-equipped for future needs.