As enterprises establish a presence on the web, they open up a whole new source of customer and operational data. Every time a web site visitor clicks on a link, makes a purchase, or submits a request for more information, a piece of data is recorded. The aggregate of all of a visitor's movements on a web site is called the clickstream. Clickstream data provides a record of customer behavior at a granular level of detail that has never before been possible. E-business operations are not the only source for the rising tide of data.
Customer data comes from a host of different channels, only one of which is the enterprise web site.
Customer service operations also capture data about customer complaints and requests, which needs to be integrated with data about purchases and shopping habits in order to achieve a complete view of customer behavior. In addition to customer data, enterprises need to manage data from operational sources. Operational data comes from all internal enterprise activities - manufacturing, finance, and human resources, to name just a few. These activities are crucial to the survival of the enterprise, and the resulting data needs to be gathered in order to achieve a true picture of organizational performance. The increasing complexity of customer and operational data, and the growing number of data sources, make it imperative for every enterprise to have an action plan for collecting and sharing information.