One customer lost through ineffective marketing means a massive expenditure on acquiring new customers to make up the lost revenue. This is more apparent as we move into the e-business environment. As companies move to establish more effective relationships with their customers, the need to achieve a complete view of each customer's dealings is recognized as critical. At the same time the cost and quality of interacting with customers is now a major business issue. A direct result of this is the development of company-wide customer relationship management strategies, representing a combination of business processes, information management tools and, importantly, customer data.
Customer data forms the foundation to build effective customer relationships.
To be effective, customer data must meet the highest possible standards of both quality and integrity. Often the impact of poor-quality customer information is fully understood only when attempting to unify customer data from disparate business systems. While data within individual databases may be fit for the purpose for which it's collected and used, combining data from a range of sources for a new and different purpose poses a real threat to the effectiveness of entire customer relationship initiatives. Java and Java-based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. SYS-CON Publications, Inc. is independent of Sun Microsystems, Inc.