Customer Data Integration: Reaching a Single Version of the Truth

THE TRUTH ABOUT MANAGING DATA AS AN ASSET

Nowhere is this truer than with customer data. Indeed, our esteemed Foreword writers, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, have advocated that customers themselves should be considered assets to a company.¹

It’s helpful to consider the definition of the word asset here. Webster’s defines an asset as “a valuable item that is owned,” but in general an asset has four qualities:

1. It has value.

2. Its value can be quantified.

3. It helps a company achieve one or more of its strategies.

4. There is an awareness of the asset’s importance among company management and employees.

For example, a retailer’s inventory is usually considered an asset. A bottle of shampoo on the shelf has value—the retailer has paid for it and a customer will hopefully buy it. The shampoo’s value can be quantified, since it has a cost and a purchase price. And the shampoo can definitely help the retailer fulfill its strategy of generating revenue. Other examples of corporate assets include a company’s stock, its fleet, its cash, its knowledge, and its real estate.

If a company believes its customers are indeed assets, information about them should likewise have value. And it does. Many companies have quantified the value of their data in different terms, but most often:

• The data’s contribution to revenues and profits

• The data’s role in enabling efficiencies and cutting costs

• The opportunity cost of not having the data

It’s not hard convincing executives that ...