Looking for a clearer view of the customer

摘要

Customes can be a demanding lot. And busi-nesses are finding that without a consolidated view of their customer data, meeting those ever-higher cus-tomer expectations is tough. "I have a customer-relationship-management system that has a customer master [file]. I have an order-man-agement system that has a customer master. If the infor-mation between those sys-tems doesn't agree, which one is true?" asks Steve Canter, CIO of Berlin Packaging LLC, a $200 million-a-year maker of rigid packaging for con- sumer goods. "The biggest problem I have is determining what my source of truth is." Customer-data-integration technology was in the spot-light last week when IBM said it would acquire DWL Inc., a privately held developer of the software, for an undis-closed price. The deal will close later this year.