The Benefits of a Single Customer View

social crm dissertation wordle (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

The promise of a single customer view is nothing new to CRM. But is there a comprehensive list of the benefits that such a promise might be able to deliver? Today on the Informatica Perspectives blog, Dina Elsokari took a crack at not 10, but 12 benefits.  It’s also notable that she talked about single customer view benefits without once mentioning cloud master data management or any associated technology for that matter. Well done!

Here’s her list:

1. Increase upsell and cross sell opportunities
2. Identify your most valuable customers
3. Higher customer retention
4. More targeted product development
5. Clearer targets for your marketing initiatives
6. Increased ROI on marketing campaigns
7. Credible forecasts
8. Respected reporting
9. Supporting data for a possible merger or acquisition
10. A sales culture, not a data gathering and cleansing culture
11. An increased adoption of Salesforce
12. Controlled risk

Be sure to check out the entire post and provide your feedback here.

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More 2013 Technology Predictions

I posted a few cloud data management predictions on the Informatica Perspectives blog this week:

1. Master Data Management will catch fire in the cloud
2. Cloud deployment options will extend the universal reach of MDM
3. Integration will help broaden PaaS adoption
4. “Governed self-service” will become the Hybrid IT mantra
5. Integration will surpass security as the primary barrier to cloud adoption in the enterprise

For the first time in a few years I didn’t mention anything about cloud-based analytics / business intelligence. In fact, I didn’t mention much about Social, Mobile, Analytics or Big Data. Seems like there’s not much more to say, beyond pointing to Mary Meekers technology forecast.

I must admit that I didn’t see this week’s Oracle acquisition of Eloqua coming. I thought Marketo would be a more likely target. In fact, that was the rumor circulating back at Dreamforce 2012. IDC predicts more aggressive spending on SaaS acquisitions by traditional enterprise software vendors in 2013. Here are the IDC Predictions: Competing on the 3rd Platform:

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From SaaS Spree to SaaS Sprawl to SaaS Sanity?

I wrote earlier in the week that cloud integration suddenly seems cool. A few articles this week  reminded me that it’s not just about cloud integration, it’s about cloud data management. And in many cases, it’s about the need for Cloud Master Data Management.

• Cloud Services Becoming Foundational: “Through 2016, a hybrid model (cloud and captive systems) will become the platform of choice, a transitional platform en route to a future dominated by public and private clouds. By 2016, 75 percent or more of new enterprise spending will be cloud-based or hybrid according to Saugatuck’s research.”
• Geoffrey Moore: The Next Decade Will Be About Systems of Engagement: “Moore forecasts the emergence of an enterprise-focused tech industry that will offer workplace versions of consumer technologies that people actually will like to use. He imagines there will be enterprise versions of Facebook, Facetime, Twitter, etc.”
• And bringing it back to Cloud Master Data Management, Mike Vizard wrote about the concept of “Two-Tier MDM” noting:  ”as integration issues become more pressing in the cloud, IT organizations are once again going to discover many of the same MDM issues that have plagued their internal operations for so many years — only this time it will involve a lot more applications that they have less control over than ever.”

It seems we have we gone from a “SaaS spree” to “SaaS sprawl” and now finally to “SaaS sanity”?

Here are three brief videos that explain at a high-level how the key capabilities of a cloud master data management (MDM) solution can help deliver SaaS sanity:

 

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#DF12 Presentation: Power the Connected Enterprise with Cloud MDM and Integration

The video of 3 great enterprise customers sharing their Salesforce integration and master data management stories at Dreamforce 2012 is now posted. You can read a blog post on two of the companies that presented so far:

• OppenheimerFunds Dreamforce Story: Lay a Foundation of Trusted and Complete Customer Information for Salesforce
• Interstate Batteries Dreamforce Story: How Can You Be #1 Without Trusted Customer Information?

And here’s the video (slides are here):

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Cloud Connect 2012 Conference Highlights

The day before Dreamforce 2012, Informatica hosted the first annual Cloud Connect Conference.  The event kicked off with a keynote outlining the company’s cloud integration vision, a deep-dive roadmap session with product management, a customer and partner panel, hands-on labs with the cloud integration gurus, and the 2012 Cloudy Awards ceremony.  Here is a video highlight reel from the event:

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Stuck in the Post Dreamforce Cloud #DF12

Have you recovered from Dreamforce 2012? Next week I’ll be at Oracle Open World talking about cloud integration and to be honest, I’d much rather write about the Marc Benioff show than register for Larry’s World at this point. (Although, I do wonder if we’ll see the 2nd tweet from Mr. Ellison and what his position will be on all things cloud this year. Remember the @Benioff  boot out last time around? Some classic tweets.

I guess like a lot of people you could say I’m stuck in the PDC (Post Dreamforce Cloud) at this point. I’ve been spending time in the Dreamforce Chatter org reviewing sessions, watching YouTube videos and reading a plethora of blogger opinion about the conference (see links below).  Sound familiar?

To bring back some of the #DF12 energy, today I hosted a webinar focused on some of the Dreamforce data management highlights. The presentation congratulated the 2012 Informatica Cloudy Award winners and featured live demonstrations of two of the hottest topics at the Informatica booth:

• Salesforce and SAP integration
• Master Data Management for Salesforce

You can download the slides and watch the recording here:

Informatica Cloud @ Dreamforce 2012 from Darren Cunningham

Denis Pombriant wrote one of the best summaries of Dreamforce I’ve seen so far here.  I also enjoyed his interview with Brent Leary from CRM Essentials.

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Salesforce Customers are Asking for Big Data Management #DF12

Two things stuck out for me at Dreamforce 2012:

1. What an amazing ecosystem Salesforce has built. The Cloud expo was packed with high-quality booths and there were over 3000 people at the partner keynote! Congratulations to the partner success team and kudos on the newly designed Appexchange.
2. How important cloud integration / enterprise connectivity has become to Salesforce customers, partners and prospects. These two slides from that same partner keynote say it all:

When it comes to the back-office, Big Data Management apps top the list of Salesforce customer requirements. Oh, and by the way, all new cloud applications must connect across the business.

Today two post-Dreamforce 2012 articles caught my attention that address the need for cloud integration head on. In his post – Plumbing the Salesforce Clouds is Your Business, Mark Smith from Ventana Research notes:

“The challenges your organization faces with data are getting larger, and the financial benefits of data in the cloud, such as reduced TCO and reduced implementation fees, are substantive. Too much time and too many resources are wasted in manual approaches where data is transitioned inconsistently and incorrectly. Automation helps organizations rationalize their overall information management efforts.”

Joshua Greenbaum at Enterprise Applications Consulting has this to say his his article, Salesforce.com, Enterprise Platforms, and the End of the End of Software:

“And the tools are there, or on the way. Hence the refrigerator pitch, though it was interestingly devoid of details on just how easy it will be to build an integration framework that could tie together a Pandora-like pure cloud environment or a more common hybrid cloud/on-premise environment. But heck, that’s really hard. It took SAP years to get NetWeaver out of slideware mode and into simple and easy to implement mode, despite all their efforts. So I don’t expect Saleforce.com to settle this issue in just one Dreamforce. It will take a while, no doubt.”

I’ll write about the Informatica Cloud integration and MDM session later this week on the Perspective blog. In the meantime, I’ve embedded the slides below so you can see for yourself how three enterprise organizations have taken advantage of data integration, data quality and master data management technology to drive overall Salesforce adoption and success. It’s Big Cloud Data Management in action!

Power the Connected Enterprise with Cloud Integration and Master Data Management (MDM) from Darren Cunningham

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Cloud Master Data Management from Informatica

I’ve written about the topic of cloud-based master data management (MDM) in the past:

1. 2012 Cloud Data Integration Trends
2. What do Salesforce.com Customers Care About?

This week Informatica announced the availability of a new Cloud MDM solution for salesforce.com customers. Here are a couple of perspectives on the news:

1. Will Salesforce be the Catalyst to Propel MDM to the Cloud?
2. Mind the Gap: How Sales Operations Can Overcome Five Customer Information Gaps in Salesforce

If you’re new to the topic of MDM and want to learn why a cloud-based solution built natively on force.com is so relevant to salesforce.com customers, be sure to check out this video:

2012 Cloud Data Integration Trends

Ok, there’s a lot I know I missed (usage-based integration services and the role of a vibrant Marketplace come to mind), but here is my set of 2012 cloud data integration predictions:

1. Get Ready for Data as as a Service
2. True Cloud MDM will Emerge
3. Analytics as a Service is Ready for Prime Time
4. Enterprise PaaS Adoption Leads to Integration Platform as a Service
5. IT as a Service: The Conversation Continues

You can read the complete post on the Informatica Perspectives blog.

I’d love to hear any feedback and input you might have on the topic. We discussed some of these and other trends in a webinar today with Jeff Kaplan from THINKstrategies: Doing Data Right in the Cloud – How the Best Companies are Getting it Done. Here’s the recording on YouTube:

Happy Birthday Informatica Marketplace

On Monday, Informatica is celebrating the one year anniversary of its Marketplace. According to this blog post from Scott Geffre, Informatica Marketplace has become “the trusted destination for data integration solutions” and the company will be sharing customer and partner success stories on a celebration webcast to mark the event.

I recorded a brief video to thank the Marketplace for helping the Informatica Cloud team deliver over 40 “blocks” on the Cloud Mall.

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