Customer 360: Why Forward-Looking Enterprises Use Data Hubs

In part one of this series, we explained why you need a Customer 360 to create a unified and actionable view of your customer data for CRM and other use cases. In this post, you’ll find out why a data hub is the right platform for developing your Customer 360, and how leading enterprises have deployed a MarkLogic Data Hub to build 360° views for improved customer data management, analytics, and applications development.

Why a Data Hub for Building Your Customer 360?

A data hub is a platform that allows data architects and engineers to accelerate integration of all existing and new data types and models, and safely deliver the curated customer data needed to improve information discovery, insights, and applications development. Well-curated and governed data is foundational for successfully developing artificial intelligence programs, such as natural language processing needed for building customer service chatbots.

Over the years many organizations have invested in different technologies, such as data warehouses, data mining, and dedicated Master Data Management (MDM) software, to build out the data management and analytical capabilities for their CRM systems. Today, those legacy investments are proving to be sub-optimal for efficiently integrating and centrally managing the heterogeneous data sources and structures found in silos across most organizations.

Overcoming Limitations of Legacy Technology

With this patchwork architecture of specialized engines and toolsets, enterprises are spending more time and resources transforming and searching for data, and less time using data assets to deliver new customer insights and value. With growing data variety and velocity, the limitations of data warehouses, data lakes, and other single-purpose technologies are creating growing IT complexity and risk, and impediments to developer productivity.

To overcome these legacy limitations, leading enterprises deploy a data hub. The MarkLogic Data Hub is a unified data platform that combines the flexibility of a multi-model database with a comprehensive set of capabilities to curate all of your customer-related data for improved data governance and usability. As such, it is the optimal platform for developing a 360° view of all customer data and metadata.

Forward-looking enterprises invest in cloud data hubs to solve immediate and longer-term technology needs for simplifying data integration, improving governance, and streamlining DevOps to accelerate delivery of customer insights and applications, all while reducing IT complexity and total cost of data infrastructure.

Using MarkLogic to Deliver CRM Success

At MarkLogic, we are fortunate to have forward-looking customers that understand the value of a data hub in delivering current and future solutions for their customers (a.k.a., clients, members, policyholders, patients, citizens, beneficiaries…). Here are some examples of those use cases:

Creating a 360° Customer View to Drive Rapid Business Transformation

ALM a business-to-business information and intelligence media company, recognized the need to rapidly transform operations in order to continue to grow. To achieve these transformational goals, ALM created a 360° customer view to capture revenue opportunities with new content distribution. With help from the MarkLogic platform, ALM grew its content business by creating tailored products, grabbed new revenue opportunities with new content distribution, and then increased the value of its content by connecting it to other data in order to create a complete picture of its customers.

Building Innovative Applications Using a 360° View of Customer Data

Hannover Re’s hr | ReFlex application is a modular automated underwriting system that provides immediate and risk-adequate decisions directly at the point of sale. The cloud-based app runs on MarkLogic, which integrates data and provides Hannover Re with a 360° view of critical customer information that is accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date.

Improving Health Services for 800,000 Beneficiaries

The mission of Human Services Departments (HSD) at the US State level is to ensure that every beneficiary who is entitled to benefits and support services receives them. One state HSD wanted to deliver a “stakeholder-centric” system that would better aid their mission to improve services to – and outcomes for – their constituents. To accomplish these transformational goals, the HSD selected MarkLogic to deliver a secure, complete, and adaptable 360° view of citizens, providers, and hospitals for new health analytics and integrated case management, eligibility, and verification.

Driving Better Policyholder Experiences with a Customer Information Management Platform

A Fortune 500 P&C insurance company, winner of numerous customer excellence awards and longtime MarkLogic customer, deployed a data hub to modernize its data architecture, create a 360° view of its customer data, and accelerate the delivery of solutions for policy origination, verification, and claims management.

Creating Differentiated Asset & Wealth Management Solutions

A global top-tier asset and wealth management company was struggling to develop the next-generation digital products and services its clients demanded because of poorly integrated IT infrastructure and siloed data. Using MarkLogic, the company developed a unified 360° view of all customer, portfolio, and transaction data, enabling it to create differentiated solutions for its asset and wealth management clientele.

To Learn More

It’s critical that you select the right technology to power your Customer 360, or 360 of anything. Here are additional resources to help you evaluate the right approach for developing a Customer 360 using the MarkLogic Data Hub:

• MarkLogic Smart Mastering: Faster MDM Without Buying MDM
• Master Data In Minutes With Smart Mastering