Pforzheim, Germany, November 2003. In pursuit of sharpening their competitive edge, companies are focusing more and more on standardizing and consolidating enterprise-wide data. In ERP, CRM or data warehousing projects, access to complete customer information is essential. As specialist for data quality software solutions, Uniserv supports integrated multiple-system management of address and customer information via Collaborative Master Data Management (CMDM).

Creating a CMDM system is possible either on the basis of components from Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and address management or via a standard system with open interfaces.

Irrespective of which platform is used, with the CMDM approach master data can be collected and then integrated from various heterogeneous applications and IT systems. The information thus created is an essential precondition for enterprise-wide business processes. The result is greater cost-effectiveness and maximized ROI because all of the information about a customer stored anywhere in the company is accessible at once.

Collecting, Consolidating and Cleansing Data
The main task of CMDM systems is to collect all information stored in the company, to consolidate it in a master database and to make this central data resource available and consistently maintainable to all areas of the company. To do this, incomplete, erroneous and redundant data must be identified, corrected or deleted and then protected from future contamination in an integrated maintenance process. On the basis of this solid substructure, data can subsequently be filtered, automatically distributed to heterogeneous applications and IT systems and accessed by the targeted user.

Advantages at a Glance
The concrete benefits of integrated, multiple-system customer management in the sense of CMDM are the strengthening of general performance capability, the ability to react faster to changed market conditions and the development of an effective communication policy. CMDM also supports companies in drastically reducing external costs for determining a customer's credit standing, since relevant customer information already exists in other company areas. Moreover, due to integrated maintenance, all users automatically have access to information updates. Other advantages are clearer supplier profiles and centrally available quality assurance measures.