From the dawn of MDM, we heard about the importance of having a 360-degree view of customers. But in many ways, those early MDM solutions were an illusion. Their primary purpose was customer data integration—blending and harmonizing customer data from internal operational systems. How can you get a full view of customers using only your internal enterprise data? Every customer is much more than a composite of their transactions and interactions with your company. To fully understand customers, you need to know about their relationships with products, people, and places beyond the boundaries of your enterprise. You need data—big data—and the ability to see relationships in and draw insights from that data.

So what is a customer 360 strategy? It is a strategy that builds unified, consistent and governed data views across all relevant sources, to analyze customer needs, influences and behavior. Executed well, it generates insights that drive targeted marketing and sales programs, and guides product innovation and strategic planning.