Data consolidation is a process of integrating data from various sources into a single, unified view. Most businesses have issues with disparate data sources, which have stacked up throughout the years. Numerous factors contribute to the improper connection of multiple sources.

Sometimes, after mergers and acquisitions, a joined company continues using their CRM and similar tools, adding a layer of complexity to consolidating data. Some companies exhibit organizational silos, where marketing and support departments seldom interact, resulting in suboptimal use of tech stacks and dispersed data.

And sometimes, the sheer amount of data as well as legacy systems used make data consolidation an enormous project challenging to take on by already undermanned IT departments.

Regardless of why data consolidation hasn’t yet made it to your company’s to-do list, there are numerous reasons to embrace the challenge.

Here are five significant benefits of consolidating customer data.

1. Improved Marketing Campaigns

Consolidating customer data provides a comprehensive view of customer behaviors and interactions, but it can also include various external data, such as competitors’ financial reports or media mentions. This unified dataset provides a clear customer view, ensuring marketers make decisions in a more informed way. With a unified data set, businesses can segment their audience more effectively, tailoring messages and offers to specific groups based on detailed insights. Additionally, this resolves the age-old problem of contacts getting offers they shouldn’t have. This results in higher engagement rates, increased customer loyalty, and ultimately, a better return on investment for marketing efforts.

For example, an insurance company can use consolidated data to identify customers who are most likely to upsell based on demographics and their previous behaviors. Then, they can send personalized promotions via channels each individual customer is most likely to engage with. This leads to a rise in the probability of sales and a reduction in the campaign’s expenses, as the targeted customer base shrinks and conversion rates rise.

Additionally, a company investing in digital advertising can use generated customer segments on digital platforms to optimize CPC and ROAS.

2. Improved Customer Support

One undoubtedly frustrating experience for customers is when they contact customer support and the agent on call is unaware of their previous interactions through a different channel. Most commonly, this happens because different departments use different software, i.e., sales and marketing using Salesforce, and support departments rely on legacy ticketing systems. 

Consolidating data empowers customer support teams with complete and up-to-date information about each customer’s history and interactions with the company. When a customer reaches out for support, representatives can quickly access their entire profile, including past purchases, previous support tickets, and communication history. This enables faster resolution of issues and a more personalized support experience.

Customers feel valued when they don’t have to repeat their information or history, leading to higher satisfaction and loyalty. Additionally, identifying trends in customer issues enables a proactive approach towards improving products and services.

3. Easier and More Accurate Reporting and Analytics

Have you ever been in a meeting that ends with “let’s meet two weeks from now, so we can gather all the data”? I don’t believe there’s a single person who hasn’t.

More often than not, two weeks later the data is still incomplete, and the stakeholders can’t really agree on the numbers shown. 

Disparate, fragmented, and disconnected systems are the reasons for this. When consolidated, data truly becomes a single source of truth. Suddenly, marketing and sales departments work with the same numbers, predictions become more accurate, and decisions get made during a single meeting. 

Consolidating data is the first step in generating an accurate report, and it is a starting point for any analyst keen on detecting business opportunities. Proper consolidation of data makes maintenance easier and less time-consuming compared to working with disparate sources.

4. Long-term Savings

In every business, time is money. While the initial investment in data consolidation might seem substantial, the long-term savings are significant. Maintaining multiple, disconnected data systems is costly in terms of technology, manpower, and time.

 Consolidating data simplifies system maintenance, eliminates the need for redundant storage, and cuts down on the time required for data reconciliation and error correction. Additionally, streamlined data makes it simple to access any relevant data points, helping business leaders draw insights and make decisions faster.

Businesses also benefit from reduced compliance costs, as managing a single data repository is easier and more secure than overseeing multiple databases. 

Generally, as organizations expand, the amount of disparate data increases, necessitating additional storage and staff. Additionally, the complexity of handling data increases, leading to a significant increase in all costs. Timely consolidation reduces maintenance costs, but it also reduces future cost increases as the organization grows.

5. Faster Project Implementation

Pretty much every business or technology project is reliant on data. Quick access to data is detrimental from the beginning point of assessing the project’s profitability and viability all the way through to project reviews and reflection.

Implementing new projects becomes more efficient and faster with a consolidated data infrastructure.

Teams can access all necessary information from one place, accelerating the development of new analytics models, customer insights projects, and other data-driven initiatives. This agility allows project managers to quickly access data, reducing the need to involve additional staff or analysts to bring in the data. Furthermore, less staff also means fewer resources are spent on project onboarding, syncing, and reporting, accelerating project execution.

How to start a data consolidation project

When ready to save significant money and increase growth opportunities with data consolidation, a company may ask themselves where to start.

Starting the journey toward data consolidation involves assessing a current data landscape and identifying the key sources of information within the organization. From there, it’s important to make a strategic plan to integrate these sources into a single platform while taking account of the available resources and uninterrupted business operations. At this point, the goal may seem unattainable due to limited IT resources or outdated legacy systems lacking proper data extraction features, but proper data mapping can help with dividing the project into smaller, attainable sections.

Hiring an experienced agency is one way to simplify managing data consolidation projects. Engaging an external agency to assist with data consolidation provides several advantages.

• Expertise: Agencies bring specialized knowledge and experience, ensuring a smoother and more efficient integration process. 
• Operational efficiency: Hiring an agency will not put an end to other IT projects the company may have, thus maintaining company productivity even during the implementation phase.
• Clear and faster timeline: With experience, agencies bring in much more accurate estimates of project duration, making it easier to plan the start of new projects that consolidation will enable. Additionally, the agency, solely responsible for the project and not burdened by everyday company operations, can handle the project much more efficiently.
• Budget control: Ironically, while budget is usually the most common reason for companies to handle data projects in-house, with unexpected challenges, need for additional training and education, or loss of productivity on other projects, it’s usually more cost-effective to hire an agency and easily calculate the costs that project will bring.

Check out the data consolidation project we did for Ever.ag, a leading AGtech provider. 

To conclude, benefits of data consolidation can be summed up into two main categories that every business should care about. Long-term cost reduction and opening up new business and technological opportunities. As with most data projects, the longer it is delayed, the messier the data becomes, making it beneficial for every company to start the project sooner.