The Wikipedia definition of Customer Data Integration (CDI) is short and clear:

Customer Data Integration ( CDI ) is the combination of the technology, processes and services needed to create and maintain an accurate, timely and complete & comprehensive representation of a customer across multiple channels, business lines, and enterprises typically where there are multiple sources of associated data in multiple application systems and databases. CDI is commonly used in Master Data Management, and enables access to information describing everything known about a customer including all attributes and cross references, along with the critical definition and identification necessary to uniquely differentiate one similar customer from another. Customer Data Integration relies heavily on the standardization of data and overall data quality. Therefore, large corporations and those with large amounts of data often set up data governance teams to manage the CDI process.

SQLstream's Continuous Data Mediation (CDM) solution described in our MDM solutions page provides an effective vehicle for building and maintaining effective Customer Data Integration (CDI) solutions.

We view CDI as a specific application of Master Data Management (MDM). For a more comprehensive discussion of SQLstream's MDM Continuous Data Mediation (CDM) solution please visit our MDM page.

SQLstream's CDM solution addresses the following requirements of an effective CDI initiative:

• Distributed collection of CDI from many external applications, databases, message buses and other enterprise data sources

• Transformation and aggregation of disparate data sources

• Central management of the entire collection, transformation, aggregation and continuous ETL process

SQLstream's Continuous Data Mediation

SQLstream Continous Data Mediation (CDM) solution:

• Allows automatic instrumentation of any existing CDI central repository, using SQLstream's RDBMS Data Change Capture solution to

  • interpret the repository schema

  • capture all changes to the data (inserts, deletes, edits, upserts

  • generate equivalent transaction RAM streams
    
    
• Allows automatic instrumentation of the databases of each individual application that contributes to or manages any element of customer data databases, again using SQLstreams RDBMS Data Change Capture solution, as described above
  
  
• Handles application log files where databases are not used or available for instrumentation, using SQLstream's Log File and Log4J adapters
  
  
• Handles application data collected from Enterprise Message Buses to which applications publish customer changes, using SQLstream's JMS Adapter

SQLstream's RAMMS is then used to achieve continuous near real-time transformation and mediation of data from one or more sources to as many destinations as are required.

Orchestrating the CDI Process

SQLstream's RAMMS CDM solution enables orchestration of the entire complex process of collection, aggregation, transformation, and synchronization across disparate data models for all of the master data and their components. All of the transformation, aggregation and routing logic is expressed as declarative SQL.

SQLstream's CDM-based CDI solution provides for:

• Automatic RDBMS Data Change Capture for sources of customer data

• Fully declarative logic, enabling you to express what data you require using declarative standards-based SQL rather than specifying how to procedurally process the data

• High-performance processing and throughput comprising thousands of records per second

• Pre-aggregation of data before loading into a central CDI data warehouse, supporting a wide range of third-party solutions

• Optional integration with the leading open source Relational OLAP solution (Mondrian)

Enabling Additional CDI Applications

SQLstream's CDI solution approach also provides a natural platform to create and enable a wide range of new applications through repurposing the captured data streams of customer data.

By defining new SQL views over the streaming CDI transactions, you can create continuously evolving views of changes to customer data, such as changes to the following:

• Demographics, credit worthiness, total value purchased

• Individuals' details or aggregated into changes at the account level

• Customer orders or returns

• Customer profile

Complete new applications can be built using only a few SQL statements to perform the following real-time operations:

• Alerting, through email or otherwise, when a customer purchases or returns a historically unusual amount of goods

• Generating qualified leads for other products by performing cross-selling analysis based on demographics and purchase history

• Adjusting discount entitlements based on individual or account aggregate (or arbitrary aggregates such as friends and family) purchase levels either historically or within a given time window

• Continuous order forecasting based on real-time customer purchase patterns

A few high-level SQL queries captures each of these applications, reusable across a number of applications by using SQL Views, and centrally managable as part of your strategic dynamic data assets.

SQLstream enables and performs all of this based on industry standard SQL repurposed for CDM and continuous alerting.

SQLstream enables building such solutions at a small fraction of the cost of development using other state-of-the-art alternative technologies such as Enterprise Service Buses (ESB) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) integration technologies.

SQLstream creates an even smaller cost of ownership going forward, slashing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) through allowing

• easy central management,
• high-level rules based on familiar standards-based declarative SQL, and
• easy reuse through views.