Business Objects now provides the deepest data quality capabilities for Siebel's extensive worldwide customer community.
Business Objects software was the first solution of its kind to seamlessly interoperate with Siebel CRM Applications. With over 100 mutual customers and over 100,000 seats, the list of satisfied customers continues to grow. In fact, Siebel Systems internally employs Siebel Data Quality and Business Objects solutions together to enhance the effectiveness of its marketing campaigns.
Business Objects certified data quality technology can be linked to any Siebel CRM Application. This integrated solution offers a powerful method for cleansing, enhancing, and matching data to create a single customer view. It's important to remember that by adding a "cleansing" process to your data quality solution you improve the integrity of customer information and help gain the maximum value in customer-definable matching rules.
Data Quality for Siebel Frequently Asked Questions
What is data quality?
Data quality can be defined in several ways. Within Siebel CRM Applications, data quality is defined as standardizing and consolidating customer accounts, contacts, and prospect data. This is done by cleansing and enhancing the data; and combining related records to avoid duplicate entries — allowing you to create a single record view.
How can a data quality solution be implemented into Siebel CRM Applications?
Business Objects works directly with Siebel Systems to make this easy. Many of Business Objects libraries seamlessly integrate with the Siebel CRM Applications you already own. To "turn on" data quality, a user must purchase Siebel Data Quality (available from your Siebel salesperson) AND purchase the Data Quality software modules from Business Objects.
After acquiring the tools, installation is simple. Business Objects and Siebel Systems have worked together to supply this out-of-the-box solution for you – avoiding costly integration typically associated with third-party applications.
When and where should I integrate data quality into my Siebel CRM Applications or other projects in my enterprise?
Data quality should be integrated any place where data is entered, loaded, processed, or updated. Data quality should be built into the beginning phases of all eBusiness, Customer Relationship Management, Business Intelligence, and Enterprise Resource Planning projects. Too many projects focus on data quality as an afterthought, at the back-end of a data repository or when a project has failed. By not incorporating data quality measures at every customer touch point, on both front and back-end operations, the cost of cleansing the data dramatically increases as well as how long the cleansing process takes to complete.
Can I integrate a data quality solution within other software applications?
Data quality solutions can be fully integrated into CRM, ETL (Export Transform Load), ERP, or BI solutions and have the advantage of being "seamless" to the end user — reducing the learning curve, as well as decreasing the implementation timeframes. Your data process flow should not have to be modified to add a new data quality solution. Through integration and strategic partnerships you are assured that you are getting market-leading technology.
Will a data quality solution handle my global data?
Yes. To build a relationship with your global customers, it's first necessary to have a precise, single customer view. Customer data quality on a global level can be achieved in much the same way as in the Americas. Look for vendors that allow you to identify country names, format and standardize addresses, correct missing address information, and assign postal codes for each respective country. Localizing an address is also critical to effectively target your customer. For this reason, be sure your software provides regional language translation for multilingual countries as well as full recognition of diacritical characters. With a good data quality tool you can reach your customers whether they are next door or halfway around the globe. Business Objects has integrated its global address correction tools with Siebel CRM Applications; so again, you simply need to purchase the countries you need.
How easy is it to maintain a data quality solution after implementation?
On-going maintenance should be minimal. Once the solution is implemented and configured, typically maintenance will be required only when you receive a new release or decide to change your application or business rules.
What are the benefits of a data quality solution?
The biggest benefit is the confidence you have that your data is accurate. A data quality solution also allows you to:
- Manage customer data in different formats on separate databases
- Consolidate multiple identities of the same customer across several legacy data sources, and create a single customer view
- Help organizations build and maintain successful relationships
- Provide quality information so businesses can do a better job of understanding and servicing their customers
- Enhance knowledge management and business intelligence initiatives with reliable and accurate information
- Enable enterprises to deliver clean, reliable data throughout their expanding information supply chains to all varieties of operational and analytical applications
How much does Business Objects Data Quality Connector for Siebel CRM Applications cost?
Several factors are used to determine the price of the software, including the number of seats (licenses), as well as the overall database size.
How does Business Objects Data Quality Connector for Siebel CRM Applications work?
You can take advantage of the connector in two ways - batch and real-time. In batch mode, a Siebel administrator can cleanse, standardize, and eliminate duplicate accounts OR contacts OR prospects (each is run independently - i.e. prospects NOT matched to contacts). Furthermore, a Siebel administrator has the option to either manually or automatically resolve duplicates.
In real-time a user can enter new contact/account/prospect data, and Siebel Data Quality will immediately invoke the data quality solution. The tools can perform up to three tasks (each can be turned on/off by the user or administrator):
- Address correction (i.e. change Maybery to Mayberry Ave NW)
- Name casing and firm word standardization (change ibm corporation to IBM Corp.)
- Matching – display possible duplicate accounts so user can either choose to pick a possible duplicate OR close the duplicate suggestion window and enter a new account/prospect/contact.
