When this newsletter first got started, I went into the world of legacy tech and how it could impact the integration work. This was something that has been around for a very long time, and has also changed over the years as we have changed our communication habits.

With this week’s challenge for the CIO/integration team, there are two facets that will need some special attention:

  • The layout of the data
  • Synchronizing the data

Today we cover the layout of the data.

Most of the time, you couldn’t care less about how the data is structured. Some of this will be specific to the application you are using and others will be specific to your business.

When you look at your address books. This can be any one of:

  • The little black book you’ve had since school
  • Your phone’s internal address book
  • Your email client (if you use a dedicated client)
  • Gmail or Outlook
  • Any number of CRM or marketing tools
  • Your company’s internal directory
  • Excel

Needless to say, there are a few. There are some things that are in common:

  • Name
  • Physical address
  • Phone number
  • Email address
  • Optional place to record birthdays
  • Optional place to capture notes

In the integration world, things get to be nuanced and complicated. Think of the name for example. In one place it could just be one entry for the full name, in another place it could be broken down into a First name and a Family name, and in a third place there could be some kind of salutation or honorific.

Where this matters is when you get ready to integrate the company you just bought (or software if you’re switching CRMs for example). The two things that your integration team will need to factor in is the differences between both systems for a one-time sync-up, and how to keep the data consistently updated during the migration process.

Why do I bring this up as a part of the operational due diligence? Imagine all of your address book data is based on the region you live such as the US, and it has worked for years. Now imagine the data coming in as a part of your latest acquisition now includes customers based in Europe.

How will you support that from the data perspective with your current applications? Moving beyond the address book example, what other implications do you see that may have an impact your business’s assumptions?

cab