Identity Resolution: recognise multiple existing customer data

Data Quality

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For an optimal customer experience, companies must be able to clearly identify customers and prospects in the system and across different channels and touchpoints.

Identity resolution is the process by which different data records belonging to a single entity are identified and, if necessary, merged. This is especially important in large data sets, where duplicate or inconsistent records often occur. An effective identity resolution solution helps to identify these duplicates and, where appropriate, merge them. Or it enables a cross-system golden record to be created. This sustainably improves data quality.

Identity resolution is indispensable for companies

Identity Resolution is an indispensable solution for companies that want to improve their data quality and eliminate duplicates. Duplicate and multiple records are a nuisance. They arise in different ways, from carelessness in data entry to a lack of data quality assurance to hearing or typing errors. Even when communicating across multiple channels and touchpoints, many companies lose track of their data. By using identity resolution software, companies can ensure that they not only find the right record, but also consolidate all relevant information about an entity. This leads to more efficient processes, better customer relationships and overall higher data quality.

Identity resolution for a focused customer view

Duplicate and multiple data records appear almost automatically in databases. Efforts are made to prevent multiple records. However, similar to "bad pennies", a certain number of duplicates always occur. The main reasons for this are:

Multiple entries: If data is entered manually, multiple entries can easily occur. For example, a customer could register several times because they have forgotten their login details.
System migrations: Inconsistencies and duplicates can occur when transferring data between different systems.
Different data sources: Companies collect data from different sources such as CRM systems, email marketing tools and social media. These data sources often use different formats and standards, which can lead to duplicates.

It is therefore essential for companies to use identity resolution software with a high level of functional maturity if they want to pursue a quality approach to customer data. Functional maturity means that the identity resolution solution used not only recognizes many duplicates, but is also able to identify the relevant data records. It makes a difference whether a data steward has to work his way through several hundred data records to find the relevant ones, or whether the five to ten relevant data records are reliably suggested as duplicates.

Advantages of identity resolution

Identifying relevant duplicate and multiple data records accurately and efficiently in all business data situations saves an incredible amount of time, reduces costs and minimizes risks. Here are some of the most important benefits:

Improved data quality: Identifying and eliminating duplicates increases the accuracy and reliability of the data. This is because each data record now only exists once. One exception are the so-called intentional duplicates. These occur, for example, when the billing and delivery addresses are different but refer to the same person.
More efficient processes: With unique data, business processes can be made more efficient as less time has to be spent finding and removing duplicate data records. There is one set of data that is relevant in processes such as marketing automation or customer service.
Better customer relationships: By bringing together all relevant information about a customer, personalized and consistent interactions can be ensured. This is because customers greatly appreciate it when they are perceived and addressed holistically and providers are able to merge their different identities into one profile, particularly in social media, customer accounts and service.
Regulation and compliance: In order to fulfill a request for deletion or information in accordance with the GDPR, the data stored in individual data silos in the company must be merged into one person. Identity resolution software takes care of this. Another example is money laundering prevention, where different identities can be identified and, if necessary, merged.
Customer service: With an identity resolution solution, a service employee can search error-tolerantly to see whether a person is already in the system. Even when creating a new data record, it is possible to check whether a data record already exists when entering the data.

Know-how in identity resolution from over five decades of customer data practice

Uniserv's identity resolution software is characterized by high quality results. This is because it combines country-specific knowledge bases with a wide variety of processes and algorithms in a unique way. This is why the identity resolution solution from Uniserv can do more than others, such as

Synonym search: As a user, for example, am I able to search for both a 'Sepp' and a 'Josef' and find matching data records?
Overlaps: What about double names, for example? If I search for a 'Gerhard Mayer', do I also find 'Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder' as a potential duplicate, supported by technology, without the double name part 'Vorfelder' being part of the search arguments?
Typing errors: Is my solution able to find relevant data records as potential duplicates despite typing errors - entering 'Herhard' instead of 'Gerhard'?
Acronyms: Is my solution capable of recognizing and resolving abbreviations as well, for example recognizing the tender 'Bayerische Motorenwerke' from the input 'BMW'?
Zip code matching: If two zip codes are geographically close to each other, they probably belong to the same main zip code. So are zip codes that are close to each other rated equally?

Identify duplicates quickly & efficiently in SAP S/4HANA

Identify duplicates in SAP S4/HANA^®

Once the migration to SAP S/4HANA has been completed, a lot has already been invested in data quality as part of Customer Vendor Integration (CVI). It's a shame if you gradually destroy this investment and bring duplicates back into the system. In order to keep the data quality high in the long term, a reliable identity solution is required for central business transactions such as new creation or changes or fuzzy searches.

In the business white paper 'Identify duplicates in SAP S/4HANA quickly and efficiently', you can read how you can keep your data quality high in the long term by preventing double or multiple existing business partners in an error-tolerant manner.

Download the paper now

Scenarios for Identity Resolution

Identity resolution, i.e. searching for and identifying relevant duplicate and multiple data records, is not a function for just one scenario. Rather, there are many different use cases in which an identity resolution solution is extremely helpful. Typical fields of application are:

Marketing: In marketing campaigns, it is crucial to have accurate and complete customer data. Identity resolution helps to create a complete picture of the customer by bringing together data from different sources.
Customer support: Effective customer support requires access to all relevant information about a customer. Identity resolution ensures that support staff can access consolidated and up-to-date data, for example through a fault-tolerant search.
Fraud prevention: Identity resolution can help detect fraudulent activity by identifying unusual patterns in the data.
Merger & Acquisition: When two or more companies decide to merge, data usually needs to be merged as well. This is where identity resolution software is invaluable in identifying the overlap.
System consolidation: If, for example, two or more CRM systems are to be consolidated into a new CRM system in a corporate environment, an identity resolution solution can identify duplicate and multiple data records before the migration takes place.
Introduction of a unique customer ID: In order to introduce a consistent, uniform identifier, a consolidated data record is required to which this identifier can be persistently assigned. To do this, it is important that all existing data in the company is merged into one person. Identity resolution takes care of this.

Industry scenarios for an identity resolution solution

Every industry has its own personal use cases in which the use of an identity resolution solution is indispensable, for example for the creation of golden records. Here are some industry examples:

Energy industry: Energy companies often have many peripheral systems. This is because municipal utilities in particular take on a wide range of tasks. These include, for example, public swimming pools or photovoltaics. Identity resolution helps to consolidate the various identities of a person in the peripheral systems.

Publishers: Trial subscriptions in particular are a popular target for multiple registrations because of the premiums. An identity resolution solution helps to prevent abuse by identifying and blocking people who have already had a trial subscription and come back under a new name. In large publishing groups such as Springer, identity resolution can also be used to create cross-subscription views because all existing or previous subscriptions for a person can be merged. This could also be used to trigger a customer reactivation if necessary.

E-commerce and retail: Different brands, different stores or online shops, different user names, different delivery addresses. An identity resolution solution helps to identify and merge the relevant data records here, for a unified view.

Insurance companies: With identity resolution software, profiles in different lines of business can be merged for a cross-divisional view.

Banks and financial service providers: Know Your Customer is the motto, especially for the prevention of money laundering or terrorist financing or general misuse. With identity resolution, data records can be matched with their identities to a person. This minimizes risk, especially when it comes to complying with BCBS 239. When onboarding new customers, banks are legally obliged to check exactly who they are dealing with and whether a business relationship may have existed in the past.

Your industry is not listed? Contact us and let's find out together what identity resolution can do for you.