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It has long ceased to be a secret of success; proximity to the customer is probably the most important prerequisite for goal-oriented sales. Only those who keep a close eye on their customers can maintain the relationship with them in the long term and bind them to the company through individual sales and marketing activities. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a philosophy in which the customer is at the centre of trade; important customer data is collected and optimised in the CRM system so that it can be used in a demand-oriented manner in sales, marketing and customer service.

Once a pioneer in cloud computing, the Californian provider Salesforce.com today represents one of the largest providers in the field of web-based solutions. In addition to other business applications, the company specialises primarily in CRM and offers its solution for customer relationship management with the “Sales Cloud”, which is also widely used in Germany.

However, the CRM system alone is not sufficient for the successful maintenance of customer relationships. The keyword is data quality – because without clean and up-to-date data, even first-class CRM systems like the Sales Cloud cannot realise their full potential. Without intelligent procedures for data cleansing, address databases become “dirty” after only a short time: duplicates are not recognised and address information is not checked for correctness.

The Stuttgart-based software provider TOLERANT Software and the Frankfurt-based cloud computing service provider OnIvation jointly ensure the data quality in the CRM system of Salesforce.com by means of high-quality software. The TOLERANT products are qualified and very proven tools for optimising customer data and can be easily integrated into already existing processes thanks to simple configuration. “With OnIvation, we have found an extremely competent integrator and reliable partner for the connection to Salesforce,” Stefan Sedlacek, Managing Director Sales of TOLERANT Software, is pleased to say. “Only the synergy of OnIvation’s product know-how combined with TOLERANT’s data quality expertise forms the optimal basis for data cleansing within Salesforce,” adds Roman Hoffmann, Managing Director of OnIvation.

Efficient and secure

How can you tell if business partners are breaking international rules? Württembergische Gemeinde-Versicherung and data specialist TOLERANT Software show how processes in customer service can be designed efficiently and securely with consistent data quality management – A report from the field.

Sometimes you are denied a clear view of your customers. To clearly identify customer data, consistent data quality management is helpful.

Data quality and legal security are more closely related than initially assumed. One of the aims of preventive and IT-supported compliance management is to identify politically exposed persons (PEPs) beyond doubt. In order to clearly identify customer data, consistent data quality management is helpful, with which the name and address data of business partners are already checked when they are entered in the customer service department.

With its wide range of insurance, consulting and service products, Württembergische Gemeinde-Versicherung a.G. (WGV) stands for low prices, a lean organizational structure and optimized processes. As a multiple test winner, it is one of the largest motor vehicle insurers in Baden-Württemberg. Most recently, it received an award for the fairest price-performance ratio.

The insurer checks the identity of its business partners using the latest TOLERANT Match and TOLERANT Sanction search technology from TOLERANT Software GmbH & Co. KG from Stuttgart. This ensures that no data from dubious business partners is hidden in central customer data and that compliance guidelines are adhered to.

Targeted data quality management

With its headquarters in Stuttgart and twelve other service centers, WGV serves more than 1.5 million customers. Olaf Bechtold is head of key account management at WGV-Informatik und Media GmbH, a subsidiary of WGV, and has been involved in the project since it was launched in June 2012. “As an insurer, we are subject to EU directives that require us to check our business partners and report individuals who violate international laws,” says the process manager for ICIS and ICIS-Mobile. “With targeted data quality management, we identify suspicions regarding terrorism, corruption and money laundering in advance and can take preventive action and initiate the appropriate measures in accordance with EU directives.”

Finding what belongs together

When entering the data of potential customers in the customer service department, it is immediately apparent whether they already exist in the system in a similar spelling or are even listed on an EU sanctions list. “This makes it much easier for our clerks to identify our business partners and at the same time check compliance guidelines without having to deal with lists or the latest resolutions at the political level,” Bechtold continues. “This task is performed quite silently in the background by a clearly defined search algorithm.”

The TOLERANT Match and TOLERANT Sanction programmes were specially adapted to the requirements of insurance IT. “It quickly became clear up front that we had to select the software architecture in such a way that it could be integrated as easily as possible into ICIS, the standard inventory management system for insurance companies,” explains Stefan Sedlacek, CEO of TOLERANT. “With all of our products, the focus is on thorough inventory analysis at the customer’s premises and individual consulting.” The solution also had to be compatible for future projects based on “ICIS”.

In March 2013, the goal was achieved. “We use an error-tolerant search technology that detects fuzziness according to the rules of fuzzy logic. For example, records that belong together can be reliably identified, even if a name is entered into the system with “t” instead of “th,” says Stefan Sedlacek. The software specialist TOLERANT Software offers comprehensive and reliable support in all matters relating to data quality and data management. Its core competence here lies in the maintenance and cleansing of national and international customer data.

Increasing data quality thanks to lean processes

With its insurance concepts, WGV is regarded as an innovative insurance group. “We are also a pioneer in technical terms. We will only be able to pass on our good price-performance ratio to our customers in the future if we keep our processes lean and further optimize them with IT support,” Bechtold notes. “The spatial, human and professional proximity to our software partner has convinced us,” sums up the key account of WGV. For the future, further projects, such as the implementation of a tool for post-processing, are already planned with TOLERANT.

From: BIT Magazin für Geschäftsprozess- und Output-Management.