This great article in Fourth Source illustrates some of the challenges that are facing CMOs and CIOs in the modern world in regard to data sources, types and structures.
The Situation
In the modern business environment, customer experience and interaction is vital to a company’s success. Because of this, CMOs are looking to deliver on multi-channel customer experiences. This requires data. Not only that, CMOs need to get to and analyze vasts amounts of data at incredible speeds to be able to maintain customers over time as well as in real-time interactions. The amount of raw data harvested from customer interactions and experiences can be daunting, however, and many companies are having trouble keeping up.
One big challenge is older technologies. As CMOs start to require more and more data and data analysis, their departments begin to overlap that of the CIO. This creates problems for older software that wasn’t designed for horizontal distribution across a number of servers and data centers. In particular, we’re referring to SQL databases. With their rigid, predefined data columns, they don’t allow for the flexibility modern businesses need to stay ahead.
This is where data silos, unfortunately, come in. Because SQL databases simply can’t perform, CMOs are forced to create new databases that can fit their needs: silos. These have their own drawbacks, however. Silos often lead to increased overhead as well as a segmented view of the customer, which in the end, defeats the purpose.
The Solution
NoSQL databases provide the answers to these challenges. These databases are not as rigid as their SQL counterparts, which allows for flexibility and integration without the cost and trappings of creating unique data silos.
CMOs continue to make more and more technology decisions as marketing continues to evolve in the digital world. Because of this, it is critical to work with a team who can help navigate these types of challenges while effectively handling existing systems.
Savvior can help. We have tons of experience helping some of the world’s largest companies deal with these challenges. Reach out to us today if you’d like to learn more!
