There is often a need within an organization to move data from point A to point B. One example is when user-submitted data, collected from a Web site, is moved into a CRM system. This typically results in a "lead" being created. Contact data from the user is collected in response to a form being filled out requesting more information about a certain offering, a question needing answering or another action indicating some level of interest in a company's products. All of these types of inquiries are fundamental interests of sales professionals.
The moving of the actual data to a CRM system could be in the form of a nightly batch load or as each single lead is collected. Either way, it is more important to ensure that only valid, complete information is loaded into the CRM system in order to optimize the time and increase the likelihood of success for the sales professional on the other end of the system.
A lot of time can be wasted by a sales organization by following up on phantom leads or leads with incorrect information. Ongoing communication and lead nurturing can also be severely affected if contact information is not valid or current. And finally, expensive, time-consuming "data cleansing" activities might have to be initiated downstream if an organization waits until volumes of incomplete or inaccurate data collects and builds within a CRM system over a long period of time.
One way to prevent this from happening is by using Informatica's Cloud product in conjunction with StrikeIron's Contact Record Verification Suite. StrikeIron has developed a plug-in for Informatica to manage this data migration process. The Cloud product uses Informatica's classic data integration technology in a SAAS scenario, enabling data to be loaded from many various systems, including Web-to-lead data into Salesforce.com. StrikeIron's Contact Record Verification Suite plug-in performs the actual phone number, address and email validation checks along the way. The joint offering is very easy to get up and running – no software to install, no hardware to prepare and no reference data to acquire.
This Cloud-based load-and-validate approach ensures that more accurate, complete and validated data actually gets into the CRM system with minimal effort, optimizing the time of sales executives. This process provides better communication and access with customers and prospective customers while preventing costly data cleansing activities to be performed down the road.
- Here is a video demonstration showing the joint solution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4-s6kRam6c
- Here is more information on the joint solution: http://www.strikeiron.com/Partners/PremierPartners/Informatica.aspx
Contact us at sales@strikeiron.com for more information.
Acquiring "qualified" leads from a third party source can be of considerable value and a great time saver. High quality, well-targeted leads can drive and grow a business substantially in just about any vertical, especially in the era of global commerce and short sales cycles.
However, there are countless companies offering these targeted leads, and unfortunately these leads and the supporting data for each lead are of greatly varying quality. Poor quality leads can include invalid or missing contact information, contact data (including email addresses) that is no longer current, or other types of data inaccuracies.
Purchased leads with less than perfect contact information can render many of these individuals or organizations unreachable, and therefore a waste of important resources, including the cost of acquiring these leads. This can substanitally hurt the ROI of what might otherwise be a good campaign. In addition, knowing the quality level of leads can also help better score a particular campaign so it can be tweaked, improved, or even discontinued. However, if there is no handle on the level of lead quality for a given campaign, then there can be a great deal of frustration during analysis, especially when it comes time to report on campaign success metrics.
One thing that can be done to minimize the impact of poor lead quality is to validate the quality of leads received from any vendor, especially early on in the vendor relationship, but also on an ongoing basis. This type of quality testing is important as you employ multiple lead vendors, compare results across similar campaigns, and build lasting relationships with the vendors that provide the best lead data to drive your campaigns.
Fortunately, validating address data, ensuring correct telephone data, and verifying that email addresses are still enabled and actively receiving email can easily be achieved by solutions that leverage and apply the benefits of the "Cloud". Solutions such as StrikeIron's Contact Record Verification Suite and its lead validation APIs employ multiple, constantly updated reference data and algorithms to ensure the hightest possible lead quality, and can quickly and easily be integrated into any business process, Web site, or application that utilizes lead data. No software or management of reference data is required as all lead verification occurs in real-time via the Web. This easy, cost-effective process can go a long way in optimizing campaigns, comparing vendors, and achieving a successful, efficient marketing department that drives great value for the rest of the organization.