Failing to have a centralized infrastructure for customer information can result in a break down in the sharing of information between business units. Having a centralized repository for information allows units to have access to the same timely information. It eliminates the need to design an infrastructure to maintain and update information across multiple repositories.

   Centralized information may open up new opportunities to business units. Information gathered by another business unit may help open new marketing opportunities not conceivable with a decentralized information system. If only a portion of the information gathered is pushed from unit’s system to another, data values and fields may not be pushed that may hold value to another unit. By centralizing, all units may be granted access to all the available data. This could open new marketing opportunities by exploring information gathered by other units.

   For example, business unit A tracks the needs of its customer for widgets. They have come to find that 90% of their customers also need wedges. By tracking who interacts with their site and collecting data on their needs, unit A can share their information with unit B which produces wedges. By closely tracking customer viewing habits and usage of the widgets, they can share the wedge needs with unit B so they can market directly to the customer and retain their business for both widgets and wedges.

   This information can be gathered by any unit using any number of methods. For example, product registrations are a great opportunity to gather demographic information about your customers. The more you learn about your customers from one successful transaction, the better your company can service them in future transactions and retain their business.