Customer 360° Data Integration Challenge
Breaking Down Data Silos Across Multiple Banking Systems
A case study on unifying customer data from disparate CRM and core banking systems for AI-driven insights
Project Overview
Customer Experience Personalization through Multi-System Data Integration
Business Objective
Create a unified 360° view of customers by integrating data from 5 disparate banking systems to enable personalized customer experiences, targeted marketing, and improved service delivery, all while reducing operational costs by 15%.
Legacy Systems
- Retail Banking Core (Oracle-based, 15+ years old)
- Corporate Banking Platform (SAP, 8 years old)
- Enterprise CRM (Salesforce, 3 years old)
- Branch Service System (Custom .NET, 10+ years old)
- Digital Banking Platform (Cloud-native, 2 years old)
Technical Approach
Data lake architecture with entity resolution AI models to create a unified customer master record, feeding into a machine learning engine for behavior prediction and personalization.
Key Challenge
Inconsistent data definitions, duplicate customer records, conflicting information across systems, and no common identifier to reliably match customers across all five platforms.
System Integration Analysis
Understanding data structures across five legacy systems
Banking System Landscape
5.2M
Total customer records across all systems
3.8M
Unique customers (estimated)
27%
Duplicate rate
58%
Contact info consistency
43%
Data field compatibility
Disparate Data Models
| Attribute | Retail Core | Corporate Banking | Enterprise CRM | Branch Service | Digital Banking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer ID | ACC_ID (numeric) | CORP_CUSTOMER_ID (alpha) | SF_ID (UUID) | BRANCH_CUST_NO (numeric) | user_id (UUID) |
| Name Format | Single field (FULL_NAME) | Structured (FIRST, LAST) | Structured (First, Middle, Last) | Structured (Title, First, Last) | Single field (display_name) |
| Address | Structured fields | Free text | Structured + Geocoded | Structured fields | JSON object |
| Phone Format | No country code | With country code | Multiple formats | Local format only | E.164 standard |
| Email Storage | Optional field | Multiple contacts | Primary + Secondary | Single field | Required, verified |
| Date Formats | DD-MM-YYYY | YYYY-MM-DD | ISO 8601 | MM/DD/YYYY | Unix timestamp |
| Customer Type | 5 segments | 3 tiers | 25+ personas | 7 categories | Behavioral clusters |
Data Quality Assessment by System
Identity Resolution Challenge
Critical ImpactWith no common identifier across systems, matching customers requires probabilistic models using name, address, phone, and other attributes which vary in format, structure, and completeness across systems.
# Sample customer records from different systems
# Retail Core
{
"ACC_ID": 28471093,
"FULL_NAME": "SARAH J THOMPSON",
"DOB": "15-04-1978",
"ADDRESS1": "42 MAPLE STREET",
"ADDRESS2": "APT 301",
"CITY": "BOSTON",
"STATE": "MA",
"ZIP": "02108",
"PHONE": "6175550123"
}
# Enterprise CRM
{
"SF_ID": "a07f200000ZKlmnAAB",
"First_Name": "Sarah",
"Middle_Name": "Jane",
"Last_Name": "Thompson-Wilson",
"Birth_Date": "1978-04-15T00:00:00.000Z",
"Addresses": [
{
"Type": "Home",
"Street": "42 Maple St, Apt 301",
"City": "Boston",
"State": "Massachusetts",
"PostalCode": "02108",
"GeoCode": "42.3601,-71.0589"
}
],
"PhoneNumbers": [
{
"Type": "Mobile",
"Number": "+16175550123"
}
]
}
# Digital Banking
{
"user_id": "7b912f4e-90aa-4d3c-b667-5316fd44ac1b",
"display_name": "Sarah Thompson",
"birth_date": 261360000,
"contact": {
"address": {
"line1": "42 Maple Street, Apt 301",
"city": "Boston",
"state": "MA",
"zip": "02108",
"country": "US"
},
"phone": "+16175550123",
"email": "sarah.thompson@example.com"
}
}
Temporal Inconsistencies
High ImpactAddress and contact information updates occur at different times across systems, leading to inconsistent "current" state for customer profiles and confusing customer interactions.
Product Definitions
Medium ImpactProduct definitions and categorizations vary across systems, making it challenging to create a unified view of customer relationships and cross-selling opportunities.
AI Model Performance Impact
How data quality affects customer predictions and recommendations
Model with Raw Unintegrated Data
Key Issues
- False positives for next-best-offer recommendations (42% error rate)
- Duplicate marketing communications sent to same customer
- Product recommendations based on partial customer profile
- Low personalization scores from customers (NPS: 28)
- Customer confusion from inconsistent interactions
Model with Integrated Master Data
Key Improvements
- Holistic customer understanding across all relationships
- Consistent customer experience across all channels
- Relevant product recommendations (conversion up 67%)
- Higher personalization scores from customers (NPS: 72)
- Reduced marketing waste with 34% lower contact costs
Customer Prediction Examples
| Customer Scenario | Unintegrated Data Prediction | Integrated Data Prediction | Actual Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| High-value retail customer with undiscovered corporate relationship | 68% likely to open retirement account | 12% likely to open retirement account, 87% likely to consolidate corporate services | Consolidated corporate services within 30 days |
| Retail customer with apparent low balance but high assets in investment platform | 84% likely to accept small personal loan offer | 8% likely to accept loan, 92% likely to respond to wealth management services | Moved $450K to wealth management |
| Customer with frequent branch visits marked as "digital resistant" in CRM | 9% likely to use mobile banking | 76% likely to adopt if offered in-branch tutorial (digital app usage detected on other accounts) | Became active digital user after branch demo |
| Customer flagged for retention risk based on checking account activity | 78% attrition risk, recommend fee waiver | 23% attrition risk, but 91% likely to consolidate accounts if offered relationship pricing | Added two new products with relationship pricing |
Feature Importance Comparison
The integrated data model shows more balanced feature importance, with relationship depth and cross-product holdings gaining significant predictive power that was previously invisible due to data silos.
Integration Solution Architecture
Creating a unified customer data foundation
Customer Master Data Solution Architecture
Data Extraction
Custom connectors extract data from each source system with appropriate frequency
Quality & Cleansing
Data is validated, standardized, and enriched
Entity Resolution
ML algorithms identify and link records across systems
Golden Record
Unified customer profiles with lineage and confidence scores
API Services
Secure access to unified customer data
Data Ingestion Layer
Multi-pattern data extraction from source systems with custom connectors for each system's data format and API capabilities.
Data Quality & Cleansing
Rules-based data validation with machine learning for anomaly detection and automated cleaning of common issues.
Entity Resolution Engine
Probabilistic matching algorithm using fuzzy logic and ML to establish customer identity across disparate records.
Master Data Store
Golden record database with lineage tracking, confidence scores and bi-directional synchronization capabilities.
Customer Intelligence Layer
ML models for segmentation, propensity scoring, and next-best-action recommendations based on integrated data.
API & Integration Services
Service layer exposing unified customer data to downstream systems with appropriate access controls.
Entity Resolution Algorithm
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
from fuzzywuzzy import fuzz
from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestClassifier
from sklearn.metrics import precision_recall_fscore_support
# Sample function to generate matching features
def generate_matching_features(record1, record2):
"""Generate features for matching two customer records across systems"""
features = {}
# Name similarity features
name1 = record1.get('FULL_NAME', record1.get('display_name', f"{record1.get('First_Name', '')} {record1.get('Last_Name', '')}"))
name2 = record2.get('FULL_NAME', record2.get('display_name', f"{record2.get('First_Name', '')} {record2.get('Last_Name', '')}"))
features['name_token_set_ratio'] = fuzz.token_set_ratio(name1, name2)
features['name_token_sort_ratio'] = fuzz.token_sort_ratio(name1, name2)
# Phone similarity
phone1 = str(record1.get('PHONE', record1.get('contact', {}).get('phone', '')))
phone2 = str(record2.get('PHONE', record2.get('contact', {}).get('phone', '')))
# Normalize phone numbers - remove non-digits and compare last 10 digits
phone1_digits = ''.join([c for c in phone1 if c.isdigit()])[-10:]
phone2_digits = ''.join([c for c in phone2 if c.isdigit()])[-10:]
features['phone_exact_match'] = int(phone1_digits == phone2_digits and len(phone1_digits) == 10)
# Address similarity
# Extract address components in a format-agnostic way
addr1 = get_normalized_address(record1)
addr2 = get_normalized_address(record2)
features['address_similarity'] = fuzz.token_set_ratio(addr1, addr2)
# Date of birth comparison
dob1 = normalize_date(record1.get('DOB', record1.get('Birth_Date', record1.get('birth_date'))))
dob2 = normalize_date(record2.get('DOB', record2.get('Birth_Date', record2.get('birth_date'))))
features['dob_match'] = int(dob1 == dob2 and dob1 is not None)
# Additional features for confidence calculation
features['source_system_reliability'] = get_system_reliability_score(record1, record2)
features['data_completeness'] = calculate_completeness_score(record1, record2)
return features
# Train a matching model with labeled data
def train_matching_model(labeled_pairs):
"""Train a model to predict if two records match based on similarity features"""
X = []
y = []
for pair, is_match in labeled_pairs:
features = generate_matching_features(pair[0], pair[1])
X.append(list(features.values()))
y.append(is_match)
model = RandomForestClassifier(n_estimators=100, max_depth=10)
model.fit(X, y)
return model
# Resolve entities across multiple systems
def resolve_customer_entities(customer_records_by_system):
"""Identify unique customers across system boundaries"""
all_comparisons = []
for sys1, records1 in customer_records_by_system.items():
for sys2, records2 in customer_records_by_system.items():
if sys1 >= sys2: # Avoid duplicate comparisons
continue
for rec1 in records1:
for rec2 in records2:
features = generate_matching_features(rec1, rec2)
all_comparisons.append((rec1, rec2, features))
# Apply matching model
match_predictions = matching_model.predict_proba([list(f.values()) for _, _, f in all_comparisons])
# Create clusters of matching records
customer_clusters = build_customer_clusters(all_comparisons, match_predictions)
# Create golden records
golden_records = []
for cluster in customer_clusters:
golden_record = create_golden_record(cluster)
golden_records.append(golden_record)
return golden_records
Business Impact & ROI
67%
Increase in cross-sell conversion rate
42%
Reduction in marketing campaign costs
23%
Increase in customer satisfaction (NPS)
$4.7M
Annual operational cost savings
Educational Insights: The Customer Data Integration Journey
Understanding the Challenge
Banking's legacy technology landscape is a historical artifact of both organic growth and acquisitions. Most institutions face five common data challenges:
These challenges fundamentally limit AI effectiveness because they introduce invisible biases and blind spots in customer understanding.
Learning Principles
The "One Source of Truth" Fallacy
Despite decades of IT initiatives promising "one source of truth," the reality is that enterprises need a strategy for managing multiple sources of truth with varying levels of quality, relevance, and timeliness.
Confidence Over Certainty
Modern data integration relies on probabilistic approaches that assign confidence scores rather than binary judgments, allowing systems to propagate uncertainty through analytical pipelines.
Quality at Source
While cleaning at the integration layer is necessary, long-term solutions require improving quality at each source system through validation, standardization, and governance.
Data Quality Maturity Model
Most organizations begin at Level 1 or 2, with progression to higher levels requiring both technological investment and cultural change in how data is valued.
Implementation Roadmap
Successful integrations follow this implementation sequence, starting with high-value, achievable goals to build momentum and organizational buy-in.
Key Lessons & Implementation Strategy
Start with Business Value
Begin with high-value use cases like retention and cross-sell to demonstrate ROI, rather than boiling the ocean with a complete data integration project.
Probabilistic Matching
Accept that perfect matching is impossible - build confidence scoring into customer golden records and integrate uncertainty into downstream processes.
Agile Implementation
Roll out in phases with iterative improvement cycles guided by data quality metrics and business outcomes rather than technical completeness.
Source System Governance
Apply consistent data validation standards across all source systems to prevent quality degradation over time and reduce cleaning effort.
Data Science Takeaways
Trust your model only as much as you trust your data. A sophisticated model on poor-quality data will deliver poor-quality predictions.
Data integration is not a one-time effort. Business operations continuously generate new data, which must be validated and incorporated into the unified view.
Feedback loops are essential. AI predictions should be tracked against actual outcomes to continuously refine both the data integration pipeline and the models themselves.
Data lineage matters. For regulatory compliance and model explainability, maintain clear records of which source systems contributed to specific customer insights.