Casestudy: Unified Customer View via CDP

Casestudy: Unified Customer View via CDP

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Executive Summary

In the rapidly evolving BFSI sector, customer expectations for seamless, personalized, and secure experiences are higher than ever. Yet, most banks, insurers, and financial institutions struggle with fragmented customer data, legacy systems, and disconnected engagement channels. A global BFSI enterprise partnered with a consulting services provider to implement a Unified Customer Data Platform (CDP) that enabled a single customer view, real-time identity resolution, and omnichannel integration.

The consulting-led initiative involved assessing existing infrastructure, selecting the right CDP platforms and tools, designing a robust governance framework, and executing a phased roadmap for transformation. The outcomes were significant: improved personalization, reduced fraud risk, higher marketing ROI, stronger compliance, and enhanced customer loyalty.

This case study outlines the business challenges, consulting approach, solution design, outcomes, and the value of leveraging platforms such as Salesforce Data Cloud, Adobe Real-Time CDP, Segment, Treasure Data, Snowflake, BigQuery, LiveRamp, and omnichannel engagement tools like Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Adobe Campaign, Braze, and Meta Ads integrations.

Business Challenges

The BFSI industry faces unique challenges compared to retail, healthcare, or technology. Financial institutions deal with highly sensitive data, stringent compliance requirements, and customer interactions that span multiple touchpoints over long life cycles. The client in this case study struggled with:

Fragmented Data Across Silos

Customer information resided in CRM systems, core banking platforms, wealth management solutions, insurance policy databases, call center records, and mobile apps. This siloed landscape made it impossible to form a 360-degree customer profile.

Inconsistent Identity Resolution

A single customer often appeared under multiple IDs across different systems. For example, a customer with a checking account, credit card, and life insurance policy could not be reconciled as the same person. This led to poor personalization, duplicate communications, and compliance risks.

Limited Real-Time Capabilities

Most customer data pipelines were batch-driven. Insights were updated weekly or monthly, making real-time fraud detection, proactive financial advice, or instant cross-sell offers nearly impossible.

Omnichannel Disconnection

Engagement channels such as branch banking, mobile banking, email campaigns, WhatsApp alerts, and digital ads operated in silos. There was no orchestration layer to unify customer journeys across channels.

Regulatory Compliance Pressures

With GDPR, CCPA, and region-specific financial regulations, the inability to track consent, manage preferences, and ensure data governance posed significant risks.

Marketing Inefficiency

Marketing campaigns lacked precision targeting, leading to high acquisition costs and lower-than-expected ROI. Cross-sell and upsell opportunities were frequently missed.

Consulting Approach

The consulting partner adopted a structured, vendor-agnostic approach designed for decision makers in BFSI. The methodology consisted of:

Discovery and Assessment

  • Conducted data maturity assessment across CRM, data lakes, core banking, and policy systems
  • Mapped customer journeys across acquisition, onboarding, servicing, and retention
  • Identified pain points in data integration, personalization, and regulatory reporting

Vendor Evaluation

  • Evaluated CDP solutions including Salesforce Data Cloud, Adobe Real-Time CDP, Segment, Treasure Data, and Tealium
  • Benchmarked against BFSI needs such as consent management, real-time streaming, and risk/fraud analytics
  • Assessed scalability with platforms like Snowflake, BigQuery, and Databricks

Architecture and Data Governance Design

  • Designed a unified customer data architecture leveraging APIs, ETL pipelines (Fivetran, Informatica), and event streaming (Kafka, AWS Kinesis)
  • Established governance frameworks using Collibra, OneTrust, and Informatica MDM
  • Defined regulatory compliance workflows for GDPR, CCPA, PCI DSS, and region-specific BFSI regulations

Change Management and Adoption

  • Conducted stakeholder workshops with marketing, risk, compliance, and IT
  • Defined new operating models for data ownership, access control, and marketing activation
  • Implemented training programs for business and technology teams

Solution Design

The CDP solution was architected around three core pillars:

Single Customer View

  • Centralized customer data schema in Snowflake and Google BigQuery
  • Connected legacy systems with modern ETL pipelines using Fivetran and Informatica
  • Leveraged Salesforce Data Cloud for harmonizing customer attributes, transactions, and preferences into a unified profile

Real-Time Identity Resolution

  • Implemented LiveRamp IdentityLink and Segment Identity Graph to reconcile fragmented IDs
  • Enabled cross-device resolution (web, mobile, branch, call center)
  • Built probabilistic and deterministic matching models using Databricks MLflow and AWS SageMaker

Omnichannel Integration

  • Integrated CDP with Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Adobe Campaign, Braze, and HubSpot for campaign activation
  • Connected with advertising ecosystems including Meta Ads, Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and DV360
  • Enabled real-time personalization on mobile apps and websites using Tealium AudienceStream and Adobe Target

AI and Advanced Analytics

  • Built churn prediction, cross-sell propensity, and fraud detection models in Databricks and AWS SageMaker
  • Deployed real-time decisioning engines powered by Salesforce Interaction Studio and Adobe Journey Optimizer
  • Enhanced reporting with Power BI and Tableau dashboards for executives and regulators

Data Governance and Security

  • Enforced consent and preference management with OneTrust
  • Automated compliance monitoring using Collibra and Informatica
  • Applied encryption, tokenization, and role-based access for sensitive financial data

Implementation Roadmap

The consulting partner executed the transformation in phased stages:

Phase 1: Data Discovery and Governance

  • Conducted data audit across 15+ systems
  • Defined governance framework and regulatory compliance workflows

Phase 2: Platform Selection and Proof of Concept

  • Shortlisted Salesforce Data Cloud and Adobe Real-Time CDP
  • Conducted PoC for real-time identity resolution and campaign activation

Phase 3: Unified Data Layer

  • Deployed Snowflake and BigQuery as the central customer data hub
  • Built ETL pipelines with Fivetran and Informatica

Phase 4: Real-Time Identity Resolution

  • Integrated LiveRamp and Segment for identity stitching
  • Developed ML-based resolution for anomalies

Phase 5: Omnichannel Activation

  • Connected CDP to Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Adobe Campaign, and Meta Ads
  • Enabled cross-channel suppression lists to reduce wasted ad spend

Phase 6: AI-Driven Personalization

  • Implemented churn and cross-sell models in Databricks and AWS SageMaker
  • Deployed journey orchestration in Adobe Journey Optimizer

Outcomes

The BFSI enterprise achieved measurable and strategic benefits:

  • 360° Customer View: Consolidated 25+ million records into unified profiles with 95% identity resolution accuracy
  • Marketing ROI: Achieved a 20% increase in campaign engagement and a 15% reduction in acquisition costs
  • Operational Efficiency: Reduced duplicate customer records by 22% and streamlined marketing workflows
  • Fraud Prevention: Real-time data enabled faster detection of suspicious transactions, reducing fraud-related losses by 12%
  • Regulatory Compliance: Improved audit readiness and reduced compliance reporting time by 30%
  • Customer Experience: Achieved a 25% lift in personalization-driven product uptake (loans, insurance, investment services)

Consulting Value-Add

The consulting partner delivered value across multiple dimensions:

  • Vendor-Agnostic Expertise: Guided BFSI enterprise through platform evaluation without bias
  • Accelerators and Frameworks: Provided prebuilt integration templates for Snowflake, Salesforce, and Adobe ecosystems
  • Governance Best Practices: Established data stewardship and compliance frameworks tailored for BFSI
  • Change Management: Enabled alignment across IT, marketing, risk, and compliance functions

Future Roadmap

The BFSI client is now positioned to extend capabilities further:

  • Hyperpersonalization: AI-driven microsegment campaigns with tools like Salesforce Interaction Studio and Adobe Journey Optimizer
  • Real-Time Decisioning: Event-based offers and financial advice triggered instantly across channels
  • Next-Gen Loyalty and Retention: Integration with loyalty platforms and advanced predictive analytics
  • Open Banking Integration: Leveraging APIs to unify external financial data for even richer profiles

Conclusion

By implementing a Unified Customer Data Platform with a consulting partner, the BFSI enterprise transformed fragmented, siloed data into a single source of truth. With real-time identity resolution and omnichannel integration, the institution not only improved marketing efficiency but also strengthened compliance, enhanced fraud detection, and elevated customer experiences.

The case demonstrates the power of combining consulting expertise with leading platforms like Salesforce Data Cloud, Adobe Real-Time CDP, Segment, Snowflake, and LiveRamp to unlock business growth in a heavily regulated and competitive industry.