Orchestrating Data from Multiple CRMs into a Unified View

In the current highly interconnected business landscape, organizations frequently handle customer information across various CRM systems. However, isolated systems lead to disjointed insights. The remedy lies in consolidating data into a cohesive, comprehensive perspective.

Why Businesses Use Multiple CRMs

It’s increasingly common for companies—especially large enterprises and those that have grown through mergers or acquisitions—to use multiple Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms. Each platform may serve a different region, department, or function :

• Salesforce for enterprise sales

• HubSpot for marketing automation

• Zoho CRM for customer service

• Pipedrive or Freshsales for smaller business units or teams

While each tool excels in its own domain, managing customer data across multiple CRMs introduces major challenges. These include data duplication, inconsistencies, and the inability to get a 360-degree view of the customer journey.

The Business Case for a Unified CRM Data View

Creating a unified view of customer data isn’t just a technical endeavor – it’s a strategic necessity. Here’s why it matters :

1. Enhanced Customer Experience

With fragmented CRM data, teams can’t see the full customer journey. A unified view enables personalized communication, faster issue resolution, and more relevant recommendations.

2. Informed Decision-Making

Accurate and centralized customer data empowers leadership to make data-driven decisions across sales, marketing, and support.

3. Operational Efficiency

Synchronizing data from multiple systems eliminates manual data entry, reduces errors, and ensures all teams are working from the same playbook.

4. Improved Compliance

Maintaining data integrity and visibility helps companies stay compliant with regulations like GDPR and CCPA by centralizing audit logs and customer consent records.

Key Challenges in Integrating Multiple CRMs

Before you orchestrate CRM data, it’s important to understand the hurdles you may face :

• Data Format Incompatibility : Different CRMs use varying schemas, field names, and data structures.

• Duplicate Records : Merging customer data without duplication requires sophisticated deduplication logic.

• Real-time Synchronization : Ensuring updates in one CRM reflect instantly across others can be technically complex.

• Data Ownership and Governance : Multiple departments owning their CRM data can lead to turf wars and inconsistent rules.

Strategies for CRM Data Orchestration

To overcome these challenges, companies need a well-thought-out data orchestration strategy. Here’s how to do it right :

1. Perform a Comprehensive Data Audit

Begin by identifying all CRM systems in use and mapping out what types of customer data exist across platforms. Document :

• Field names and types

• Data sources

• Frequency of updates

• Data owners

2. Define a Master Data Model

Establish a unified schema or Customer Data Model (CDM) that acts as the “single source of truth.” This model standardizes fields like :

• Name and contact info

• Customer lifecycle stage

• Purchase history

• Engagement score

3. Use ETL and iPaaS Tools

Deploy ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) pipelines or Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) tools like :

• MuleSoft

• Zapier

• Workato

• Informatica

• Talend

These tools automate the movement of data between CRMs, handle transformations, and ensure data consistency.

4. Implement Real-time Data Syncing

For time-sensitive operations, leverage webhooks, APIs, or event-driven architectures to enable real-time data updates across systems.

5. Ensure Data Governance and Security

Create policies for data access, quality control, and compliance. Use role-based access and encryption to protect customer information.

6. Leverage a Customer Data Platform (CDP)

A CDP can act as the aggregation layer for all customer data, ingesting and harmonizing it from multiple CRMs and enabling analytics, personalization, and segmentation.

Technologies Powering Unified CRM Views

Here are some technologies and tools that can help streamline the orchestration of CRM data :