Customer Data Platform Definition from the Customer Data Platform Institute
A Customer Data Platform is packaged software that creates a persistent, unified customer database that is accessible to other systems. This definition has three critical elements:
- “packaged software”: the CDP is a prebuilt system that is configured to meet the needs of each client. Some technical resources will be required to set up and maintain the CDP, but it does not require the level of technical skill of a typical data warehouse project. This reduces the time, cost, and risk and gives business users more control over the system, even though they may still need some technical assistance.
- “creates a persistent, unified customer database”: the CDP creates a comprehensive view of each customer by capturing data from multiple systems, linking information related to the same customer, and storing the information to track behavior over time. The CDP contains personal identifiers used to target marketing messages and track individual-level marketing results.
- “accessible to other systems”: data stored in the CDP can be used by other systems for analysis and to manage customer interactions.
