ALM generates 360-degree customer view with database technology

ALM, an information and intelligence company for business professionals in such fields as legal and finance, has created a 360-degree customer view to help expand its audience base. The company is using database technology from MarkLogic to provide adaptive news and ensure advertising customers are hitting the target with ads. A 360-degree view enables ALM to gather relevant information to better understand its customers and their needs.

With many sources of data, ALM had attempted to use a relational database to integrate disparate data, but after two years, decided it was not the right fit. Wanting more flexibility for data integration and scalability to support growth, ALM turned to MarkLogic for a solution.

Gene Bishop, VP of technology at ALM, says, “MarkLogic enabled us to assemble customer information from all over our company—data that resides in registration databases, fulfillment systems, ad serving, CRM and others—all surrounding our customers and their experiences. Aligning this data into a single view, or ‘golden record,’ gives us the ability to help our customers with their work and analysis, and connect our advertisers with our customers. This community building, through the connecting of personalized content, is an important component of our growth strategy. We could not do this through traditional relational databases.”

Bishop continues, “Using the MarkLogic database for this project provided us incredible ROI. With a minimal investment in the technology we discovered a 600 percent more effective way to match customers to events, as well as dropping opt-out rates for our B2B marketing team.”

According to MarkLogic, its database allows ALM to collect and create relationships with external data to support subscribers and advertisers. For example, if a lawyer files a lawsuit against a specific company with the FTC, ALM can deliver information about all the entities and people involved—companies, the judge, witnesses, etc.—as well as relevant content and similar filings.

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