Best performing companies have:

• Improved data understanding. The requirements of European data protection legislation are forcing European organizations towards a much better understanding of the information they hold and ensuring that data is more accurate than in the past. This has the effect of creating customer databases that are more valuable than in the past.

• Increased visibility of customer data (to employees and partners). Customer information is now accessible to more customer-facing staff, and to key partners and intermediaries, than ever before. This is partly because of the possibilities the Internet and intranets open up for wider information sharing. This also leads to better updating of information and a wider understanding as to why data should be captured.

• Increased visibility of customer data (to customers). Some organizations make some or all of the customer information that they hold visible and maintainable to customers themselves. This enables those customers to take some control of their relationships and to maintain their own information (usually increasing its accuracy and value). It also reflects a maturity of operation, a willingness to release control, and the trust in customers implicit in this may contribute to the superior performance of companies that tend to do this.