Data unification overview

After setting up the data sources, you can unify the data. Data unification lets you unify once-disparate data sources into a single master dataset that provides a unified view of that data.

For individual consumers (B-to-C) where the data is centered around individuals, unification provides a unified view of your customers. For business accounts (B-to-B) where the data is centered around accounts, unification provides a unified view of your accounts. Contact unification (preview) allows contacts for those accounts to be separately unified and associated with the accounts.

Data can be unified on a single table or multiple tables. Tables were previously called entities.

Individual consumers (B-to-C)

The unification process maps customer data from your data sources, removes duplicates, matches the data across tables, and creates a unified profile. Unification is performed in the following order:

1. Source fields (previously called Map): In the source fields step, select tables and fields to include in the unify process. Map fields to a common semantic type that describes the purpose of the field.

2. Duplicate records (previously part of Match): In the duplicate records step, optionally define rules to remove duplicate customer records from within each table.

3. Matching conditions (previously called Match): In the matching conditions step, define rules that match customer records between tables. When a customer is found in two or more tables, a single consolidated record is created with all columns and data from each table.

4. Unified customer fields (previously called Merge): In the unified customer fields step, determine which source fields should be included, excluded, or merged into a unified customer profile.

5. Review and create the unified profile.

Business accounts (B-to-B)

The unification process maps account data from your data sources, removes duplicates, matches the data across tables, and creates a unified profile. Unification is performed in the following order:

1. Source fields (previously called Map): In the source fields step, select tables and fields to include in the unify account process. Map fields to a common semantic type that describes the purpose of the field.

2. Duplicate records (previously part of Match): In the duplicate records step, optionally define rules to remove duplicate account records from within each table.

3. Matching conditions (previously called Match): In the matching conditions step, define rules that match account records between tables. When an account is found in two or more tables, a single consolidated record is created with all columns and data from each table.

4. Unified customer fields (previously called Merge): In the unified customer fields step, determine which source fields should be included, excluded, or merged into a unified customer profile.

5. Review and create the unified profile.

After unifying accounts, you can optionally unify contacts (preview) for those accounts and link the unified contacts to the unified accounts.

After completing data unification, you can optionally:

• Set up relationships between tables to create sophisticated segments.
• Enrich your data to get a wider range of insights about your customers.
• Define activities from some of the ingested attributes.
• Build measures to better understand customer behaviors and business performance.