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Customer data infrastructure

Customer data infrastructure (CDI) is a comprehensive framework that includes the systems, tools, and processes necessary to collect, store, and manage customer data from various sources. This infrastructure is crucial for creating a unified view of customers, enabling better decision-making and personalized marketing strategies. CDI consists of data warehouses, integration tools, and analytics platforms that work together to ensure data integrity and accessibility.

The main difference between a CDI and a customer data platform (CDP) is their approach to data. CDI provides the foundational architecture for data management, while a CDP is a specialized tool that allows businesses to analyze this data for actionable insights. CDP focuses on enhancing customer engagement through targeted marketing efforts.

For more information about CDP, read our articles:

  • Privacy by design in practice: How “just enough” data beats “just in case” collection

    While collecting more data “just in case” feels safer, according to Matt Gershoff, it’s also one of the biggest sources of unnecessary compliance risk, analytical noise, and wasted organizational resources in the analytics industry today. His approach of “just enough” data collection is more intentional, more aligned with privacy regulation, and often more analytically effective.

  • 4 ways to make your analytics HIPAA-compliant: Implementation guide

    Healthcare organizations have four main approaches to achieving HIPAA-compliant analytics. Each has different trade-offs in cost, technical complexity, and analytics capabilities. This guide compares all four implementation methods – from using Google Analytics with workarounds to deploying fully HIPAA-compliant analytics platforms – so you can choose the right approach for your organization’s needs and resources.

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