The results have been terrific: a world-class integrated data platform, expanded consumer and customer databases, online, self-service systems, strengthened product fulfillment, new ways of onboarding customers more quickly, and cultural acceptance of a shared services model leading to 13 consecutive quarters of double-digit million dollar annual operating margins.

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In addition to building a data platform to enable a holistic view of the customer, Neolane also offers consulting services, either through an in-house capability or through partners like Axciom or Epsilon to help append customer data to provide further insight into how to create ever-more compelling personalized offers that lead to higher conversion rates, and more importantly, happy customers.

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Technically, this platform allows marketers to map the data they have in their own customer databases, like email addresses and phone numbers, to those of Facebook users.

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General Mills used SAP CRM 7.0 along with the Sybase Unwired Platform (SUP) in its deployment, which enabled 200 bakery and food service salespeople to access customer data in the field using their iPads, said Kerry Gustafson, the IS manager at General Mills in charge of the CRM rollout.

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