Data Integration Challenges Data integration projects are often conceived at a high level; for example, “Following the merger with our major rival, we will have a large, combined customer base to which we will market our products”. Such simple high-level statements typically omit to mention some difficult problems that Technical Architects and Data Architects must solve. For example, the major rival may well identify its customers in a different way to the group that it is joining, and collect different information about them. This section outlines some of the key data integration challenges.