Key stats
69,000 accounts ingested and cleaned across the full CRM
16,500 accounts removed or merged (24% reduction in CRM noise)
81% of accounts had headcount discrepancies greater than 30% vs existing data
26% of accounts had parent companies that existing vendors had failed to identify
20% duplicates identified and resolved
Full CRM cleanup delivered in time for FY territory allocation (February 2026)
Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) fully replaced
The challenge
A go-to-market too complex for legacy data tools
Territory assignment at GWI depends on geography, industry, and company headcount.
Enterprise reps own entire corporate hierarchies worldwide. Mid-market and Majors reps work regionally. Getting the data right across all three dimensions is what makes territory allocation work, and GWI’s previous tools weren't delivering it.
Hierarchies that didn't match how GWI sells
- GWI needed corporate hierarchies grouped by operating region to match their territory structure.
- D&B mapped hierarchies based on legal entity structures, which didn't reflect how GWI's sales teams actually work.
- Subsidiaries, regional offices, and acquired brands had accumulated as standalone accounts with missing or incorrect parent relationships.
Headcount gaps across providers
Company headcount determines which segment owns an account, but providers rarely agreed on the number.
"We have lots of good data providers, but rarely do they all agree on the full time employee account. That creates a lot of challenges with who gets assigned an account and lead routing further downstream."
Andy Dorling
Sales Tools Enablement Manager
Duplicate accounts across the CRM
- The same company appeared multiple times under different names, domains, or regional variations.
- No mass action tooling existed to resolve duplicates at scale.
Territory planning exposed the gap
"We've just been doing our territory planning and execution work for all of our reps and it's been really difficult to bring in a clean set of accounts. "
Andy Dorling
Sales Tools Enablement Manager
"A big issue is just around data quality and the confidence that people have in that. And that kind of has an impact on everything, including building automation and adding enhancements to the system, because garbage data in, garbage data out."
Sabina Barleaza
Salesforce Product Director
KERN ID link to Salesforce
The decision
Why Kernel over Dun & Bradstreet
GWI needed:
- Corporate hierarchies that reflect how they sell, regional operating structures, not rigid legal entities.
- Accurate headcount and industry data so territory allocation uses a single source of truth.
- A solution that cleans the CRM and keeps it clean, not a one-time fix.
Kernel implemented corporate hierarchies that reflect how GWI sell
Kernel ran a proof of concept against 1,000 GWI accounts:
- 81% had a headcount discrepancy of more than 30% vs existing data.
- 20% were identified as duplicates.
- 26% had parent companies that D&B and other vendors had failed to identify.
For each finding, Kernel provided not just the correction but the reasoning. For a team that had seen inconsistent results from other providers, this transparency changed the conversation.
"Nine times out of ten, when a rep questions our data, they use LinkedIn as the data point. Having the reasoning in Salesforce means they don't have to come to us every time to ask, why is this account mid-market or majors?"
Andy Dorling
Sales Tools Enablement Manager
GWI framed the investment directly against D&B: "We're comparing it versus D&B, which is the tool we've currently got that isn't giving us what we need. That's where my head is at." The contract was signed in November 2025.
Kernel duplicate resolution with custom survivorship logic
How Kernel works inside GWI
Kernel ingested all 69,000 accounts and ran:
- Entity resolution (matching each record to a verified entity).
- Custom hierarchy mapping (regional groupings matching GWI's sales motion, not D&B's legal entity approach).
- Duplicate resolution with custom survivorship logic.
- Firmographic enrichment with AI-powered reasoning.
The Kernel platform gave GWI mass-action capabilities for bulk merges, associations, and deletions, replacing what had been entirely manual. An inbound API now enriches every new
account, keeping the CRM clean on an ongoing basis.
Total CRM went from 69,000 to 52,500 accounts, a 24% reduction in noise.
Custom hierarchy mapping (regional groupings matching GWI's sales motion, not D&B's legal entity approach)
Impact and outcomes
Kernel has been live inside GWI's CRM since November 2025, delivered in time for financial year territory allocation in February 2026.
- RevOps allocated territories using clean, hierarchically accurate, firmographically validated data for the first time with this level of confidence.
- D&B fully replaced. Kernel provides entity data, hierarchies, and firmographics with the flexibility to match GWI's regional go-to-market structure.
- Accounts routed to the right reps based on validated headcount and geography.
- Marketing and sales working from the same data.
- CRM stays clean on an ongoing basis via inbound enrichment and mass actions.
D&B fully replaced. Kernel provides entity data, hierarchies, and firmographics with the flexibility to match GWI's regional go-to-market structure
Kernel as the foundation for AI initiatives
GWI is rolling out Claude and ChatGPT Enterprise licenses across their sales teams. Andy Dorling sees Kernel as the essential foundation:
" We want to democratize Kernel data across other systems so that when we're talking about accounts, we're always referring to Kernel data as the source of truth"
Andy Dorling
Sales Tools Enablement Manager
"The numbers that Kernel gives us and the reasoning behind it is better than anything else we have."
Sabina Barleaza
Salesforce Product Director
If you'd like to learn more about how Kernel can support your CRM with accurate account data, corporate hierarchies, and ongoing governance, book a demo here
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