Initiate's CDI software evaluates multiple factors to calculate a statistical probability that a customer record is for the same person as another record. That, Schumacher said, is in contrast with the practices of competitors, who he claims generally use a more "deterministic" method that is "less tolerant of errors" and slows down quickly as more rules are added.

The software also lets companies fine-tune how aggressively Initiate should match customer records. Hotels such as Choice may set a lower level than health care companies, Schumacher said, where "merging two patients' records is a very bad thing. The typical false-positive ratio that is tolerated is 1 in 100,000 or 1 in a million."

In September, Initiate released Version 7.2 of Identity Hub. Initiate was first used in the health care industry but now claims 100 customers in various markets. Besides Choice Hotels, Hyatt is using Initiate. In the financial arena, customers include Wells Fargo, WellPoint Inc. and Countrywide Financial Corp.

Schumacher said Initiate's customers can run Identity Hub with any of the major relational databases. Or they can run data through data-cleansing software before handing it off to Identity Hub.

"We think cleaning up addresses is a good idea, though we tend to recommend to customers that they keep two versions ' cleansed and uncleansed versions," Schumacher said. "We don't recommend that you clean up names."