for the purpose of promoting an understanding of the present invention , references are made in the text to exemplary embodiments of a data normalizer , only some of which are described herein . it should be understood that no limitations on the scope of the invention are intended by describing these exemplary embodiments . one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that alternate , but functionally equivalent data normalizers may be used . the inclusion of additional elements may be deemed readily apparent and obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art . specific elements disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting , but rather as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one of ordinary skill in the art to employ the present invention . it should be understood that the drawings are not necessarily to scale ; instead , emphasis has been placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention . in addition , in the embodiments depicted herein , like reference numerals in the various drawings refer to identical or near identical structural elements . moreover , the instructions which are set forth are exemplary , and may be performed in any order or combined with other instructions to achieve substantially equivalent functionality . fig1 is an exemplary embodiment of a data normalizer system 100 operating over a geographically distributed wide area network . in the exemplary embodiment shown , data normalizer system 100 includes normalizing schema server 50 which is a computer readable media which tracks the normalizing policies 5 a , 5 b , and 5 c and policy updates 24 comprising the schema for tenant 90 . in the embodiment shown , tenant 90 is a business entity which uses a cdm system which resides on the tenant &# 39 ; s network . in other embodiments , the tenant may have a cdm system which resides on a server outside the tenant &# 39 ; s network , and be accessed by the tenant over the internet . in the embodiment shown , normalizing policies 5 a , 5 b , and 5 c are determined by each tenant 90 by selecting normalization schema for use in that particular tenant &# 39 ; s environment . in the embodiment shown , tenant 90 is using a cdm system known in the art , but in other embodiments , tenant 90 may be using one or more disparate cdm systems or multiple cdm systems in conjunction with data normalizer system 100 , and each tenant 90 may be using normalizing policies 5 a , 5 b , and 5 c determined by an administrator , which in the embodiment shown is cdm administrator 22 . an administrator may be a single user with administrative privileges . as shown in fig1 , normalizing schema server 50 is a computer readable media for storing normalized policies 5 a , 5 b , and 5 c . in the exemplary embodiment shown , normalizing schema server 50 associates schema updates 24 with the normalizing policies 5 a , 5 b , and 5 c as specified by cdm administrator 22 and / or users 10 a , 10 b , and 10 c . normalizing policies 5 a , 5 b , and 5 c are updated using the graphical user interface 705 discussed in fig7 . in the embodiment shown , normalized data server 60 is a computer apparatus configured with software and has processing components capable of using normalization schema to create normalizing policies which are applied data to be normalized . in various embodiments , normalizing schema server 50 and normalized data server 60 processes data based on normalization schema selected and updated by any cdm administrator 22 or users 10 a , 10 b , and 10 c with privileges to create or update normalizing policies . in the exemplary embodiment shown , list 25 is data passed to cdm system by cdm administrator 22 . data normalizer system 100 further includes normalized data server 60 which applies normalizing policies 5 a , 5 b , and 5 c to data which is passed to and from the cdm system . in the embodiment shown , crm administrator is an individual , entity or server with the ability to modify normalizing policies 5 a , 5 b , and 5 c . fig2 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a data normalizer in use to process data which is keyed in by users 10 a , 10 b , and 10 c as hand entered data 82 . data is passed to cdm server 20 and cdm server 20 passes data over the internet to normalizing schema server 50 which tracks normalizing policy and schema updates and assigns an appropriate normalizing schema based on the tenant . normalized data server 60 applies the appropriate normalizing polices to data which is returned to the cdm server 20 as normalized data 70 . fig3 illustrates data compiled by a data gathering tool 77 directly . data is passed to cdm server 20 , which passes data to be normalized over the internet 30 to normalizing schema sever 50 and normalized data server 60 , and normalized data 70 is returned for use by cdm server 20 . fig4 illustrates mass exported data 86 directly loaded by a cdm administrator 22 into a cdm server 20 , which is then passed to a normalizing schema server 50 . mass exported data 86 is then passed to a normalized data server 60 , which passes the mass exported data 86 over the internet 30 to the cdm server 20 as normalized data 70 . fig5 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a data normalizer system 100 which resides on a local area network ( lan ) 35 with a cdm network sever 36 and which may be purchased by a client or a software vendor to be used with a particular cdm system . the cdm network server 36 illustrated in fig5 includes normalizing schema component 50 , normalized data component 60 , and cdm component 20 , all of which reside on a single server or lan 35 and which are accessed by users 10 a , 10 b , and 10 c . fig6 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a data normalizer system 100 with distributed network components capable of normalizing data in a multi - tenant environment . in the embodiment shown , data normalizer system 100 serves tenants 90 and 95 . in other embodiments , data normalizer system 100 may serve more or fewer tenants , and tenants may be distributed over a wan or lan . as fig6 illustrates , each tenant 90 and 95 has its own normalized data 70 a and 70 b , lists 25 a and 25 b , and schema updates 24 a and 24 b . normalizing schema server 50 and normalized data server 60 serve tenants 90 and 95 . fig7 a illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface 705 which displays multiple normalization schemas 730 and 770 . normalization schema 730 and 770 are rules which are applied by normalizing policies . exemplary normalization schema 730 and 770 include do nothing , convert “ and ” to “& amp ;,” convert “& amp ;” to “ and ,” and to abbreviate various prefixes and suffixes such as “ incorporation ” and “ company .” the embodiment shown illustrates a graphical user interface 705 in which a user can select from numerous normalization schema 730 and 770 . an infinite number of normalization schemas can be added to a graphical user interface ( gui ) 705 , and normalization may be accomplished by treating recognized data , reconstructed data and deconstructed data to any rule imposed or devised by a cdm administrator and / or user . in still other embodiments , data may be normalized using the interim step of comparative database analysis , as later illustrated in fig9 . also shown in fig7 a are the following gui options : parameters 720 which are specific words , ordinals and / or symbols in data that a user may want normalized , actions 730 which include the normalization schema a user may choose to normalize the parameter 720 selected , before 740 which displays a preview of what the data looked like before normalization , preview 750 which displays what the data will look like following normalization , and help screens 760 for explaining the function of each normalization schema / action 730 and 770 . function buttons 788 a , 788 b , and 788 c allow a user to edit , save or manage changes made on the graphical user interface 720 . fig7 b illustrates a graphical user interface as in fig7 a , but also includes a function button for comparison to external databases 790 . fig8 illustrates an exemplary set of instructions 800 with which a computer apparatus may be configured to perform data normalization for multiple contact data systems in a multi - tenant environment . in step 1 801 , the computer apparatus obtains data . the tenant is identified in step 2 802 , and the tenant is matched to its normalization schema set 803 . the normalization schemas get applied 804 and the normalized data is passed to the cdm 805 . fig9 illustrates an exemplary set of instructions 900 with which a computer apparatus may be configured for normalized data utilizing one or more external databases . for example , data may be compared for accuracy to public records and other databases . in step 1 901 , the computer apparatus obtains data . the tenant is identified in step 2 902 , and the tenant is matched to its normalization schema set 903 . in step 4 904 , the computer apparatus then normalizes the data by comparison to external databases 99 a , 99 b , 99 c , and 99 d . the normalization schemas are then applied 905 , and the normalized data is passed to the cdm 906 . fig1 is an exemplary set of instructions which assigns a confidence rating and score to normalized data based on the data source . in step 1 911 , the data is obtained . the tenant is identified in step 2 912 , and the tenant is matched to its normalization schema set 913 . the data is normalized by comparison to external databases 914 , and the data source is identified 915 . the normalization schemas are then applied to the data 916 , and a confidence score and ranking are applied 917 . the normalized data containing the confidence score and rating is finally passed to the cdm 918 . fig1 illustrates an exemplary cdm handoff 920 . data from the cdm server 20 is received 921 a in conjunction with a normalizing schema 921 b . the normalizing schema is used to normalize the data 922 and in step 3 923 , the normalized data is passed back to the cdm server 20 , which will continue to apply the normalizing schema .