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Data Model Objects (DMOs) — Data 360 reference

The harmonized layer of Data 360: standard vs custom DMOs, the Customer 360 data model, and why mapping to standard objects buys you semantics that segmentation, identity resolution, and agents already understand.

Reference·Last updated 2026-06-01·Drafted by Lira · Edited by German Medina

A Data Model Object (DMO) is the harmonized, business-meaningful view of your data — the layer that segments, Calculated Insights, identity resolution, and activations all read from. DMOs are views over one or more Data Lake Objects (see Data Lake Objects). If the DLO is what you ingested, the DMO is what it means.

Standard vs custom DMOs

Salesforce ships a set of standard DMOs — the Customer 360 data model: Individual, Contact Point Email, Contact Point Phone, Party Identification, and many more. They carry semantics the platform already understands: identity resolution knows how to unify on them, segmentation knows how to traverse them, Einstein and agents know how to read them.

A custom DMO is one you define. It's sometimes the right call — when the standard model genuinely can't express your object — but it begins with zero built-in meaning, and you own every integration that touches it.

Standard DMO (Individual)         ← identity resolution, segmentation, Einstein understand it
Custom DMO (LoyaltyAccount__dlm)  ← you own every behavior; nothing is prebuilt

Reference:

What survives in production

Map to standard unless you can name what's missing

Before creating a custom DMO, answer one question: what does the standard model fail to express that this object must? If you can't name it, map to standard — you inherit identity resolution, segmentation, and agent-readiness for free. (See gotchas — gotcha 4.)

The primary key is near-permanent

A DMO's primary key decides how records deduplicate and how other objects join to it. Changing it after identity resolution has run is a rebuild, not an edit. Choose what uniquely and stably identifies a row over its lifetime — the same discipline Marketing Cloud teams apply to SubscriberKey.

DMO category drives what it can do

Like DLOs, DMOs carry a category (Profile, Engagement, Other). The category governs whether the object participates in identity resolution and time-series insights. Set it to match the object's real role, not the default.

Quick decision

Map to a standard DMO when:

  • A standard object expresses the data's meaning (people to Individual, emails to Contact Point Email).
  • You want identity resolution, segmentation, and agent-readiness without building them.

Create a custom DMO when:

  • The standard model has no object for this concept and you can articulate why.
  • You accept ownership of every downstream integration it touches.

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