Master Data Management (MDM) Landscape

yeah, yeah, reusing the same picture...it is MDM time again!
(and I don't mean Mobile Device Management)

MDM definition 

"Master Data Management comprises a set of processes, governance, policies, standards and tools that consistently defines and manages master data which excludes transactional data but may include reference data." Wikipedia.

MDM trends for 2012-2013

• Market Consolidation (see mega vendors below)
• Tool Convergence (aka: multi-entity, multi-domain...yep called this 4 years ago)
• BPM for MDM (more governance automation as expected)
• Data Virtualization / MDM as a Service (have been writing about the MDM SOA intersection since 2007)
• Data Quality as a Service
• Address standardization / cleansing 
• Cleanse/Dedup/Merge across multiple Salesforce installations in the cloud
• Data Profiling as a Service
• IMDBs & Big Data (see two prior posts on in memory databases)
• Forrester trends blog here: http://blogs.forrester.com/rob_karel/12-01-05-mdm_in_2012_what_was_what_will_be_and_what_wont_be 

MDM mega vendors  (and their associated product offerings)

• IBM 
• InfoSphere MDM Server (formerly DWL and Trigo)
• Initiate Master Data Service (formerly Initiate)

• Informatica 
• MDM (formerly Siperian)

• Oracle
• Customer, Product, Supplier, and Site Hubs (Oracle and Siebel)
• Data Relationship Management (formerly Hyperion)

• SAP
• NetWeaver MDM

Gartner Magic Quadrant leadership is very closely correlated to the mega vendors above and not much changed from 2011 to 2012. Only Informatica and IBM continue to show as leads in all three areas below: 

• 2012 MDM (customer data solutions): IBM, Oracle, Informatica
• 2012 Data Integration: Informatica, IBM, SAP, Oracle, SAS
• 2012 Data Quality: Informatica, SAS, Trillium, IBM, SAP

• 2011 MDM (customer data solutions): IBM, Oracle, Informatica
• 2011 Data Integration: Informatica, IBM, SAP, Oracle, SAS
• 2011 Data Quality: SAS, Informatica, Trillium, IBM, SAP

According to Forrester, Informatica (Siperian) is the MDM leader followed by IBM (Initiate Systems), and per link below, the same two players are leading on data virtualization.

• http://blogs.forrester.com/business_process/2010/01/introducing-the-mdm-markets-newest-800lb-gorilla-informatica-acquires-siperian.html
• http://www.informatica.com/us/company/news-and-events-calendar/press-releases/01092012_forrester_data_virtualization_wave.aspx

Without having a personal preference on a specific technology (have an IBM / Initiate Systems certification  and experience with Siperian and Oracle PIM) it seems that Informatica is moving towards taking the gold here, and (somewhat) coincidentally it will be the product of choice for my next CDI POC to concentrate on hierarchy management, data stewardship and data governance.  Below are a few more Informatica reference links supporting leadership claims:

• http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2012/10/23/499182/10009539/en/Informatica-Positioned-in-Leaders-Quadrant-in-2012-Master-Data-Management-of-Customer-Data-Solutions-Report.html
• http://www.information-management.com/blogs/master_data_management_mdm_siperian_informatica-10017071-1.html
• http://www.informatica.com/Images/03031_7159_enable-business-agility-mdm-tech.pdf

Nice to see how far Informatica has come from the old ETL days over a decade ago...
John K

Dell

I was hired as a Senior MDM Consultant/Architect by Dell in late 2008 under the Information Management & Architecture group to provide MDM expertise and consulting services. Under confidentiality and non-disclosure I am unable to provide any details about my engagement which completed in July of 2009 (yes, time again for the annual trip to Greece). What I can do is provide a summary of references I found while searching Google which provide the reader potentially relevant landscape information through existing public information.

September 2007 - a reference from Dell on Financial MDM initiative and the use of SOA on the Oracle site. http://www.oracle.com/appserver/business-intelligence/docs/financial-mdm-at-dell.pdf

2008 – a reference on The MDM Institute (Aaron Zornes) showing Dell as a customer of Initiate Systems.
http://www.tcdii.com/initiatesystemsidentityhub.html

December 2008 - a reference on Dell’s CDI initiative from the Gartner MDM Summit presented by John Miller and summarized by Jill Dyche http://www.beyenetwork.be/blogs/dyche/archives/2008/12/dell_does_mdm_r.php

June 2009 - a reference from Oracle in their MDM Executive brief showing Dell as a client. http://www.oracle.com/master-data-management/master-data-management-executive-brief.pdf

June 2009 – multiple recruiting site references for talent acquisition around Master Data Management Enablement and Data Services utilizing AquaLogic Service Bus - ALSB (now: Oracle Service Bus - OSB) and Aqualogic Data Services Platform - ALDSP (now: Oracle Data Services Integrator - ODSI)
http://jobs.monsterindia.com/details/6991360.html http://jobs.monsterindia.com/details/7103559.html?sig=js-1-e8a98fc9f01d868eec37e666f84bf6cf-1 http://www.recruit.net/jobs/1243504796491/ http://www.careerenclave.com/jobs/index.php?topic=43392.msg%msg_id%

I thank everyone at Dell for the project opportunity and worthwhile experience. Our paths might cross again in the future since the Austin MDM market is not THAT large ;-).

Multi-Domain MDM

Ok, ok, it is really the same thing... Multi-Domain MDM and Multi-Entity MDM. So much maturing terminology...I will get to the point.


If you attended conferences on MDM since late 2008, you might have noticed that most product vendors either already support (say they support) or are moving towards supporting multi-entity MDM. To be honest, very few vendors are close to mature multi-entity MDM as of early 2009; the direction however is clear. Most engagements I have worked on to-date involved multiple MDM domains and I foresee this continuing in the future. With multiple domains comes the need for MDM enablement which was introduced in a prior blog. Since MDM enablement involves commonalities across domains, there is more emphasis and need for enablement under the centralized MDM style / architectural pattern.


Which reminds me, there has been a slight change of terminology on MDM architectural styles as presented by Gartner on the November 2008 MDM conference. The table below shows the change (green replacing red) and consolidates/aligns the Gartner terms to the ones from IBM's and my first article on MDM which can be found under the links area.

(end of parenthesis)

Getting back to Multi-Entity MDM, I believe this is a natural evolution of maturity and would expect (in alignment with other MDM experts) to see not only vendors and implementations, but also governance and assets consolidation into more homogeneous solutions across domains in the future. Here are a few selected quotes on market trends from MDM experts, providing insight to the future direction of multi-entity MDM.



"Multi-style MDM to increase.Through 2009 and 2010, Global 5000 enterprises will broaden their MDM business initiatives from single-use case, single entity to multi-style, multi-entity uses"
Aaron Zornes, founder and chief research officer, MDM Institute.


"I have seen positive momentum towards multi-data-domain operational MDM solutions."
Rob Karel, MDM analyst, Forrester.


"By 2012, more than 65% of Global 2000 organizations will deploy two or more domain-specific, MDM-supporting technologies that start out as specific business requirements but become part of a larger MDM initiative."
Andrew White, Research VP, Gartner Inc.

Multi-Entity MDM Enablement

As a pre-requisite to successful (efficient and effective) multi-entity MDM solutions, I offer the term “MDM Enablement” and definition below:

The charter of MDM enablement is to identify common assets (people, information, processes, practices, policies, services, tools and technologies) across MDM domains (customer, product, service, employee), and to promote standardization and harmonization of such assets in order to maximize re-use, efficiency, effectiveness and value to the organization.

MDM enablement is sub-divided into logical groupings powered by people & groups who provide common processes & practices through the use of standardized tools & technology. Sample MDM enabler areas are depicted in the diagram below.

MDM enablement has been proven to reduce costs through asset re-use and IT simplification. Some examples of savings include: reduced product licensing, standardized integration, legacy system retirement, infrastructure simplification, streamlined development & support, simplified governance, and reduced training costs. (An article on MDM Enablement is currently in the works).