DataFlux

There seems to be a lot of debate around about data governance and MDM, return on investment on MDM etc. going on at present. However the discussion is still a data oriented and IT oriented one with several of my clients still asking for help on MDM business cases at present. So I thought I would look at what MDM could potentially do for an enterprise and see if it implementing MDM might have wider implications. I was amazed at how long my list of what MDM could potentially integrate with started to get. - Read the rest of this entry »

I just reviewed a handful of case studies on master data management, and I had the distinct feeling of deja vu. Many of the MDM programs in the case studies centered (of course) on customer data, and even more pointedly, on the matching and linkage aspects of customer data integration. Considering that five years ago (prior to the creation of the term “master data management”), these case studies would have been touted as best practices in data quality. - Read the rest of this entry »

In one recent post I noodled on the concept of master data synchrony, and promised to follow up on some dimensions of synchronization that may drive application requirements that feed the decision regarding the underlying MDM architecture. The proposed dimensions are: - Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve watched companies invest a lot of time and money in business intelligence. They hire experienced BI staff, identify some key business problems that can be addressed with integrated data, and deploy some new reports. It’s all good.

But then the branches / stores / warehouses / regions don’t use the new reporting capabilities. Companies like this usually have sales-driven cultures. The indicator: executives at headquarters are loathe to impose new policies or standards on their field staffs. - Read the rest of this entry »

I think project managers come in two flavors:

1. Technical Project Managers (TPM)
2. Project Plan Project Managers (PPPM)

Let me explain the differences. A Technical Project Manager has a tendency to work side by side with the programmers, and gets very involved in process and code creation. The TPM is very concerned with the data model and making sure it can generate the data definition language (DDL), and create a table in the database. Not that this is bad, but sometimes a TPM does a bit of micro-management - Read the rest of this entry »

Evan and I recently keynoted a series of seminars conducted by the SourceMedia and sponsored by Dun & Bradstreet. The seminar theme was Best Practices in Customer Data Integration, and the point was to show that really effective CDI doesn’t happen without rigorous data identification, matching, and enrichment. - Read the rest of this entry »

During May’s CDI/MDM Executive Summit series, our friends at DataFlux once again hoisted MDM and CDI onto the shoulders of data quality, and the result is that they all stand a bit taller.

The summit events — held in Denver, Chicago, and Minneapolis — drew a lively and diverse group of attendees. Some were practitioners, including the data architect at the retailer who confided that MDM was “her last best shot at getting my company to understand why integrated data matters.” Others were business people, including the health care executive who wanted to hear about the work involved in MDM. “Everyone knows we need it,” he said, “but no one understands what it’s going to take from a resource perspective.” - Read the rest of this entry »

The Gap, once the darling of the 16-39 year old set — never mind Wall Street retail analysts — recently announced the sudden closing of its nascent and highly-touted Forth and Towne chain. Forth and Towne had been geared to a different demographic: upscale professional women in the 35-55 year old demographic who wanted a stylish spin on workplace wear. - Read the rest of this entry »

I was presenting at a conference in September of 2006 on the subject of BI as a service in a service-oriented architecture (SOA). I included MDM and CDI as service components, and as feeders to BI in my enterprise diagrams. Needless to say, some of the comments and questions were very interesting. MDM and CDI technology have exploded, and I started thinking, could MDM or CDI be a service? - Read the rest of this entry »

In last week’s blog, I wrote about MDM in health care. The widespread adoption of electronic medical records and the accompanying interest in EMPI (Enterprise Master Patient Index) has propelled health care providers from late adopters of data-enabling technologies to authorities on master data. - Read the rest of this entry »