The Information Difference Company

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Vendor Profiles

White Papers

Research Reports

Vendor Profile - Amalto - April 2008
Vendor Profile - Datanomic - April 2008
Vendor Profile - Exeros - April 2008
Vendor Profile - Golden Source - April 2008
Vendor Profile - Group 1 (Pitney Bowes) - May 2009
Vendor Profile - Heiler - September 2008
Vendor Profile - Hybris - September 2008
Vendor Profile - IBM - April 2008
Vendor Profile - Initiate - April 2008
Vendor Profile - Kalido - April 2008
Vendor Profile - Netrics - May 2009
Vendor Profile - Oracle - April 2008
Vendor Profile - Orchestra Networks - April 2008
Vendor Profile - Purisma - April 2008
Vendor Profile - QAD - December 2008
Vendor Profile - SAP - April 2008
Vendor Profile - SAS - Dataflux - April 2008
Vendor Profile - Silver Creek - April 2009
Vendor Profile - Siperian - April 2008
Vendor Profile - Stibo - July 2008
Vendor Profile - Sun - October 2008
Vendor Profile - Teradata - April 2008
Vendor Profile - Tibco - April 2008
Vendor Profile - Trillium Software - May 2009
Vendor Profile - Visionware - April 2008

To see a sample profile click here.

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Mastering Data: Beyond Customer and Product
A paper by Andy Hayler published April 2008

The master data management (MDM) market has seen a battle of ideas over the last couple of years between "cross domain" approaches and specialist hubs for separate classes of master data, particularly "customer" and "product". In this new white paper Andy Hayler charts this battle and discusses the types of MDM architectures which play out in large enterprises.

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Styles and Architectures for Master Data Management
Master data management (MDM) has emerged as a key area of information management in the last few years. Initially much of the architectural debate was about whether to be data domain-specific or not, with vendors focused on providing customer or product-specific hubs. In the past couple of years the industry has realised that organisations want a uniform approach to all their master data and vendors have started to address this requirement. There is, however, still a significant divide about the style of implementation, with some vendors specialising in certain areas, and some confusion has arisen around terms such as "operational MDM", "registry" and "analytic MDM" used for various approaches to implementing MDM. Implementation approaches focus either on managing master data associated with business intelligence and reporting (termed analytic MDM) or managing master data associated with transactional systems (termed operational MDM). There has also been discussion of the use of federated approaches for MDM.

At The Information Difference we believe it is important for both organizations and vendors to understand how MDM is generally being implemented, so as to gain insight into the underlying reasons for the approaches selected and the available experience to date. We have therefore conducted a survey aimed at gaining deeper insight into the views and plans of businesses regarding their current or planned MDM initiatives, focused on the styles and architectures adopted or planned to be implemented.

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Impact of the Financial Crisis on MDM and Data Quality Initiatives
The recent financial crisis has had widespread impact on both individuals and businesses. It is against this background that a number of comments have appeared in the media urging businesses not to be distracted from their current IT plans but to focus even more on the areas that will bring growth. It seems entirely likely that consulting firms will be faced with delayed or cancelled projects and many software vendors will experience a slowdown in orders. But will most businesses realize that Master Data Management (MDM) and Data Quality (DQ) initiatives hold the key to delivering improved business information and therefore that it makes sense to pursue these initiatives even against the current economic background?

At The Information Difference we have conducted a survey aimed at gaining greater insight into the views and plans of businesses regarding their current or planned MDM and DQ initiatives. The objective of the survey was to explore the views of businesses on the impact of the financial crisis and "credit crunch" on their current and future plans for implementation of MDM and DQ.

92 respondents completed the survey from all around the world, the majority from North America (57%) and Europe (31%). Most of the respondents were from companies having annual revenues greater than US $ 1 billion and represented a wide spectrum of industries.

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Adoption of Data Governance by Business
Data Governance is the process of establishing and maintaining cooperation between lines of business to establish standards for how common business data and metrics will be defined, propagated, owned and enforced throughout the organization. It is closely related to master data management (MDM), which is the management of data that is shared between computer systems, such as customer, product, asset, location or contract.

The Information Difference has conducted a survey into the take-up and adoption of data governance by business. 233 participants took part in the survey, 60% from companies with over USD $1 billion in revenue. 20% of respondents hold the job title of "Chief Architect" and 16% are CxOs or VPs. 64% were from North America, 20% from Europe and the rest elsewhere. 38% were drawn from the business and the remainder from IT. The purpose of the study was to gain understanding of, among other factors, the level of take-up, business motivation and the preferred approach to implementation.

"The best survey I've seen on the topic to date" Jill Dyché, Partner, Baseline Consulting

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Growing Adoption of Master Data Management by Business?
Master Data is data that is shared between computer systems, such as customer, product, asset, location or contract. The management of this data is known as master data management (MDM). The mounting pressure on businesses to increase fiscal data compliance, accountability and transparency has driven a growing number of organizations to put a tentative toe into the waters of MDM. This has in part been fuelled by the explosion of publications in this area aimed at convincing businesses that the route to consistent business information lies in effective management of their master data. There is, however, scant concrete information relating to the motivation and adoption of MDM by business.

Against this background, The Information Difference has conducted a survey in April 2008 into the take-up and adoption of master data management (MDM) software. Data was collected for the survey from 112 participants with 65% representing businesses with revenues in excess of USD 1 billion. Some 56% were from North America and 24% from Europe. The purpose of the study was to gain understanding of amongst other factors the level of take up, the business motivation and the preferred approach to implementation.


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