Impact of the Financial Crisis on MDM and Data Quality Initiatives

Impact of the Financial Crisis on MDM and Data Quality Initiatives

A New Research Report from The Information Difference – Autumn 2008

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? In other words, are MDM and DQ immune from the crisis?

There is little hard information concerning the response of businesses to the impact of the financial crisis in this area. At The Information Difference we have conducted a survey, sponsored by Harte-Hanks Trillium Software, 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.

The key findings from the survey are summarized below.

• 58% of those surveyed have implemented DQ, MDM or both (32%).
• Of the remaining 40%, 23% have no plans to implement DQ or MDM in the foreseeable future, 42% plan to implement DQ and MDM in 1-3 years, 11% plan to implement DQ in 1-3 years and 10% plan to implement MDM in 1-3 years.
• Of those who currently have implementations, an impressive 40% plan to accelerate the implementation, but 37% are undecided as to the best course of action.
• Overall, of those surveyed, 31% reported that they were uncertain as to how to move forward.
• Some 9% reported that they planned to delay implementation for a year.
• On a positive note, only 8% proposed to put their implementations and plans on hold.
• 50% of those surveyed agreed that in the light of the financial crisis implementation of DQ and MDM should be given higher priority.

These results taken together support the view that we are unlikely to see a major retrenchment in the implementation of DQ and MDM in the business community. We believe this is positive news for both vendors and end users/enterprises alike.

The report has 16 pages.