Master Data Management Projects in Practice

Master Data Management Projects in Practice

A New Research Report from The Information Difference – December 2009

Master Data Management (MDM) has received growing attention recently as an essential component of information management alongside data governance and data quality. Alongside this growth in interest in master data management, the provision of services for the implementation of master data management is featuring with increasing prominence in the portfolio of services offered by many Systems Integrators (SIs).

While many SIs currently claim or suggest they have extensive implementation expertise in master data management, there is little concrete information available regarding the use of systems integrators by end-user organizations for implementing master data management programs in business. We have therefore conducted a survey of both end-user organizations and systems integrators aimed at gaining deeper insight into the levels of expertise, experience and usage of systems integrators specifically related to undertaking MDM implementations.

Some 131 respondents completed the survey from all around the world, the majority from North America (47%) and Europe (30%). A high proportion (42%) of the respondents came from companies having annual revenues greater than US $ 1 billion. The respondents represented a wide spectrum of industries.

The study throws up some fascinating results, including showing the amount of effort that is needed to maintain MDM systems, how much effort you should budget for to deal with data quality issues, and what are the main lessons from current project practice. The report also shows just how happy companies really are with the systems integrators they use for MDM projects.

The report has 57 pages.