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Summary
Master data management (MDM) has become one of the hottest topics in information management, as companies struggle to come to terms with collections of systems that have left them with master data dispersed in various silos and in multiple versions of the same system. In 2006 Ventana Research found that many companies are still learning what MDM actually is and that those that have adopted it are only at the beginning of MDM maturity. In many cases, these companies have chosen to adopt spreadsheets or data warehouses as their solution and few have yet to adopt a purpose-built MDM product. Siperian is one of the pioneering specialists in MDM, and its products support both the technical aspects of master data management and the associated processes and data governance essential to ensure the ongoing success of MDM initiatives.

Assessment
Master data should be the single trusted source of data that everyone in an enterprise relies on and uses. It can include data about such key aspects of business as customers, products, employees and finance, as well as less obvious items such as hierarchies (for example, corporate structure and reporting lines), business rules (how to aggregate items) and definitions (such as the currency in which monetary figures are expressed). Master data goes beyond metadata, which is the commonly accepted way of describing data (for example, a customer name is 20 characters long, the format for amount fields, or instructions that a certain amount field should not exceed a defined value). MDM is the data itself, and it does rely on the enterprise having a single metadata description of all master data items. Master data should be consistent, unique, clean, and complete and be available to everyone who needs it in forms suitable for their particular uses.

The issue for companies today is that their systems have grown haphazardly over time, and no one can rely on there being one consistently reliable source of data or only one description of an item readily available. The latest research from Ventana Research shows that 26 percent of companies have customer data in up to 20 types of systems, and only 11 percent have total confidence in the quality of their customer data. In addition, a variety of research studies show that many employees have resorted to extracting the data they need into personally managed spreadsheets so they can see the results they want when they want them, regardless of requirements for organization-wide consistency.

Many vendors claim to have systems that can solve some of these issues. They may focus on a particular type of master data, such as customer, product or finance; on tools that can extract data into a common repository; on data quality; on technology that allows the synchronization of data across multiple systems; or on reporting and analysis of data. Siperian is one of the few vendors to offer a product, Siperian MDM Hub, that addresses all these issues and allow companies to manage all types of master data from a single data store. Its foundation is a metadata-driven master data hub that can contain multiple data types. Administrators can build the metadata descriptions on standard templates, import them from existing systems and then enhance them, or build them from scratch as they see fit.

Once the definitions are complete, users can extract data from existing systems and load it into the hub using tools that support rules-based cleansing and transformation if needed. These tools can work with data cleansing products from other vendors. MDM Hub contains other tools that can enrich data from internal or external data sources as well as rules-based tools to identify potential duplicate records and flag them, merge duplicates and/or create relationships between records based on the hierarchy data. MDM Hub automates many of these processes and flags others so a data steward can make the necessary changes manually, where needed working with others through a workflow tool to decide on the required action. All of these functions are governed by data access and security rules that managers can set for individual users or user types.

The resulting master sources of data can be made available for use in different ways. MDM Hub supports a registry-style operation in which duplicates are flagged; it also can be used to synchronize data across defined systems, for reporting and analysis, or to support shared services such as Web-based services.

Market Impact
Several research benchmark programs undertaken by Ventana Research show that companies are considering various types of vendors to support their MDM initiates. One choice is to work with their existing database or application vendor, most often IBM, Oracle or SAP. Another popular choice is to build an in-house solution using tools from vendors of databases, such as Teradata, or of data integration tools, such as Informatica. Companies that focus primarily on reporting and analysis are likely to turn to vendors of enterprise-style business intelligence (BI) software such as Business Objects or Cognos. An as-yet small percentage of companies have recognized the limitations and high costs of these products and are turning to more specialized vendors such as Siperian and dedicated MDM vendors like Initiate Systems and Kalido. Such products are flexible and support multiple types of master data from within one product, allowing companies to start with managing one type of master data and then expand to manage multiple types. For these reasons, we expect to see adoption rates increase as dedicated MDM gains more market recognition.

Recommendation
As well as examining technology, Ventana Research’s benchmarks show that companies recognize the importance of putting data governance processes in place. A common approach is to create a data governance board that includes both business and IT personnel to oversee initiatives. Empowering such a group promotes buy-in from both sides of the business and acceptance that MDM is a shared responsibility. MDM involves people from all sides of the organization and thus different levels of technical ability. This creates the need for technology that is highly flexible, highly configurable and supportive of all the required processes. We believe Siperian’s products meet these requirements, and we recommend that companies starting out on the MDM journey include Siperian on the list of vendors they consider.