Comments on: Best of Breed MDM versus Generalist MDM – which is best?

By: Interview with Paul Billingham of MDM Vendor Orchestra Networks « (Master) Reference Data Management

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:49:28 +0000

[...] EBX.Platform is designed to provide a more multi-domain or generic solution. Here is a post by Andrew White that provides more [...]

By: Identity Resolution Daily Links 2009-02-06 - Identity Resolution Daily

Identity Resolution Daily Links 2009-02-06 - Identity Resolution Daily — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:36:57 +0000

[...] Gartner: Best of Breed MDM versus Generalist MDM – which is best? [Andrew White]”Users have to decide what they need to focus on – and this may change over time. Business drivers may lead to the recognition that “deep MDM” skills are needed first hand to get to grips with very complex product data workflows, but later, a more general approach is needed to master other domains.” [...]

By: Andrew White

Andrew White — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:55:09 +0000

Nice comment Robert – not sure there is anything for me to disagree with. Though I say that the difference between operational MDM and analytical MDM is related to where the data is cleansed, this is an over simplification that implies much, if not all, of what you rounded out in your response. So thanks for the “drill down”.

And I like your “best” MDM vendor description.

By: Robert Rich

Robert Rich — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:11:23 +0000

The challenge is master data management is so deeply ingrained in the business process, applications and infrastructure across the enterprise. MDM vendors need to be evaluated as an incremental set of capabilities delivering domain and industry expertise that can be readily integrated with the current architecture. I’d suggest the difference between operational and analytical is not where the data is cleansed but the purpose of the underlying schema – with the long standing challenge to optimize effective CRUD and complex analytics simultaneously. An MDM purist could argue that cleansing should always be centralized to control the logic that enforces quality, integrates with the business process for workflow and hierarchy management and supports a governance framework.

In my humble opinion the “best” MDM vendor is the one with the solution that adds critical capabilities, leverages what you already have and can be used to implement a series of use cases each of which drives business value over time.