Andrew White

A member of the Gartner Blog Network

Andrew White
Research VP
8 years at Gartner
22 years IT industry

Andrew White is a research vice president and agenda manager for MDM and Analytics at Gartner. His main research focus is master data management (MDM) and the drill-down topic of creating the "single view of the product" using MDM of product data. He was co-chair… Read Full Bio

Coverage Areas:

← →

MDM and Product Lifecycle Management explained – finally!

by Andrew White  |  August 7, 2009  |  2 Comments

One particular topic has plagued a lot of users for several years – what is the overlap, or intersection, between MDM, Product Data Management (PDM), and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).  Well, a colleague of mine (Marc Halpern) and I have just published a couple of notes on the topic.  

My overview is A Look at the Differences and Interactions Among PDM, PLM and MDM and Marc drilled down into a little more detail, with Interfacing PDM and MDM for Cross-Enterprise Needs.  

This topic is very interesting for a couple of reasons.  

  1. It is not a new topic; it became topical about size or seven years ago when MDM of Product Data (or as it was then known, Product Information Management) raised its ugly head.  Many consumer goods firms who had PLM strategies (back then) were just realizing that product data (as published by PLM applications) had to go somewhere other than ERP systems, so PIM seemed to be a good place to go.  However, PLM vendors (as creative as any other vendors) thought they could “do” PIM and so there was a small conflagration of vendor hype. About 4 years ago this died down, or so I thought.  
  2. PLM itself, as a software category, is not as mature (or even as widely understood) as some other pretty large categories, such as ERP, CRM, Procurement, and SCM.  This lack of maturity and understanding of how PLM should be, as a strategy, should be adopted by firms in many industries, prevented the earlier exploration of the intersection between MDM, PDM and PLM.  Whereas with ERP, SCM, and CRM, that dialog has long since passed (and MDM ‘won’).  
  3. Since PLM is once again in vogue (the hype level is high again, and PLM vendors are once again making noises to their prospects, along the lines of, “we can do that – just give me a chance”, it seems appropriate that we write the research that says what needs to be said.

Bottom line – and I plagiarize – use the right tool for the right job.  Though I may not be the best “home maintenance” person out there, I sure know when to use hammer, and when to use a spanner.  Hopefully business application architects will do the same.

Submit a customer case study to win the Gartner MDM Excellence Award 2009!  Go here: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=851612&tab=special&params=pg,zzz.html

 

2 Comments »

Category: MDM Master Data Lifecycle Product Data Management (PDM) Product Information Management (PIM) Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)     Tags: , , , ,

2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 PLM and MDM – How to start right? « Daily PLM Think Tank Blog   August 18, 2009 at 7:14 am

    [...] issue few months ago in my post Will Master Data Management Work for PLM? Few days ago, interesting publication from Gartner about their research in area of MDM and, more specifically, about overlap between MDM [...]

  • 2 A Week is a Long Time in Research   September 4, 2009 at 5:14 pm

    [...] industry segment, and they are struggling with one aspect of MDM – that being the link between MDM and product design/development, clinical trials, and operations/manufacturing.  The client has a lot of experience with [...]