At the recent Chicago Gartner BI event, every MDM session was standing room only with various discussions on the value of MDM to the location of the repository.  If you haven’t already heard, Microsoft acquired a leading MDM vendor, Stratature sometime back and has already released a Technology Preview allowing customers and partners begin to use the solution and provide feedback to help shape the direction that we take.  

 

The core message - MDM is now mainstream and data quality issues are moving upstream into the hands of non-technical people who are becoming increasingly more important in maintaining the master data, and influencing and directing what should be master data.  The past failures of IT-centric approaches are painfully evident and in order for MDM to succeed within organizations, the right body of people need to be assembled.  Similar to the data stewardship role in developing a data warehouse, a team is required to define just what is the master data within an organization, how often it should change, and who has the authority to change.  Of course, the right MDM system will make it easy for all parties to be involved, notify and kick-off the right processes when change occurs, and influence all future applications with the right taxonomy.    With a working MDM system, users will be able to gleam insight from their analytical systems and continually improve their operational systems, shortening the amount of time it takes to gain further understanding. 


How is MDM successful?  MDM must unite people, processes, and systems with context of the business.  The latter is taken for granted but just like any other system, not knowing the context inhibits any ability to understand and influence.  Since MDM will touch many different users, and many different systems, it is important to ensure the master data is structured in such a way that finding and changing information is not a chore but easily delegated to the right individuals.   Of course, the right systems and controls need to be in-place as well as well articulated processes that identify how the master data is to be acted upon.

 

Problems to implementing MDM?  First off there is the multiple systems that have their own rules and data fragmentation.  IT applications are numerous and required to run the business so an MDM system must be able to interact with and capture the current system of record and then modify it once the master data has been identified.  Mergers and acquisitions introduce additional systems that need to be considered and MDM must be part of the processes of the business.  If it is “yet another system”, it will be treated as such and could be neglected which could introduce latency in the master data.  Critical for success is a closed-loop system between the operational and analytical systems to ensure proper update and consistency.  Other problems include poor middleware applications that hinder the implementation of an MDM system by not moving the data through the entire value chain, or require heavy setup and configuration as well as custom development to accomplish the required tasks.  Last but not least, organizational politics need to be addressed.


Should MDM live in the Data Warehouse?  This is an interesting debate and depends on your core requirements.  What is important is not where the master data resides, but how it is agreed upon and communicated – how is it entered, managed, updated, and what systems it influences.  Like any approach, devising a monolithic-centralized system is time consuming and almost always setup for failure.  Approaching it from a departmental lens, and updating items in small pockets ensures reliability, create a long-lasting process, and allows users to begin using the information right away versus waiting for nirvana.

 

Call to action – to find out more about Microsoft’s MDM offering, check out the MDM page at http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/mdm as well as signup for our Technology preview to begin using the technology and provide us with feedback in how you are implementing MDM in your organizations.  Please send an email to MDMVibe@Microsoft.com with your request and your feedback.  If MDM is foreign to you, there is a lot of research on and insight on Roger Wolter’s and Kirk Haselden’s blog.  And of course, if you are a Gartner client, they have some very good research on this too.

 

I also look forward to your comments, and thoughts.