by Angela Guess
Mike Caniff recently wrote an article for the Informatica Blog regarding Master Data Management and the Cloud. He writes, “MDM solutions vary by industry in terms of tactical approaches taken – e.g., pharmaceutical/life sciences will adopt semi-batch, database-centric approaches for master physician data to be deployed to sales forces, while financial services providers and online retailers will require near real-time, business process-centric solutions to compete in the business-to-consumer (B2C) online world. These different types of implementations require technical IT expertise in delivering an end-to-end solution. Based on quarterly surveys of the MDM Institute Business Council™ (8,000+ subscribers to the MDM Alert newsletter engaged in MDM projects), the perennial top four business drivers for MDM initiatives are summarized as: (1) compliance and regulatory reporting; (2) economies of scale for mergers and acquisitions (M&A); (3) synergies for cross-sell and up-sell; (4) legacy system integration and augmentation.”
He continues, “Traditional MDM solutions have been implemented on premise, primarily as data hubs to various applications spokes such as Human Resources, PLM, ERP, and CRM applications. With the huge uptick of software as a service (SaaS) CRM providers such as salesforce.com, this requires MDM solutions to integrate data from the cloud. While an on-premise model works well when most of the data is updated within the ‘four walls’ of the enterprise, a hybrid cloud + on premise model may be better suited to a B2C environment when massive customer updates happen on a seasonal basis. In this case, a hybrid model will allow for extra cloud resources to be tapped in order to increase performance. In addition, with a hybrid model, sensitive data that may be legally prohibited from residing in the cloud can be kept on premise.”
