A comprehensive report released by Aberdeen and titled, Master Data Management: The Approach Determines the Results, found a significant correlation between the approach organizations used when embarking on a master data management (MDM) endeavor and the results they achieved. The recent research reveals that while nearly nine out of ten users (89 percent) began their MDM journey using an in-house solution, nearly half have since moved to a packaged MDM solution. To ensure success in MDM projects, the research findings urged users to evaluate and select an MDM solution that focuses on their specific business needs, incumbent information, and technology architectures.
Organizations should start by identifying the most business-critical processes and the data-related issues that are challenging the effectiveness of those processes. Among the MDM users evaluated, the study found a connection between year-over-year improvement in data quality and user satisfaction. According to the study, Siperian users claimed the highest level of end-user satisfaction, followed by IBM and other MDM providers.
“The industry average improvement in the effectiveness and satisfaction varies with the solution users selected,” said Russ Klein, VP Research Development of Aberdeen and co-author of the report. “Clearly, there is something to learn from Siperian users that gives them almost 50 percent greater improvement in end-user satisfaction from only slightly better data quality results.”
The study also encouraged MDM users to build their master data management solution carefully and to measure performance as they go forward. For instance, when asked to provide year-over-year improvement in key performance indicators using internal metrics, the study revealed that cross-channel information sharing was the area that most clearly differentiated all of the MDM users. This technology-oriented metric differentiated Siperian users from IBM and other MDM providers the most, followed by automated data management and integration, data retrieval and information access, and managing structured or unstructured data.
According to Klein, “Cross-channel information sharing is best enabled by a platform that can be used for many different entities within the enterprise.”
To realize greater value and usefulness from the data, users should look for ways to re-use the MDM platform and code-base across departments. The report recognized Siperian for its flexibility, stating the Siperian platform is designed to be deployed against one business problem and then to be scaled across additional applications without any change to the data model. The survey also found that improvements to the internal metrics lead to more impressive year-over-year improvements in customer or business-oriented metrics as well. According to the findings, Siperian users achieved the highest level of customer growth when compared to users of IBM and other MDM providers, followed by increases in up-sell and cross revenue by customer and customer retention.
“Ultimately, the Consolidated Customer Master — which is a single source for all customer data being built with Siperian Hub XT — will enable the business to perform sophisticated analytics to derive actionable customer insights,” said Justin Sowers, Director of Global Business Technology, Pfizer, Inc. “In addition, a well-designed data model and web services layer will facilitate integration with other enterprise systems and scale to all European and Canadian markets from a technology perspective.”
About the Report
Aberdeen surveyed over 400 end-user organizations in April 2008 on the subject of leveraging Master Data Management solutions. The study was designed to understand how organizations are leveraging master data management solutions to improve information integration, access, sharing, and management. In the survey, users were asked to identify the approach they have taken or are taking to improve customer growth, revenue and user satisfaction and to identify key performance indicators for achieving MDM success.
About Siperian, Inc.
Siperian, Inc., an innovative provider of a flexible master data management platform, helps companies unify their critical data about customers, products and organizations– and delivers reliable, complete views of this data within existing business processes. Siperian MDM Hub™ offers the next generation of architectural flexibility for managing all types of master data with an integrated, model-driven software platform that adapts to your business requirements– and delivers rapid return on investment on critical projects today while evolving to a complete enterprise master data management platform. Siperian’s approach enables rapid implementation and has earned the company its reputation for leadership and proven success by meeting the complex requirements of market-leading companies in financial services, health and life sciences, technology, manufacturing and information services and media. With corporate headquarters in San Mateo, California, Siperian has offices throughout the United States and in Toronto, Canada; the Company’s EMEA operation is headquartered in London. To learn more about Siperian visit www.siperian.com or call 1-866-747-3742.
