“Put simply, if you ignore data integration or do not treat it as being of sufficient importance then your MDM project will fail.” Philip Howard, Bloor Research – Master Data Management and Integration: Complementary but Distinct.

The above statement is both direct and powerful and I believe most would regard it as true.  Key requirements of any MDM solution include data access, data synchronization, profiling, transforming, cleansing and entity resolution.  These simply cannot be met without a strong data integration and quality infrastructure.  Since Informatica excels in these areas and MDM vendors generally do not, there are a lot of synergies between Informatica and MDM projects regardless of whether you chose to build your own or implement a packaged MDM solution.

It is also important that you do not view data integration and data quality in a silo as it relates to the MDM project.  That is, you should look at it as a required component to your MDM initiative, but also separate from MDM projects because the infrastructure can be used more widely throughout your organization.

Treating integration and quality as core yet separate to MDM will allow you to gain flexibility in your solution and also allow you to re-use integration assets that already exist in your organization.  Many of you reading this blog might be Informatica customers and I’m sure you can certainly see benefits in leveraging your existing infrastructure for MDM initiatives.  It can reduce risk to your MDM project because you can leverage software assets that you already own, and more importantly skill sets that you already possess.

Informatica’s upcoming MDM Forum, a ‘one day’ roadshow series plans to highlight how organizations can do this.  We have some great industry experts speaking, including Jill Dyché of Baseline Consulting, and experts from Initiate and Informatica all discussing key topics in MDM.
Come check us out, it’s free!