Informatica Perspectives

Good architecture is the foundation required for agile systems that are responsive to business needs. We see that with SOA, which has been missing a vital piece of its architectural approach – from the data. Since it came about in its current form in the early-to-mid 2000s, service-orientation (mainly focused on applications) has existed in a separate world from data management.

Problem is, an SOA-enabled infrastructure with bad data flowing through it can be useless and even dangerous. One commentator even compared SOA to a mosquito that can deliver payloads of bad data (”viral data”) at lightning speed all across the enterprise — pandemic style — before it can be stopped. [Read more]

While the market is showing signs of recovery from the "Great Recession" most state budgets have been feeling the squeeze from the lag in recovery. In a recent article titled The Sorry State of Finances, Liam Denning explained that, "55% of state revenue, before federal transfers, comes from personal and corporate income tax." Denning also stated that, "the first three quarters of 2009 were the worst for state tax since at least 1963."

There is an apparent lag between recovery in the private sector and a state receiving tax revenue. So what can states do about this problem while they suffer in the red? Mr. Denning said, "Since states can't run general funding deficits, closing gaps mean raising taxes, cutting services and resorting to one-time measures." Mr. Denning's list of solutions is certainly accurate, but does it include all options that states have? What about employing new technology to discover fraud or recover uncollected revenue? [Read more]

I am very fortunate to have a CIO role that extends beyond the traditional responsibilities of IT. Part of my role includes the strategy and implementation of the recently launched Informatica Marketplace.

The Informatica Marketplace has generated a lot of buzz with our customers and partners. Last week while I was presenting at the Pacific Crest Annual Cloud Computing Conference I heard the excitement about our new offering from many of the attendees. Mostly, people appreciated our continued thought leadership and commitment to providing an open platform to host solutions for data integration, data quality and data management. And yes, it is an open platform to host solutions that not only support Informatica, but other vendors too - even competitors. Our fundamental belief is that the hand of free enterprise will ultimately win, so we are willing to provide an open platform to do so.

Here are a few questions I've heard and answered over the last few weeks: [Read more]

Continuing with the Data as Asset series, in this posting I explore the negative side and what can happen when data becomes a liability. Physical assets such as buildings, equipment, or even money, can become a liability if not managed properly; buildings can become unsafe to work in, machinery can be dangerous to operate, and business investments can turn into money-sinks. Similarly, data and information systems can also be assets that provide economic value to the enterprise or they can be liabilities that destroy value or put the business at risk if not managed well. Here are three common scenarios. [Read more]

Business modernization programs typically focus on process standardization to gain the benefits of efficient repeatable, measurable processes. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) technologies fulfill the process standardization requirements and have now become a central point for management of business processes. However, ERP systems do not prevent low quality data from entering the systems nor do they measure its impact on the efficiency of a business process. Most organizations today are using the same ERP systems (SAP or Oracle) that were configured by the same consultancies. Therefore, the uniqueness and the scope for competitive advantage of any organization are defined by the people and the data. [Read more]

Las Vegas, as we all know, is the city of conventions, fantastic shows, great restaurants, and of course casinos. But one thing struck me on this visit that I hadn’t really noticed before. Each of these aspects of Las Vegas are world class in and of themselves. But when you really start to think about it, they are even more attractive as a complete set of activities which the conventioneer can pick and choose from to maximize the value of the trip – me, I chose to spend the day at TDWI sessions, dine at Bouchon, catch the Beatle’s Love show, and twice placed $5 down on #9 at the roulette table. Each of these is world class by themselves, but together, they provided an integrated experience that was greater than the sum of the parts. [Read more]

According to a recent FT.com article, US lawmakers are seeking to expand the reach of anti-money laundering regulations after a Senate investigation found that hundreds of millions of dollars in suspect foreign funds have been able to land in the US. As we can see, money laundering and terroristic financing continues to rise despite the huge investments banks have made in packaged Anti-Money Laundering (AML) software, custom built solutions through global system integrators, re-engineered business process, people, and policies.  How can this be? Were these bad investments to begin with or is there something else causes these issues? [Read more]

Komerční banka.

Fresh off a flight from London, Dave Schrader, our friend from Teradata, alerted me that our joint Teradata-Informatica customer, Komerční banka, a Société Générale bank, won the prestigious, EMEA Business Intelligence Award 2010 at Gartner Business Intelligence Summit!

In their press release,
http://www.kb.cz/en/com/press/releases/781.shtml

Pavel Čejka, Komerční banka Executive Director, Strategy and Finance, comments on the great benefits of BI: "I believe that one of the strengths of financial management at KB is the existence of a unified database and performance indicators, which are interconnected and focused not only on financial data, which I consider to be a matter of course, but also on business, product, risk, operating and other information."

Teradata and Informatica were highlighted as part of the first-class technologies in the project. It involved the implementation of user metadata and an information quality program. [Read more]

This is the last posting in a 5 part series on the non-traditional challenges to achieving data quality. In Part 4, I reviewed the Data Quality Perception Gap. In this post, I will conclude with the Delivery Gap.

The Data Quality Delivery Gap
Once we have successfully marketed, positioned and sold our Data Quality solution, we must shift our focus to delivery. The surest way to secure additional business is to gain customer confidence and there is no better way to do this than through demonstrated competence. While there are many variables that can impact delivery effectiveness, of those that we can control, skills are the most critical. This brings us to the seventh non-traditional challenge…….successful data quality projects can be delivered with generalists. If the business needs an experienced product manager, they don't hire a payroll specialist. Then why staff a data quality role with an accountant, or a sales operations manager, or an SQL developer? Yet, this is often what happens, and when the effort fails it is at the expense of data quality's reputation. [Read more]

Back in June 2009, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) published Financial Accounting Statements No. 166, Accounting for Transfers of Financial Assets, and No. 167, Amendments to FASB Interpretation No. 46(R), which changes the way entities account for securitizations and special-purpose entities. The new standards will impact financial institution balance sheets beginning in 2010 and will require substantive changes to how banks account for many items, including securitized assets that had been previously excluded from these organizations' balance sheets. Banks affected by the new accounting standards will be subject to higher risk-based regulatory capital requirements. So what does it all mean and how much will it cost banks to comply?  [Read more]