EMC Consulting for MDM & Data Governance
Monday, August 31, 2009
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SUMMARY
This report is one of an ongoing series of MDM Field Reports™ that highlight the major MDM solutions providers as well as the best-of-breed software vendors that specialize in master data management (MDM), customer data integration (CDI), product information management (PIM), and data governance.
EMC Consulting is one of the world’s leading professional services firms (a.k.a. management consultants, global service providers, systems integrators, or IT service providers) that has a practice dedicated to MDM and data governance solutions (“Information Management Practice”).
EMC Consulting provides a unified set of consulting capabilities that when combined with the ETL and data quality components from Informatica, semantic integration middleware from enterprise service bus (ESB) partners such as Composite Software and Progress, and an underpinning of either the Initiate Systems or Siperian MDM hub … provides the functional but arguably more economical equivalent of IBM’s InfoSphere stack and MDM Server hub. EMC Consulting is fully capable of managing the full MDM lifecycle (full life cycle – governance, stewardship, implementation) as evidenced via MDM engagements at certain market leading Pharma and Investment Banks.
Contents
BOTTOM LINE: EMC Consulting is quickly broadening its capabilities beyond its traditional industry focus and the Siperian MDM platform to focus on full lifecycle information management, including: data discovery, profiling, enrichment, standardization, rules management, quality management, integration, aggregation, governance and analytics. With a clear focus on delivering IT solutions aligned to business value, EMC Consulting has outpaced other 2nd or 3rd tier consultancies such that the firm should be considered on the same short list for many large scale MDM/CDI/DG projects as 1st tier consultancies (Accenture, Deloitte, HP, and IBM GBS). Although there is substantial impetus to apply EMC’s expertise in leveraging enterprise content management applications into advanced MDM solutions, EMC’s forte is not just for very leading edge programs. EMC Consulting has a strong track record in serving the full spectrum of MDM requirements – from modest data governance readiness assessments or phase zero requirements capture all the way to full bore enterprise/federated MDM architecture deployments.
Overview
The market for MDM and data governance services reached US$750 million during 2008 and will exceed US$1.3 billion by 2012. In our experience with more than 1,500 such programs, systems integrators (SIs) have been essential to the success of the majority of MDM projects, yet previously incumbent SIs are becoming less dominant. Data governance assistance from SIs will remain especially vital to the success of MDM programs during 2009-10 as organizations deal with a shortage of MDM experience, tools and tool expertise. Given the substantial investment businesses undertake with SI partners, the selection of the appropriate SI partners must be given considerable scrutiny – not only to contain costs, but to insure success of these vital corporate MDM initiatives.
During 2009, most enterprises are struggling with cross-enterprise data governance scope as they initially focus on customer, vendor, or product. Moreover, in our experience we increasingly find that enterprise-level data governance that includes the entire master data lifecycle will be mandated as a core phase zero or phase one deliverable of most large-scale MDM projects.
Through 2010, major SIs and boutique consultancies will focus on productizing data governance frameworks while MDM software providers struggle to link governance process with process hub technologies. Concurrently, Global 5000 size enterprises will struggle to evolve enterprise data governance both in cost-effective and practical ways that shift from “passive” to “active” data governance modes.
Overview of EMC Consulting
- Based in Hopkinton, MA with 2,700+ employees (est. 2H2009) globally
- Focus on Information Management from a business, application, and infrastructure consulting perspective
- To broaden its global Management Consulting reach, in 2007 EMC Consulting acquired BusinessEdge and Conchango, leaders in industry consulting services
- Prior to the acquisition, BusinessEdge had an industry-leading MDM discipline which has thrived since integrating into EMC; clients include "Top 10 Global Pharma" and "Top Tier Investment Bank" among others
- Both the Information Management Practice, and the Business Consulting Practice, of which it is a part, continue to experience double digit growth quarter over quarter
- Moreover, the Information Management Practice has expanded beyond its historical focus on clients in the Pharma/Life Science, Financial Services, Communications, Media, and Entertainment industries, and its ‘niche’ focus on Siperian platforms. The IM practice now has regular engagements supporting IBM MDM Server (WebSphere Customer Center), Initiate Systems, and Informatica (Identity Systems and Platon Address Doctor), serving clients in other additional cross-industry markets including Healthcare, Retail, High Tech, State and Local Government, and others .
- Additionally, there is significant “pull” influence over enterprise content management projects that are evolving into advanced Master Information Management applications, where EMC Consulting leverages deep Documentum expertise.
MDM & Data Governance Readiness Assessment
During 2009-10, enterprises would do well to evaluate potential implementation partners using the “Top 5” SI evaluation criteria as determined by the MDM Institute Advisory Council. On all of these major evaluation measures, we find EMC Consulting is executing on a credible market-driven roadmap:
#1 – Extensible data governance methodology and accelerators – EMC Consulting leverages acceleration frameworks to ensure predictable outcomes, with minimized risks. Their holistic data governance methodology encompasses policy development and adoption, process optimization and integration, and organizational change management.
#2 – Industry-specific data model experience and ETL mappings – EMC’s approach ensures comprehensive alignment between the data model, business processes, source applications and data targets, and trusted third party data sources.
#3 – SOA architecture experience and accelerators – EMC’s approach defines the complete alignment of the service-oriented architecture (SOA) data model, business process, source application and data targets in enterprise scale canonical models, and centralized transformation maps.
#4 – MDM platform experience – While the top tier SIs (e.g., Accenture, Deloitte, IBM GBS) have considerable experience across the majority of commercial MDM platforms, few other SIs have the breadth and depth to similar claims. In our view, EMC Consulting has broached this top tier level of breadth and depth given their project experience in successfully delivering solutions that utilize these major MDM platforms: IBM WCC/MDM Server, Initiate Systems, Oracle Hyperion DRM, SAP NetWeaver MDM, and Siperian,
#5 – MDM project experience (industry, geography) – EMC Consulting has an excellent history of delivery success with experience across many industries. Initially, EMC’s Information Management and Analytics services were instantiated and matured through projects in the Life Sciences and Financial Services industries. However, as of 2009, such MDM projects are increasingly being delivered by EMC Consulting to the Communications, Media, Entertainment, Travel, Insurance, and Manufacturing industries. Recently the organization has expanded its portfolio to include qualifications in Retail, Healthcare, Local Government, and Energy.
MDM Momentum
2009-10 Strategic Planning Assumption
During 2009, Global 5000 size enterprises will spend on average US$1 million for MDM software, with an additional US$3-4 million for systems integration (SI) services. Concurrently, global service providers will operate under this price floor by applying highly-customized, labor intensive frameworks and related accelerators.
Throughout 2010, skill shortages will greatly inflame project costs as demand for data stewards, enterprise data architects, and individuals with data governance experience outstrips market supply. Concurrently, systems integrators will fill this void via project management/implementation and staff augmentation.
By 2012, the market will stabilize as enterprises react by training and protecting their own MDM staff with specific product and project expertise. Until then, enterprises will struggle with re-skilling same resources multiple times as emerging/evolving data management technologies mature (e.g., Fusion, NetWeaver, …).
Enterprise MDM: Market Review & Forecast for 2008-12
An MDM Institute MarketPulse™ In-Depth Report November 2008
Significant EMC Consulting Capabilities Added 2009
EMC Consulting continues to build out its capabilities and market reach:
- IT governance maturity and exposure due to large scale projects at a national retailer outlet, top investment banks, and “Top 10” global Pharmas.
- Quick-time-to-value for data governance and MDM programs via judicious utilization of data profiling tools; reports are that almost every EMC Consulting engagement applies this key technology in the discovery phase.
- As a key channel for Siperian solutions in both Financial Services and Pharma/Life Sciences, EMC Consulting is believed to have been a very influential contributor to the business requirements that led to the development of Siperian’s Business Data Director (BDD). As a corollary, EMC Consulting was one of the first to develop BDD experience for Pharma.
- EMC Consulting added significant Initiate Systems experience via a joint solution from the EMC Consulting Healthcare practice; EMC Consulting also invested in Initiate Systems in summer 2008 via their last round of funding.
- EMC Consulting has been adding to its MDM in healthcare portfolio. One such healthcare solution deployed by EMC Consulting leveraged data quality integration expertise of multiple vendor platforms – e.g., Silver Creek Systems with Siperian and Trillium Software with Siperian. This “solution approach” involving these same vendor team-ups is also providing a business model for additional solutions targeted at the Retail and State/Local Government markets.
- Enterprise Content Management (ECM) capabilities of the Documentum product suite are integrated with Initiate Systems’ Master Data Services for a major solution deployed in the Healthcare industry; additionally, we expect the same level of ECM integration will be leveraged in the near term to add further value for Siperian MDM hub customers in Pharma/Life Sciences.
- For more advanced, and business user friendly MDM solutions, EMC Consulting has also applied Composite Software’s middleware for semantic querying in Pharma R&D applications.
- To further the economic notion of a “plug and play” full lifecycle, EMC Consulting has developed a superstructure MDM capability focused on metadata instead of the actual MDM platform brand. For example, by applying the Progress Software’s Captive enterprise service bus (ESB) software as an overarching services layer, EMC Consulting can provide its clients a “trusted record”, full life cycle monitor for all master data processes – something that few MDM platforms offer on their own, and which none of the commercial MDM platforms offer as a platform-independent SOA architecture. The commercial MDM hubs in effect offer proprietary SOA interfaces unique to their MDM brand which in turn limits the portability/SOA neutrality of their solutions.
- EMC Consulting also has experience across many different disciplines including organizational change management, governance, and business value as a means to mitigate risk from what is typically deemed as a technology solution. The organization’s experienced consultants have an average 15+ years of dedicated enterprise information management experience along with several hundred consultants in CRM, Content Management, Infrastructure, BPM, PMO, Architecture, and within industry verticals who also support the Information Management practice teams.
For 2H2009, further anticipated EMC Consulting capabilities include:
- Advanced MDM architectures – EMC Consulting is developing a federated multi-vendor MDM architecture for both customers in the Financial Services and Pharma. This capability is not to be expected from the mega vendors (IBM, Oracle, and SAP) although it is one that is increasingly dictated by customers due to the heterogeneous nature of corporate IT investments in very large businesses.
- Leading-edge MDM applications/technologies – There are also further developments in applying semantic integration. For example, creating semantic views, which join unstructured and structured data through creative solutions integrating EMC Documentum with ESB/ETL platforms (i.e., Captiva as enterprise service bus infrastructure) that are also being integrated with MDM.
- Active data governance – We have reason to believe that EMC Consulting’s MDM teams are further developing an enterprise data governance framework and management tool to help organizations pro-actively define, enable and control data lifecycle processes. .
- Additional MDM platforms – We expect to see emerging relationships with D&B (Purisma), Microsoft, and SAP/BOBJ to provide additional MDM platforms for the practice. The Purisma MDM hub will help EMC Consulting address high tech marketing organizations among other markets. While Microsoft Master Data Services are often considered small-to-medium business (SMB) specific, it is our view that a great number of corporate finance departments will pick up this tool due to its aggressive pricing vis a vis other solutions such as Oracle’s Hyperion DRM. Given the endemic nature of SAP MDM within the manufacturing and energy industries, and the crushing need for SAP MDM expertise, this is a natural extension for EMC Consulting’s practices.
- Additional emphasis on master data process over master data itself – While earlier we highlighted EMC Consulting’s full lifecycle approach to MDM via its use of the Captiva middleware layer to monitor master data processes, there are other widely used middleware solutions that also provide similar functionality. These need to be added to EMC Consulting’s MDM middleware portfolio in order to support other industries’ de facto platforms (e.g., TIBCO for capital markets, and Informatica in general)
- Growth in geographic coverage – Although EMC Consulting delivers the larger proportion of its engagements in North America and EMEA, they have also expanded newer business opportunities within APAC. Given the global acceptance of MDM as a strategic and tactical business strategy (single view of customers, e-pedigree of supply chain), it is expected that at a minimum EMC Consulting will take its expertise in Pharma out on a more global basis.
Field Report: EMC Consulting for Multi-Entity MDM Hub
STRENGTHS
- Strong, early experience deploying product information management (PIM) and other advanced multi-entity MDM solutions using the Siperian MDM platform
- Multi-entity platform experience – Parties, Hierarchies, Products (PIM Hub), Locations (Site Hub)
- Pharmaceutical/Life Sciences references/expertise
- Financial Services references/expertise
- Advanced architecture experience – e.g., federated, semantic approach
- Advanced MDM application experience – both structured and unstructured content support
- Broad, independent reach due to alignment with EMC technologies (storage, content management and archiving, security) and its partner channel
WEAKNESSES
- Fair-to-meek global reach with one project in Japan and several in northern Europe
- “Perceived” as Pharma/Life Sciences and Siperian specialists
- Lack of marketing investment
- Lack of public roadmap regarding integrated, proactive data governance capabilities/plans
Field Report: EMC Consulting for Data Governance
STRENGTHS
- Clear focus and experience on process and methodology with proven results
- Distinction between governance policy and organizational adoption/change and stewardship at the data process level
- Early expertise in linking data governance capabilities to the Siperian MDM hub
- Significant expertise with Global IDs’ data exploration and profiling software for enterprise data governance framework
WEAKNESSES
- Active data governance strategy still emerging; note that we believe this will be overcome in 1H2010 via active integration with a rules base process aligned to specific MDM hubs such as Initiate Systems and Siperian
- Lack of public roadmap regarding near-term deployments of active data governance frameworks from the mega MDM vendors (IBM, Oracle, SAP)
BOTTOM LINE REDUX
It is common knowledge now that that systems integrators (SIs) are essential to the success of the vast majority of master data management and data governance projects. Moreover, our research establishes that formerly incumbent SIs are no longer necessarily so, given the fast paced developments in MDM and related IT solutions. Therefore, it is vital that any business looking to benefit form MDM and data governance solutions identify which SIs are proven partners in their industry and chosen software platforms.
EMC Consulting is quickly broadening its capabilities beyond its traditional industry focus and the Siperian MDM platform to focus on full lifecycle information management, including: data discovery, profiling, enrichment, standardization, rules management, quality management, integration, aggregation, governance and analytics. With a clear focus on delivering IT solutions aligned to business value, EMC Consulting has outpaced other 2nd or 3rd tier consultancies such that the firm should be considered on the same short list for many large scale MDM/CDI/DG projects as 1st tier consultancies (Accenture, Deloitte, HP, and IBM GBS). Although there is substantial impetus to apply EMC Consulting’s expertise in leveraging enterprise content management applications into advanced MDM solutions, EMC Consulting’s forte is not just for very leading edge programs. EMC Consulting has a strong track record in serving the full spectrum of MDM requirements – from modest data governance readiness assessments or phase zero requirements capture all the way to full bore enterprise/federated MDM architecture deployments.
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