Liliendahl on Data Quality

Now is the time of the year where you can try predicting what will happen in the next year within a certain field of interest to you.

When we talk about predictions within data management, we usually mean something based on analysing historical data with emphasis on seeing some recent trends.

My precognitions for the Master Data Management (MDM) market I have to admit is of the more traditional kind. Gut feelings. Qualified guessing if you like.

So, here are three foreseeings:

• Gartner, the analyst firm, will finally stop publishing two magic quadrants for MDM (one for customer and product MDM) and, using some suitable data from their surveys, admit that there now is only one true multidomain market for larger MDM vendors. They might however introduce a new quadrant for what was more or less known as Product Information Management (PIM). But under a new term and with focus on eCommerce capabilities.
• There will be more acquisitions in the market than seen since five years ago. At least one of the larger former product MDM specialists will buy a customer MDM specialist first and foremost in order to gain reference clients. Also MDM vendors will be looking for buying land in the new big data world.
• The numbers and scopes of MDM projects will increase and therefore there will be a shortage of people with MDM experience. This trend will pave the way for more agile approaches to MDM including implementing less complex MDM solutions and services whereof most, in contradiction to the multidomain trend, will be domain (customer/party, product, location) niche players.