Business ecosystems is an important concept of the digital age. The father of business ecosystems, James F. Moore, defined business ecosystems as:
“An economic community supported by a foundation of interacting organizations and individuals—the organisms of the business world. The economic community produces goods and services of value to customers, who are themselves members of the ecosystem. The member organisms also include suppliers, lead producers, competitors, and other stakeholders”.
The problem with data management methodologies and tools today, as I see it, is that they emphasizes on the needs inside the corporate walls of a single company without much attention to, that every single company is a member of one or several business ecosystems as examined in the post called MDM and SCM: Inside and outside the corporate walls.
Opening your data management, including your Master Data Management (MDM), up to the outside is scary business, as the ecosystems often will include your competitors as well as mentioned in the post Toilet Seats and Data Quality.
Nevertheless, if you want your company to survive in the digital age by building up your company’s digitilazation effort you have to extend your data management strategy to encompass the business ecosystems where you are a member.
And now some promotion:
