ADM

MDM Terms in Use in the Gartner Hype Cycle

Henrik Gabs LiliendahlLeave a comment

The latest Gartner Hype Cycle for Data and Analytics Governance and Master Data Management includes some of the MDM trends that have been touched here on the blog.

If we look at the post peak side, there are these five main variant – or family of variant – terms in motion:

  • Single domain MDM represented by the two most common domains being MDM of Product Data and MDM of Customer Data.
  • Multidomain MDM.
  • Cloud MDM.
  • Data Hub Strategy which I like to coin Extended MDM.
  • Interenterprise MDM, which before was coined Multienterprise MDM by Gartner and I like to coin Ecosystem Wide MDM.

It is also worth noticing that Gartner has dropped the term Multivector MDM from the hype cycle. This term never penetrated the market lingo.

Another term that is almost only used by Gartner is Application Data Management (ADM). That term is still in there.

Maturing RDM, MDM and ADM With Collaborative Data Governance

Henrik Gabs LiliendahlLeave a comment

Data Governance and Master Data Management (MDM) are overlapping disciplines. When embarking on a data governance initiative you may encounter some difficulties in what belongs to the data governance side and what belongs to the master data side. One of the challenges is that data governance should also encompass other data than master data. The most common examples are reference data and other critical application data than master data.

So, while you may get coverage for setting up data stewardship, processes and the data platform for master data in a traditional MDM tool, other important aspects as the data governance related to Reference Data Management (RDM) and Application Data Management (ADM) may have to be implemented separately.

This calls for taking the MDM solution to the next level by encompassing reference data and application data as well. In that way essential data governance definition components as a business glossary, data policies and data standards as well as the enforcement components through data stewardship can be implemented in a collaborative way:

RDM MDM ADM

In this case the MDM platform will be extended to be an intelligent data hub. In collaboration with FX Nicolas I will be presenting such a solution in a webinar hosted by Semarchy. The webinar goes live Wednesday 13th November at 5pm CET / 11am ET. Register here on Intelligent Data Hub: MDM and Beyond.

Who are the ADM Solution Providers?

Henrik Gabs Liliendahl2 Comments

ADM MDMAs examined in the post MDM vs ADM there is a sister discipline to Master Data Management (MDM) called Application Data Management (ADM).

While there are plenty of analyst market reports on who are the MDM solution providers, there are no similar ADM solution market reports. Not even by Gartner, who has coined the ADM term.

So, let me try to present three (to seven) examples of who might be some of the leading ADM solutions:

Oracle (CDM Cloud and Product MDM Cloud)

Oracle was thrown out of the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant for MDM Solutions as their approach reflects an exclusively ADM approach to MDM, thus meeting the associated Gartner defined exclusion criteria.

This indicates that you can use Oracle technology to underpin data management encompassing master data and other critical application data as long as these data are managed in an Oracle application or brought from somewhere else into the Oracle application before the data management capabilities are applied.

SAP ECC, S/4HANA, MDG

A lot of master/application data management takes place inside SAP’s ERP application which was called ECC and is now being replaced by S/4HANA. As SAP ERP do not provide much help for master data management, there are third-party applications that helps with that. One example I have worked with is it.mds.

SAP has introduced their newest MDM solution called SAP MDG (Master Data Governance). While this MDM solution in theory may be a solution that embraces all master data within an enterprise, it is, as I see it, in practice used to govern master data that sits in SAP ECC or S/4HANA as the core advantage of SAP MDG is that it fits with the SAP ERP data model and technology set up.

Semarchy xDM

The Semarchy solution is called xDM, implying that x can be everything as M for MDM, R for RDM (Reference Data Management) and A for ADM. In this approach the data management capabilities as data governance, hierarchy management and workflow management are applied in their Intelligent Data Hub™ regardless of the brand of the source (and target) application.

xDM from Semarchy is one of the featured solutions on The Disruptive MDM / PIM / DQM List. Learn more her.

Where is ADM in your MDM Roadmap?

Henrik Gabs LiliendahlLeave a comment

The three-letter acronym ADM stands, in a data management context, for Application Data Management.

Well, besides from that ADM is part of the word roADMap I see more and more signs of that the line between master data and other application data is blurring and Application Data Management will be part of the MDM roadmaps around.

The difference – and the intersection – between Master Data Management (MDM) and Application Data Management was examined here on the blog some time ago in the post called MDM vs ADM.

The pros and cons of seeing master data as something separate from any other data was also discussed in the post Master Data or Shared Data or Critical Data or What?

As also put forward then, I think it is useful to look at the data within the whole Enterprise Information Management (EIM) theme in lens of what is specific to your enterprise and what you have in common with other enterprises. Master data will typically be the data you share – or could share – with other enterprises, not at least your business partners.

In what degree do you find it useful to separate master data and other data in a MDM and/or ADM roadmap?

ADM MDM

MDM vs ADM

Henrik Gabs Liliendahl4 Comments

The term Application Data Management (ADM) has recently been circulating in the Master Data Management (MDM) world as touched in The Disruptive MDM List blog post MDM Fact or Fiction: Who Knows?

Not at least Gartner, the analyst firm, has touted this as one of two Disruptive Forces in MDM Land. However, Gartner is not always your friend when it comes to short, crisp and easy digestible definitions and explanations of the terms they promote.

In my mind the two terms MDM and ADM relates as seen below:

ADM MDM.png

So, ADM takes care of a lot of data that we do not usually consider being master data within a given application while MDM takes care of master data across multiple applications.

The big question is how we handle the intersection (and sum of intersections in the IT landscape) when it comes to applying technology.

If you have an IT landscape with a dominant application like for example SAP ECC you are tempted to handle the master data within that application as your master data hub or using a vendor provided tightly integrated tool as for example SAP MDG. For specific master data domains, you might for example regard your CRM application as your customer master data hub. Here MDM and ADM melts into one process and technology platform.

If you have an IT landscape with multiple applications, you should consider implementing a specific MDM platform that receives master data from and provides master data to applications that takes care of all the other data used for specific business objectives. Here MDM and ADM will be in separated processes using best-of-breed technology.