G00261673
Market Guide for MDM External Service
Providers
Published: 16 February 2015
Analyst(s): Bill O'Kane, Andrew White, Saul Judah, Ehtisham Zaidi
Use of external service providers can accelerate master data management
program success. MDM leaders should use this research to identify and
engage with candidate providers based on their requirements by region,
data domain, vertical sector, software solution, and size of their
organization.
Key Findings
■ Engaging an external service provider (ESP) with the appropriate skills and experience is a
proven way to accelerate your master data management (MDM) program or project.
■ In Gartner surveys and client interactions, more than 50% of MDM leaders report using at least
one ESP to accelerate their MDM strategies and/or implementations.
■ Interactions with our clients and references supplied by software vendors indicate that when
ESPs are engaged for MDM, the investment averages between two and three times the MDM software spend, with some large programs going even higher.
■ Specialist MDM ESP firms are more likely to concentrate on program strategy than
implementation, and larger ESP firms have more experience with implementation than strategy.
Recommendations
■ Use the techniques described in Gartner's "Best Practices in MDM: How to Evaluate and
Engage External Service Providers" to effectively partition ESP work and maintain control of the overall engagement.
■ Perform a thorough assessment of your internal MDM capabilities to determine which ESP
engagement model is the most suitable for your MDM program in relation to skills, funding and bandwidth.
■ Evaluate and engage an ESP for MDM based on its experience in your vertical industry and
■ Consider an ESP based on its MDM software implementation experience only if your MDM
strategy is complete, or you intend to use an MDM software solution based on other factors, such as an enterprise-level software vendor relationship.
Market Definition
MDM is a technology-enabled discipline in which business and IT work together to ensure the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship, governance, semantic consistency and accountability of the enterprise's official, shared master data assets. Master data is the consistent and uniform set of identifiers and extended attributes that describes the core entities of the enterprise, such as customers, prospects, citizens, suppliers, sites, hierarchies, and chart of accounts.
MDM is a complex discipline that requires active participation from a broad range of constituents in the enterprise. Moreover, the MDM software market is complex and largely characterized by
specific segments focused on particular master data domains (for example, customer/party, product/thing, location/site or hierarchy). This means that MDM leaders often struggle when selecting and implementing MDM software because vendor solutions are not only diverse, and currently no single solution caters to a typical organization's entire spectrum of MDM requirements (see "Why You Will Probably Need More Than One Master Data Management Vendor").
The scope and complexity of MDM programs, coupled with the high level of cooperation needed between IT and business, necessitate organizations to seek assistance from ESP firms to devise a sound MDM strategy and (or) implementation plan for their MDM initiatives (see Note 1).
MDM ESPs provide strategic, tactical and operational support to organizations engaging in MDM programs. These services include the formulation of information strategies, business cases, road maps, business and technical metrics, governance organizations and processes, organizational recommendations, information life cycle discovery, and program and project planning. These services may also be used to assist the installation and configuration of MDM software.
The effective use of ESP firms in the strategy and implementation of MDM programs can be the deciding factor in overcoming the common technical, organizational and political barriers to implementation — which can mean the difference between success and failure. The majority of clients that plan and execute MDM programs have reported gaining significant traction and momentum by using ESP partners. This is particularly useful in environments that are constrained by bandwidth or organizational issues, or those that lack the appropriate expertise.
In the future, Gartner expects the ESP/partner market for MDM solutions to grow in proportion to the expected growth of the MDM market, since the core issues concerning MDM strategy and MDM solution implementation will continue to be the major inhibitors of a holistic, organization-wide MDM program success.
Market Direction
Large and small ESPs have rapidly entered the MDM professional services market, as engagements can be quite lucrative and long lasting, depending on how much exposure a client is willing to experience with a single ESP in the context of its overall MDM program. Even at this early stage of its life cycle, the MDM ESP market is expanding rapidly and we anecdotally estimate that its total size is between double and triple that of the MDM software market.
Gartner's annual survey data for MDM Magic Quadrants suggests that approximately 50% of organizations adopting MDM involve at least one ESP in their programs. This information proves beyond doubt that organizations are heavily relying on ESPs to assist them with their overall MDM initiatives. ESPs, from big consulting firms to boutique outfits are now fully engaged in the market. They have capabilities that are essential to large enterprises looking to achieve critical mass in one or more master data domains and within a single budget cycle.
The vast majority of our interactions with MDM leaders in end-user organizations suggest that they spend an average of between double and triple their MDM software investment on MDM ESPs, with very large enterprise business-to-consumer customer data implementations sometimes running between seven and ten times the software spend. A conservative aggregation of the various estimates we have compiled shows an estimated total market size of between $3 billion and $5 billion. Even at these rates of expenditure, most organizations report satisfaction with their ESP experience.
While the shortage of experienced resources (particularly on the strategy side) is often reported as a transient issue, ESP firms are typically able to rectify these issues to a client's satisfaction,
indicating that the increase in the number of implementations is yielding a greater number of proficient strategy and implementation professionals overall.
One well-defined pattern emerging is that smaller firms tend to concentrate on MDM and
governance strategies, while the larger firms deploy a greater percentage of their resources to post-strategy implementations (see the Market Analysis section for definitions of post-strategy and
implementation).
Similar to the MDM software market, the MDM and information governance consulting services market is growing substantially from year to year, but is far from mature. The more fluid
characteristics of MDM ESPs and their engagements make this market quite challenging to qualify, segment, and track.
These characteristics include, but are not limited to:
■ Turnover of qualified resources.
■ Rapid formation of alliances with software vendors.
■ The continued use of stand-alone data quality and data integration tools to build customized
MDM solutions.
Even though the MDM ESP market is rapidly gaining popularity and momentum in the overall information infrastructure space, it is still in the adolescent phase of maturity (with a market penetration of less than 20% of the possible target audience) and Gartner predicts that it will take around five to 10 years to reach mainstream adoption (see "Hype Cycle for Information
Infrastructure, 2014").
The relative immaturity of the MDM ESP market, coupled with the large number of tools and
approaches available to address these programs, has caused many MDM ESP firms to specialize in at most two or three MDM software vendors' offerings. This bias in implementation expertise can easily taint the manner in which a firm approaches an overall MDM strategy, as each software vendor's approach varies widely.
Market Analysis
Those clients planning to evaluate and engage ESPs for their MDM initiatives are strongly advised to separate the strategy part of the MDM program (including, but not limited to, technology
selection) from the implementation phase. In fact, it is often preferable to engage a strategy provider that does not perform implementations, unless the client's industry or geographical profile makes this impractical.
We describe the two most common segments of the MDM ESP market in the following sections and explain why they are important components of a holistic MDM program.
ESPs for MDM Strategy
This is defined as services that assist clients in the formulation of business cases, road maps, business and technical metrics, governance organizations and processes, organizational change recommendations, information life cycle capture and planning, and technology selections that enable MDM to be implemented in their enterprises. These services correspond to the first six of Gartner's Seven Building Blocks of MDM, up to and including technology evaluation and selection (see "The Seven Building Blocks of MDM: A Framework for Success"). Therefore, a vendor claiming to concentrate on strategy may also report the software experience. The vendors surveyed were asked to segment their practices using this definition, but this was probably not strictly adhered to. Engaging the expertise of an ESP with significant levels of MDM strategy experience in your
industry and master data domains can be an invaluable asset for ensuring the success of these critical efforts. In an MDM strategy engagement, the levels of experience that these firms generally possess in specialized areas can significantly accelerate an MDM program and reduce
implementation risks. These areas also include critical activities, such as engaging the business for funding and starting the data governance organization and process, as well as innovative methods of identifying process pain points for the master data and formulation of metrics around them to prove the ongoing value of a program.
ESPs for MDM Implementation
This is defined as services that assist clients in the installation, configuration and other required tasks for MDM software implementation in their enterprises (see "Market Definitions and
Methodology: IT Services"). These ESP firms are engaged after all of the MDM strategy artifacts have been produced according to a recognized framework (such as Gartner's Seven Building Blocks of MDM) and an MDM technology solution has been evaluated and selected. These services correspond to the seventh and last of Gartner's Seven Building Blocks of MDM. The vendors
surveyed were asked to segment their practices using this definition, but this was probably not strictly adhered to.
From a technology implementation perspective, engaging the expertise of an ESP with significant levels of MDM implementation experience in your selected technology solution and master data domains can be invaluable for ensuring the success of these critical efforts. This includes
successful alignment with internal technical disciplines, such as those for data integration, business continuity planning and SLAs. These MDM strategy and implementation skill sets can also be transferred to internal client members of both the MDM and information governance teams, bringing modern and tested techniques for information management to enterprises that likely did not
possess them in the past (see "Best Practices in MDM: How to Evaluate and Engage External Service Providers").
Representative Vendors
The vendors listed in this Market Guide do not imply an exhaustive list. This section is intended to provide more understanding of the market and its offerings.
This analysis was compiled using a dedicated survey of ESP firms that appear regularly in our interactions with clients, event attendees and software vendors, as well as in vendor briefings and other structured surveys of software vendor references and event attendees. Professional services teams resident within MDM software vendors and only supporting the implementation of that particular vendor's software, were not included.
The following vendors represent those that responded to the survey, are specific to this research and representative of those in the market. The information we received through the survey was augmented (where appropriate) by publicly available information (such as vendors' websites) and our interactions with Gartner clients. Due to the fluid nature of this market, no references were requested or referees contacted for this research, so the information that was not publicly available could not be independently verified for accuracy. Due to the timing of the survey, the results
submitted are considered to apply to the end of calendar year 2014.
The companies listed in this research represent the respondent base for this dedicated survey and may not include all those competing in this market.
BackOffice Associates
boaweb.com
Headquarters: South Harwich, Massachusetts, U.S.
Engagement experience: 50% strategy — 50% implementation
Regions: North America, EMEA, and Asia/Pacific
Top industries: Life sciences manufacturing, oil/gas/chemical process and resource manufacturing, consumer goods manufacturing, other manufacturing, and other nonmanufacturing.
Top data domains: Direct material, supplier, customer, product (sell-side), indirect material (maintenance repair and operations [MRO]), and others (human capital management [HCM], and FICO scores).
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 200
BackOffice Associates is a solution provider of data stewardship platforms and applications,
including two software products that are sold both directly and through a value-added reseller (VAR) with SAP. The majority of its MDM experience is with large enterprises, although it has also done some work with small and midsize firms (see Note 2 for the definitions of large, midsize and small organizations).
The majority of the company's experience involves direct-to-SAP data stewardship
implementations, with the exception of SAP accelerator applications, although BackOffice's solutions are vendor neutral. BackOffice has software vendor partnerships, including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP. It has implemented significant MDM projects with IBM (InfoSphere Master Data Management Advanced Edition, InfoSphere Master Data Management Enterprise Edition, InfoSphere Master Data Management Standard Edition, and InfoSphere MDM Server), Informatica MDM (Non-Cloud), Microsoft, Oracle (customer data hub [CDH], product data hub [PDH], MDM for Customer, and MDM for Product), and SAP (Master Data Governance for Customer [MDG-C], Master Data Governance for Material [MDG-M], and NetWeaver MDM).
BackOffice Associates has developed configuration for roles, tasks and processes to HR (HCM), materials, customers, vendors, and FICO scores in many industries including retail, oil/gas/ chemical, high tech, industrial/discrete, consumer goods, manufacturing, life sciences, financial services, distribution, power/utilities, and automotive.
BearingPoint
bearingpoint.comHeadquarters: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Regions: EMEA
Top industries: Financial services, oil/gas/chemical processes and resource manufacturing, the public sector, distribution/logistics, industrial discrete manufacturing, and consumer goods manufacturing.
Top data domains: Customer, direct material, indirect material (MRO), product (sell-side), supplier, asset, and others (finance data).
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 33
BearingPoint is an EMEA-based consulting firm with practices in several information management disciplines including MDM and information governance. The entirety of its MDM experience is with large enterprises. It has partnerships with IBM, Oracle, SAP (including hybris, a SAP Company) and SAS.
The company also has MDM experience with Informatica (Cloud MDM, MDM Non-Cloud and PIM [Heiler]), Kalido, Oracle (CDH, PDH and Siebel Universal Customer Master [UCM]), Orchestra Networks, Pitney Bowes Spectrum MDM, Riversand, Talend, SAP (MDG-C, Master Data
Governance for Financials [MDG-F], Master Data Governance for Suppliers [MDG-S], MDG-M, Net-Weaver MDM, and hybris [a SAP company]), SAS MDM, Semarchy and all of the IBM InfoSphere MDM software products, with the exception of InfoSphere MDM Enterprise Edition and InfoSphere MDM for PIM.
Camelot Management Consultants AG
camelot-mc.comHeadquarters: Mannheim, Germany
Engagement experience: 30% strategy — 70% implementation
Regions: EMEA, North America, and Asia/Pacific
Top industries: Oil/gas/chemical process and resource manufacturing, life sciences manufacturing, consumer goods manufacturing, healthcare, and distribution/logistics.
Top data domains: Product (sell-side), customer, direct material, indirect material (MRO), supplier, and other (chart of accounts).
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 60
Camelot Management Consultants AG is a specialist strategy and organization consultancy firm offering MDM services under its broader information management portfolio of services, which also comprises data quality management and IT governance and organization services. The majority of its MDM experience is with large enterprises, although it has also carried out substantial MDM work for midsize firms. The company has formal alliances and implementation experience with SAP (MDG-C, MDG-M, MDG-F, MDG-S, and NetWeaver MDM).
Camelot has also developed MDM best practice templates and frameworks for the life science and process industry by leveraging SAP MDM solutions.
Capgemini
CapgeminiHeadquarters: Paris, France
Engagement experience: 17% strategy — 83% implementation
Regions: EMEA, North America, Asia/Pacific, and Latin America
Top industries: Financial services, the public sector, retail, other manufacturing, and other nonmanufacturing.
Top data domains: Customer, product (sell-side), direct material supplier, asset, indirect material (MRO), and other party.
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 450
Capgemini is a global consulting, technology and outsourcing firm that performs MDM under the portfolio of its information management technology practices housed within its broader IT services portfolio. The majority of its MDM experience is with large enterprises, although it has also carried out some MDM work with small and midsize firms.
It has partnerships with IBM, Informatica, Oracle, and SAP (including hybris). It also has significant MDM implementation experience with IBM (InfoSphere MDM Advanced Edition, InfoSphere MDM Collaborative Edition, InfoSphere MDM Standard Edition, InfoSphere MDM Server, and InfoSphere MDM for PIM), Informatica (Cloud MDM, and MDM [Non Cloud]), Kalido, Microsoft, Oracle (CDH, PDH, Siebel UCM, Supplier Hub, and Data Relationship Management [DRM]), Orchestra Networks, Riversand, SAP (hybris as well as MDG-C, MDG-M, MDG-S, MDG-F, and NetWeaver MDM), SAS MDM, Stibo Systems, Teradata, and Tibco Software.
Capgemini has developed industry-specific MDM solutions for capital markets, insurance, telecommunications (a geospatial hierarchy solution), pharmaceuticals, banking, and asset
information management. It has also developed specific MDM frameworks, such as a strategy and assessment framework, an information strategy framework, and a quick-start information
governance framework. The company has also come up with a SAP-based solution for integrating SAP Information Steward with NetWeaver MDM, and a custom framework to move from SAP MDM to SAP MDG.
Cognizant Technology Solutions
cognizant.comHeadquarters: Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S.
Regions: North America, EMEA, and Asia/Pacific
Top industries: Life sciences manufacturing, consumer goods manufacturing, financial services, retail, healthcare, and the public sector.
Top data domains: Customer, other party, product (sell side), supplier, indirect material (MRO), and others (financial reference data management, and securities).
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 1,480
Cognizant's MDM practice is organized within its enterprise analytics division and the majority of its MDM experience is with large enterprises, although it also has some MDM experience with midsize firms. It has formal alliances with IBM, Informatica, Markit, Microsoft, Oracle, Orchestra Networks, Reltio, Riversand, SAP (including hybris), Stibo Systems, Talend, Teradata, Tibco, and Trillium Software. The company has also performed MDM implementations in Ataccama, all IBM InfoSphere MDM solutions, Informatica (Cloud MDM, PIM [Heiler] and MDM [Non-Cloud]), Markit, Microsoft, Oracle (CDH, PDH, DRM, Siebel UCM, Fusion MDM for Customer, and Fusion MDM for Product), Orchestra Networks, Reltio, Riversand, SAP (hybris as well as MDG-C, MDG-M, MDG-S, and NetWeaver MDM), SAS MDM, Stibo Systems, Talend, Tibco, and Trillium.
Cognizant has developed industry-specific MDM solutions for life sciences, financial services, healthcare, and retail vertical sectors, as well as solutions for cloud-based MDM, social data
integration with MDM and financial reference data management for multiline business enterprises. It has also developed accelerators for MDM assessment and road map development, business case development, data governance strategy, requirement analysis, data quality strategy, data
stewardship UI development, MDM vendor software solution evaluation and MDM implementation testing. Cognizant also offers frameworks for data mapping and migration, and templates for MDM design and development deliverables.
Datum
datumstrategy.com
Headquarters: Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.
Engagement experience: 95% strategy — 5% implementation
Regions: North America
Top industries: Consumer goods manufacturing, life sciences manufacturing, automotive manufacturing, healthcare, oil/gas/chemical process and resource manufacturing, and high-tech manufacturing.
Top data domains: Customer, other party, product (sell side), supplier, asset, direct material, and indirect material (MRO).
Datum is an enterprise information management (EIM) strategy firm with technology assets and methodologies in the information management discipline, with an emphasis on information governance. The majority of its MDM experience is with large global manufacturing enterprises in North America. Datum has partnerships and significant MDM experience with SAP (C, MDG-M, MDG-F, and MDG-S), and Winshuttle.
The company has also developed a technology neutral framework which assists in documenting and tracking the business impact and the value of information management programs.
Deloitte
deloitte.comHeadquarters: New York, U.S.
Engagement experience: 14% strategy — 86% implementation
Regions: North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific, and Latin America
Top industries: Financial services, oil/gas/chemical process and resource manufacturing, life sciences manufacturing, the public sector, and retail.
Top data domains: Customer, other party, product (sell-side), direct material, indirect material (MRO), supplier, asset, and others (location, chart of accounts, and events).
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 475
Deloitte is a global consulting and advisory firm that performs MDM and information governance engagements under the umbrella of its enterprise data management practice, within its broader IT services portfolio. The majority of Deloitte's MDM experience is with large enterprises, although it has also done some work with midsize and small organizations. The company has MDM
partnerships with IBM, Informatica, Oracle, SAP, and SAS MDM. It also has substantial MDM implementation experience with Informatica (MDM for Finance, Product, Vendor, Customer, and PIM [Heiler]), Oracle (CDH, PDH, Siebel UCM, Fusion MDM for Customer, and Fusion MDM for Product), SAP (MDG-C, MDG-M, MDG-F, MDG-V, and NetWeaver MDM), IBM all InfoSphere MDM products, Reltio, SAS MDM, and Tibco.
Deloitte has developed tools to prioritize the delivery of MDM solutions, which include a business-value prioritization framework, a customer 360 data management solution framework, MDM process models, and MDM data models, as well as an enterprise data-governance framework and an operating model. Deloitte has also developed MDM quality dashboard templates to offer a unified enterprise analytics platform that can support the organization's reporting needs.
Entity
entity.co.ukEngagement experience: 36% strategy — 64% implementation
Regions: EMEA
Top industries: The public sector, financial services, media/telecommunications, other nonmanufacturing, and retail.
Top data domains: Customer, other party, and asset.
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 50
Entity is a specialist consulting firm providing enterprise information management advisory services, and MDM and information governance solutions within the larger set of information management offerings, including metadata and reference data solutions. While the majority of Entity's MDM consulting experience is with large enterprises, it has also done some work with midsize and small organizations. Entity has formal partnerships with IBM, Informatica, and Semarchy. It has MDM experience with IBM (InfoSphere MDM Standard Edition, InfoSphere MDM Server, and InfoSphere MDM for PIM), and Informatica MDM (Non-Cloud).
Entity has developed several "single view" products based on IBM Standard Edition for the public and private sectors (particularly central/local government and financial services/insurance), as well as a component to mask sensitive citizen data for local government solutions. Entity has also developed a product that integrates IBM SE with the IBM InfoSphere Global Name Management product to provide search capabilities for individuals of interest across multiple languages.
First San Francisco Partners
firstsanfranciscopartners.comHeadquarters: Oakland, California, U.S.
Engagement experience: 85% strategy — 15% implementation
Regions: North America
Top industries: Financial services, high-tech manufacturing, oil/gas/chemical processes and resource manufacturing, distribution/logistics, other non-manufacturing, and life sciences manufacturing.
Top data domains: Customer, product (sell-side), direct material, other party, and others (location).
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 3
First San Francisco Partners is a specialist strategy consulting firm concentrating on information management. The majority of its MDM experience is with large enterprises, but it also has some experience with midsize firms. It has partnerships with Dell Boomi, Informatica, Oracle, Orchestra Networks, Reltio, Riversand, and Semarchy. First San Francisco Partners has MDM experience with
IBM InfoSphere MDM Standard Edition, Informatica (Cloud MDM and MDM [Non-Cloud]), Oracle (PDH and Siebel UCM), and Semarchy.
The company has developed proprietary methodologies for MDM and information governance assessment, strategy, and agile-based implementation. It also offers a workshop designed to align an organization around shared goals for MDM and/or information governance.
HCL Technologies
hcltech.comHeadquarters: Noida, India
Engagement experience: 35% strategy — 65% implementation
Regions: North America, EMEA, and Asia/Pacific
Top industries: Industrial discrete manufacturing, consumer goods manufacturing, other manufacturing, life sciences manufacturing, and media/telecommunications
Top data domains: Customer, product (sell-side), direct material, and supplier
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 540
HCL Technologies is a global system integrator (SI) with MDM and information governance
practices housed within its larger set of information management offerings. The majority of its MDM experience is with large enterprises and it has partnerships with IBM, Informatica, Oracle, SAP, and Tibco. It has substantial MDM implementation experience with all IBM InfoSphere MDM products, Informatica (PIM [Heiler], Cloud MDM, and MDM [Non-Cloud]), Oracle (CDH, PDH, Siebel UCM, Fusion MDM for Customer, and Fusion MDM for Product), SAP (MDG-C, MDG-M, and NetWeaver MDM), and Tibco.
It has also developed a data survivorship framework and testing productivity kit for use with Oracle Siebel UCM. HCL has a data management center of excellence that is responsible for developing MDM solutions, frameworks and accelerators. HCL also has frameworks for data assessment and information model creation, and has created industry agnostic accelerators for automated MDM testing. HCL has formed a customer solution that provides a holistic view of organizations' customers with integration to social data.
Hub Designs
hubdesigns.comHeadquarters: Massachusetts, U.S.
Engagement experience: 50% strategy — 50% implementation
Top industries: High-tech manufacturing, healthcare, media/telecommunications, financial services, industrial discrete manufacturing, and retail.
Top data domains: Customer, product (sell-side), other party, asset, and supplier
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): Not available
Hub Designs is a specialist global management and technology consulting firm focused on MDM and information governance. The majority of its MDM experience is with large enterprises, although it has also done some work with midsize and small organizations. It has partnerships with IBM, Informatica, Oracle, Orchestra Networks, SAP, and Stibo Systems. It also has MDM experience with Ataccama, IBM InfoSphere MDM Server, Informatica MDM (Non-Cloud), Oracle (CDH and PDH), Orchestra Networks, SAP NetWeaver MDM, Stibo Systems, and VisionWare.
Hub Designs has also developed MDM-specific templates and deliverables for education, current state assessment, strategic road map development, software selection, and business case
development for customer/party and product domains, and for the financial services, software/high tech, life sciences, business services and manufacturing industries.
IBM Global Business Services
ibm.com/us/en/Headquarters: Armonk, New York, U.S.
Engagement experience: 50% strategy — 50% implementation
Regions: North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific, and Latin America
Top industries: Financial services, oil/gas/chemical process and resource manufacturing, retail, and healthcare.
Top data domains: Customer, product (sell-side), and others (contract)
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): Not available
IBM Global Business Services is a global SI with an information management practice that includes MDM and information governance. IBM has MDM experience with all IBM InfoSphere MDM
products, Informatica MDM (cloud and on-premises), all Oracle MDM products, all SAP MDM products, and Tibco. It has formal alliances with Oracle and SAP.
The company has also developed MDM assets covering most domains and industries. These include estimation models, strategic road maps for information governance and data quality, data mapping, tool selection and consolidation, business interview guides, as well as use case testing and validation templates.
Igate
igate.comHeadquarters: New Jersey, U.S.
Engagement experience: 5% strategy — 95% implementation
Regions: North America, and EMEA
Top industries: Financial services, consumer goods manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and other manufacturing.
Top data domains: Supplier, customer, other party, product (sell-side), and others (location, securities, and financial instruments).
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 128
Igate is a global SI with a dedicated enterprise information management practice specializing in MDM and information governance disciplines. This practice is under the umbrella of its larger business intelligence (BI) and analytics division. The majority of its MDM experience is with large enterprises. Igate has formal partnerships with IBM, Informatica, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP, and MDM experience with Ataccama, Informatica (Cloud MDM and MDM [Non-Cloud]), Kalido, Microsoft, Oracle (CDH, PDH, Siebel UCM, Supplier Hub, and DRM), SAP (MDG-C, MDG-M, and NetWeaver MDM), Software AG, Talend, Teradata, and Tibco.
Igate has developed industry-specific MDM solutions for banks, global financial institutions and insurance domains, along with business and technology-focused frameworks for data governance organization setup and reference data management. The company has also created utilities and accelerator packs for vendor tools like Informatica and Oracle MDM suites, and has developed industry-standard data models for party, customer, product and supplier data domains.
InforData Consulting
infordataconsulting.com Headquarters: London, U.K.Engagement experience: 70% strategy — 30% implementation
Regions: EMEA
Top industries: Consumer goods manufacturing, and the public sector
Top data domains: Customer, and other party
InforData Consulting is an EMEA-based specialist consulting firm concentrating on information management, including MDM, information governance and data quality. InforData Consulting currently has MDM experience with small organizations and significant partnerships and MDM implementation experience with Informatica and Talend.
The company has developed a data governance charter template that can be adjusted to any customer's requirements. The charter includes roles and responsibilities, processes, and metrics. It has also been able to devise an MDM framework linking data governance and data quality for the housing sector.
Infosys
infosys.comHeadquarters: Bangalore, India
Engagement experience: 8% strategy — 92% implementation
Regions: North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific, and Latin America
Top industries: Retail, industrial discrete manufacturing, high-tech manufacturing, automotive manufacturing, and other nonmanufacturing,
Top data domains: Product (sell-side), customer, direct material, supplier, and other party.
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 1,300
Infosys is a global consulting and system integration service provider catering to information management including MDM and information governance. The majority of its MDM experience is with large organizations. It has formal partnerships with IBM, Informatica, Oracle, Riversand, SAP, SAS, Software AG, Stibo Systems, and Tibco. Infosys also has substantial MDM experience with IBM (InfoSphere MDM Advanced Edition, InfoSphere MDM Standard Edition, InfoSphere MDM for PIM, and InfoSphere MDM Server), Informatica MDM (Non-Cloud), Oracle (CDH, PDH, and Siebel UCM), Riversand, SAP (MDG-C, MDG-M, and NetWeaver MDM), Stibo Systems, and Tibco. With the acquisition of Lodestone, Infosys has augmented its consulting, technology and
outsourcing services that furnish MDM capabilities. Infosys has created several MDM Intellectual Property(IP) and implementation accelerators in partnership with MDM software vendors, and has a model and framework to accelerate business value to its clients. Infosys has developed various tools, templates and accelerator packs across industries, which include a process template for rapid onboarding of items in e-commerce for retailers, and a reference architecture that includes all the components of MDM capabilities. Its data capture and best practice templates for life sciences assist in designing data models quickly. Infosys has also developed data quality and workflow management tools with OEMs that help clients realize accelerated business value.
InfoTrellis
infotrellis.comHeadquarters: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Engagement experience: 25% strategy — 75% implementation
Regions: North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific, and Latin America
Top industries: Financial services, life sciences manufacturing, retail, the public sector, healthcare, and high-tech manufacturing.
Top data domains: Customer, product (sell-side), other party, and others (location)
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 140
InfoTrellis is a specialist consulting firm concentrating on MDM. The majority of its experience is with large enterprises, although it has also done some work with midsize firms. It has formal partnerships with IBM, Riversand, Software AG, and Talend and substantial MDM experience in all of IBM's InfoSphere MDM products (including Reference Data Management [RDM]), Teradata, Tibco, and Trillium.
InfoTrellis has also developed an MDM implementation methodology, as well as products that monitor the ongoing quality of hub master data and perform mastering of big data sources. It has also developed MDM analytics and MDM testing tools.
Infoverity
infoverity.comHeadquarters: Dublin, Ohio, U.S.
Engagement experience: 15% strategy — 85% implementation
Regions: North America, and EMEA
Top industries: Financial services, life sciences manufacturing, distribution/logistics, retail, healthcare, and consumer goods manufacturing.
Top data domains: Customer, product (sell-side), other party, direct material, and indirect material (MRO).
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 31
Infoverity is a specialist consulting firm concentrating on MDM and information governance. The majority of its MDM experience is with large enterprises and it has partnerships with IBM,
Informatica, SAP, and Stibo Systems. It also has significant MDM experience with hybris (a SAP Company), IBM (InfoSphere MDM Advanced Edition, InfoSphere MDM Enterprise Edition and
InfoSphere MDM Standard Edition), Informatica (PIM [Heiler], Cloud MDM and MDM [Non Cloud]), Oracle (PDH), Orchestra Networks, and Stibo Systems.
Infoverity has developed industry-centric starter templates for party and product solutions, as well as framework assets to accelerate MDM solutions' time-to-value and to reduce project risks. Infoverity offers hosting through national providers and managed services for their clients, for MDM and PIM solutions. The company has also developed a cross functional process and integration design framework for mastering, editing and querying master data assets, and a testing framework established for integration with an agile MDM initiative, or to introduce the benefits of agile design and testing into a traditional waterfall implementation. Other than this Infoverity provides workflow templates and accelerators, governance throughput dashboards and libraries of MDM ROI
calculators by business function.
Knowledgent
knowledgent.comHeadquarters: Warren, New Jersey, U.S.
Engagement experience: 60% strategy — 40% implementation
Regions: North America, EMEA, and Asia/Pacific
Top industries: Oil/gas/chemical processes and resource manufacturing, life sciences
manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, distribution/logistics, media/telecommunications, and retail
Top data domains: Customer, other party, product (sell-side), supplier, direct material, indirect material (MRO), and asset.
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 85
Knowledgent is a specialist SI that provides MDM strategy and implementation services under its broader portfolio of data foundation modernization services. The majority of its MDM experience is with large enterprises, although it has also done some work with midsize firms. Knowledgent has formal partnerships with Informatica, IBM, Kalido, Markit, Reltio, Talend, and Tibco. It also has significant MDM experience with IBM (InfoSphere MDM Advanced Edition, InfoSphere MDM Standard Edition, and InfoSphere MDM Server), Informatica (MDM [Non-Cloud] and PIM [Heiler]), Kalido, Orchestra Networks, Riversand, SAP (MDG-C and MDG-M), Semarchy, Talend, Tibco, and Trillium. The company also has significant strategy experience with all Oracle MDM software solutions.
Knowledgent has developed a platform that uses MDM to curate data for Data Lakes. It has also developed MDM accelerator packs for governance and operations and standard MDM development templates for IBM and Informatica.
L&T Infotech
lntinfotech.comHeadquarters: Mumbai, India
Engagement experience: 25% strategy — 75% implementation
Regions: North America, EMEA, and Asia/Pacific
Top industries: Financial services, consumer goods manufacturing, oil/gas/chemical processes and resource manufacturing, automotive manufacturing, media/telecommunications, and other manufacturing.
Top data domains: Customer, product (sell-side), other party, supplier, and others (location, and chart of accounts).
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 9
.L&T Infotech is a global SI with a MDM practice housed within its larger BI and data warehouse offering. It has MDM experience, mainly with large enterprises. The company has partnerships with IBM, Informatica, Oracle, SAP, and Tibco. It also has experience with Informatica MDM (Non-Cloud), Oracle (CDH, PDH, Siebel UCM, and Fusion MDM for Customer and Product).
L&T Infotech has developed a solution framework to provide data quality and a technology-neutral MDM strategy/development framework with reusable components and customizable solutions. It has also developed an in house custom MDM solution with significant implementation experience.
LumenData lumendata.com
Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, U.S.
Engagement experience: 25% strategy — 75% implementation
Regions: North America, and EMEA
Top industries: Retail, financial services, high-tech manufacturing, automotive manufacturing, and life sciences manufacturing.
Top data domains: Customer, product (sell-side), other party, and supplier.
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 75
LumenData is a specialist consulting firm with a concentration on MDM, data quality and data governance. The majority of its MDM experience is with large enterprises, although it has also done some work with small and midsize firms. The company has partnerships with Informatica, Oracle, and Talend. It also has MDM experience with Informatica MDM (Non- Cloud), and Oracle (CDH,
PDH, Siebel UCM, Fusion MDM for Customer, Fusion MDM for Product, Site Hub, Supplier Hub, and DRM).
LumenData has developed hub solutions based on Oracle for spend monitoring, B2B solutions and higher education, as well as solutions to integrate Oracle Customer Hub with Oracle CRM on Demand and Salesforce. It has also developed a predictive analytics solution combining personally identifiable information (PII) data in MDM with third-party data to make business predictions for business-to-consumer (B2C) enterprises. It has also built a B2B cross-sell and prospecting solution based on Fusion MDM for Customer and other Oracle technologies.
Luxoft
luxoft.comHeadquarters: New York, U.S.
Engagement experience: 100% implementation
Regions: North America, and EMEA
Top industries: Financial services
Top data domains: Customer
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 100
Luxoft is an IT services company providing end-to-end data management solutions. Luxoft's offering is focused on IT systems implementation, IT maintenance and operations, and data operations. It has MDM experience with small firms and a formal partnership with significant MDM implementation experience for Informatica MDM.
The company has developed a custom MDM application and custom code for Informatica MDM HUB functionality for instruments (listed derivatives, index and fixed income), book projects, and legal entities for banks and financial services.
Tech Mahindra
techmahindra.comHeadquarters: Mumbai, India
Engagement experience: 100% implementation
Regions: North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific, and Latin America
Top industries: Financial services, oil/gas/chemical process, and resource manufacturing
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 70
Tech Mahindra is a global SI that has developed a custom MDM and instruments reference data management platform that is housed within a larger set of platform solutions offered by its business services group. The majority of its MDM experience is with large enterprises and it has formal alliances with IBM, Informatica, Oracle, and SAP, with significant implementation experience with its custom-built MDM platform.
The company has also developed custom MDM solutions using Java, Informatica and webMethods (Software AG) and has a lab ecosystem to test MDM solutions, develop proof of concepts (POCs), and a training/supply chain engine that can scale to a client's MDM requirements.
Virtusa
virtusa.comHeadquarters: Westborough, Massachusetts, U.S.
Engagement experience: 25% strategy — 75% implementation
Regions: EMEA, North America, and Asia/Pacific
Top industries: Media/telecommunications, financial services, healthcare, and other non-manufacturing.
Top data domains: Customer, product (sell-side), other party, supplier, asset, and others. Virtusa is a global SI with MDM and information governance offerings housed under its EIM practice. The majority of its MDM experience is with large enterprises, although it has done substantial work with midsize firms and some MDM engagement with small firms as well. Virtusa has MDM implementation experience with IBM (InfoSphere MDM Enterprise Edition and InfoSphere MDM Standard Edition), Oracle (CDH, PDH, Fusion MDM for Customer, and Fusion MDM for Product), SAP (MDG-C, MDG-M, and NetWeaver MDM), and Talend. It also has formal alliances with IBM, Oracle, and Talend.
It has developed MDM and governance assets such as a design methodology to align stakeholders and accelerate business benefits, a modeling framework for customer data including pre-configured business rules and a toolkit for modeling complex product portfolios. The company has also
developed assessment methodologies for MDM, information governance and data quality. It is also developing a customer value management solution for telecom and Banking, Financial services and Institutions (BFSI) clients which will assist with customer profiling, cross-sell and upsell
opportunities and effective customer churn management.
Wipro Technologies
wipro.comEngagement experience: 53% strategy — 47% implementation
Regions: North America, EMEA, and Asia/Pacific
Top industries: Oil/gas/chemical processes and resource manufacturing, financial services, life sciences manufacturing, high-tech manufacturing, and media/telecommunications
Top data domains: Customer, other party, supplier, indirect material (MRO), direct material, product (sell-side), and others (site, and location)
Dedicated MDM full-time equivalents (FTEs): 950
Wipro Technologies is a global SI providing MDM and information governance solutions from its analytics and information management practice. The majority of its MDM experience is with large enterprises. Wipro has formal partnerships with Agility (Pindar), IBM, Informatica, Microsoft, Oracle, Orchestra Networks, Pitney Bowes Spectrum MDM, Riversand, SAP (including hybris), SAS,
Software AG, Teradata, Tibco, and Winshuttle. It also has substantial MDM experience with all IBM InfoSphere MDM products, Informatica MDM (Non-Cloud), Kalido, Microsoft, Oracle(CDH, PDH, Siebel UCM, Site Hub, Supplier Hub, and DRM), Orchestra Networks, Riversand, all SAP MDM products (including hybris), SAS MDM, Teradata, Tibco, and Winshuttle.
Wipro has developed MDM assets for customer and product data for high-tech manufacturers, legal entities for financial services, product data for telecommunications, multidomain for retail, and services master data for oil and gas, industry neutral solutions for reference data, and the supplier data domain. Wipro offers frameworks for MDM strategy and blueprinting, MDM tool evaluation, business case development, process analysis, information governance, and managed MDM services (business process outsourcing). It has patents in MDM reference architecture and information management and has set up a MDM leadership council for its customers for sharing industry best practices and leveraging experiences. The company has also created frameworks to facilitate MDM for big data and the cloud.
Capabilities Summaries
Figures 1 to 4 represent the capability summary of each MDM ESP listed in the Representative Vendors section by Region, Domain, Industry and MDM software product.
Figure 1. Region and Data Domain
Figure 2. Industry
Figure 3. Software Product (Part 1)
Figure 4. Software Product (Part 2)
Market Recommendations
MDM is a complex discipline requiring long-term planning and close integration between IT and various business units. Moreover, the MDM software market is complex and largely characterized by specific segments focused on particular master data domains (for example, customer/party, product/thing, location/site or hierarchy).
This means that many clients planning to execute MDM programs have reported gaining significant traction and momentum by using ESP partners. This is particularly useful in organizational
environments constrained by bandwidth or organizational issues, or lacking the appropriate expertise required to execute a holistic MDM program successfully.
MDM leaders looking to leverage the expertise of ESP firms to kick-start or accelerate their MDM initiatives should:
■ Use the techniques described in "Best Practices in MDM: How to Evaluate and Engage External
Service Providers" to effectively partition ESP work and maintain control of the overall engagement.
■ Perform a thorough assessment of their internal MDM capabilities to determine which ESP
engagement model is most suitable for their MDM programs from a skills, funding and bandwidth perspective.
■ Evaluate and engage an ESP for MDM based on its experience in their vertical industry and
required data domains. If direct industry experience is unavailable, consider adjacent industries.
■ Consider an ESP based on its MDM software implementation experience only if their MDM
strategy is complete, or they intend to use an MDM software solution based on other factors, such as an enterprise-level software vendor relationship. This will prevent the software vendor's capabilities from influencing or affecting their overall MDM strategies.
■ Carefully evaluate their mix of vendor partnerships, domain experience and the number of MDM
ESP firms that they are willing to engage with for their MDM programs by leveraging the capability summary tables in the Representative Vendors section.
Gartner Recommended Reading
Some documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription.
"Best Practices in MDM: How to Evaluate and Engage External Service Providers" "The Seven Building Blocks of MDM: A Framework for Success"
"The Five Vectors of Complexity That Define Your MDM Strategy"
"Magic Quadrant for Master Data Management of Customer Data Solutions" "Magic Quadrant for Master Data Management of Product Data Solutions"
"Why You Will Probably Need More Than One Master Data Management Vendor" "Hype Cycle for Enterprise Information Management, 2014"
"Hype Cycle for Information Infrastructure, 2014"
"A Master Data Management Initiative Needs Effective Program Management" "Market Definitions and Methodology: IT Services"
Evidence
A dedicated survey was transmitted to 50 ESP firms through regular Gartner interactions with clients, event attendees and software vendors. Additionally, vendor briefings and other structured surveys of software vendor references (such as "Magic Quadrant for Master Data Management of Product Data Solutions") and Gartner Master Data Management Summit attendees were used. The companies listed in this research represent the qualified respondent base for this dedicated survey. The survey included data points for revenue, dedicated and aligned FTE counts and
experience by client enterprise revenue segment, vertical industry sector, geographic region, master data domain, and MDM software product (indicating formal alliances, as appropriate). The
representative vendor table and the capability summary tables have been prepared from the results of this dedicated survey, as well as publicly available information (such as from vendors' websites).
Note 1 ESPs
An ESP is a firm that provides consulting and staffing services focused on developing and/or supporting IT- or operations-based disciplines or processes (such as information governance and/or MDM) for client organizations. By contrast, business consulting firms generally assist client enterprises with developing an overall vision of the future state of the organization. This vision encompasses broader topics such as marketing strategy and operational excellence, which may in turn be used to initiate an MDM program.
Note 2 Definitions
For the purpose of this research organizations are defined as follows:
■ Large organizations are those with annual revenue above $1 billion.
■ Midsize organizations are those with annual revenue between $250 million and $1 billion. ■ Small organizations are those with annual revenue below $250 million.
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