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I wanted to let you know that the easiest way to stay current with the Hub Designs blog is via Really Simple Syndication (RSS).
Under the “About” section on the left, click on the RSS icon or the “Subscribe to our feed” link. Then, in the top right corner of the page, click on your preferred news reader. You can also get the feed delivered via e-mail.
By subscribing via RSS, you’ll receive updates as soon as they’re published, and you’ll be able to mark the articles that you’ve already read, so you can focus just on the ones you haven’t read.
Of course, we’re very happy whether you choose to read the blog via http://blog.hubdesigns.com or via an RSS reader. But I did want to make sure you knew that the option was available.
To Our Readers – Thank You and Happy Holidays!
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A sincere “thank you” to everyone who reads this blog. We just had our best day, week and month ever – all on the same day, thanks to you.
Happy Holidays to everyone, and have a prosperous and healthy New Year!
Top Posts for 2008
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I thought I’d recap our “Top 10 blog posts for 2008″ for anyone who might have missed some of them.
- Ten Best Practices for Master Data Management – by far our most popular post (with thanks to MDMSource.com for featuring it)
- Our MDM Partnership Strategy — discusses our vendor-neutral strategy for partnering with the MDM hub vendors
- Different Styles of MDM Hub — outlines differences between Registry, Transaction and Hybrid style hubs
- MDM Business Case Creation & ROI Analysis — links to a “one-pager” on our Business Case Creation & ROI Analysis service
- How Master Data Management is Similar to ERP – talks about the similarities in organizational disciplines and processes between ERP and MDM
- Metadata and Master Data Management — discusses what metadata is and different approaches to managing it in the context of MDM
- Critical Data Quality Questions – outlines four “hard questions” relating to data quality and MDM and suggests ways to answer them
- Building a Data Governance Organization – five points to keep in mind as you build your data governance organization
- Five Essential Elements of MDM — technology (hub, integration, data quality, external content) and organization/process (data governance) required to succeed with MDM
- Importance of Integration to MDM — piece urging MDM project champions to think about the role and importance of data integration
These have all been read 100-800 times in 2008. If you’re interested in my articles in DM Review and speaking engagements, they’re outlined on the Publications page of our web site. If you use Twitter, you can follow me here.
Thank you all for reading this blog!
MDM: Buzz-Worthy But Not A Back-Breaker
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I saw an interesting post by Thomas Wailgum the other day called “MDM: Buzz-Worthy Since 2000, But Still a Back-Breaker”.
While I don’t agree that “there’s ongoing uncertainty as to when to take [MDM] seriously”, he does make some good points. The software vendors who’ve flocked to MDM and put the MDM label on everything under the sun have certainly confused the market.
Even so, the MDM software market grew 24% from 2007 to 2008. In spite of the tough economic times we’re currently in, that rapid growth rate should continue for the next several years.
One area I don’t agree with is the statement “it’s just plain hard to do … and even harder to do well”.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Master Data Management is easy. But I think it’s eminently “doable” if you:
- get yourself and your team educated on what MDM is all about and what it can do for your company
- develop a compelling MDM strategy that aligns well with your organization’s long term strategy
- get folks from the business and management on board through education, communication and evangelization
- create a strong business case and use it to manage expectations throughout the lifecycle of the project
- thoughtfully select the essential components (hub, integration, data quality, external content) and plan for data governance
- after starting your data governance program and selecting the technology components, follow some best practices for MDM implementation
Of course, there are going to be some failures along the way. But I come from the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) world, where a typical project was 1-2 years in length and cost in the tens of millions of dollars. To me, MDM doesn’t seem like a back-breaker. It seems like a great way of breaking down the walls of the typical corporate silos, complying more easily with ever-growing government regulations, increasing revenue by becoming more customer-centric (which in a recession, can make a big difference), and saving money through more efficient processes and consolidating out-dated systems.
What do you think? Please let us know via a comment here.
MDM Jobs
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After discussing it with a few friends involved in Master Data Management, I decided to add an “MDM Jobs Board” to this blog.
Right now, there is no comprehensive source of information on MDM and Data Governance opportunities. MDM Jobs will be that source.
This blog is getting about 2,000 visits per month right now, and it’s been growing an average of 23% every month over the last year. Our readers are business and IT professionals who are passionate about MDM and Data Governance.
Each job posted on MDM Jobs will also be featured in our “Best Practices in Master Data Management” newsletter, which goes out each month to more than 3,350 people.
To post a job, just send an e-mail to mdmjobs@hubdesigns.com. We’ll send you a simple template to fill out and return. The cost is $100 per month for each position listed, and we accept PayPal, American Express and company checks.
Please let me know by commenting here what you think of this idea – I’d love to get your feedback!
To give you an idea of our reach in this area, this article has been read 460 times since I wrote it on Saturday Dec. 6th. And it’s listed #5 on Google, #1 on Yahoo and #1 on Microsoft Live Search for the search “MDM Jobs”.
