http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com Andy Hayler, noted industry expert and founder of Kalido, gives his view on developments in the enterprise software market. Issues covered include data warehousing, master data management, business intelligence and corporate performance management. Wed, 07 May 2008 13:11:56 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en There is an interesting web forum which seeks to bring an open source approach to the world of data management. Of interest are topics involving the creation of open source de-duplication, profiling, matching and cleansing tools (hat tip to CW for pointing this out). No doubt the ... http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2008/05/opening-up-data-quality/ I was amused by a piece regarding data quality in which a data quality initiative at a chemical manufacturer was kicked off only after a warehouse burnt down and the company discovered that they had no way of tracing which customers would be affected. I recall a similar example at ... http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2008/04/a-burning-platform/ I wrote recently about likely further consolidation in the MDM market. A further example, albeit on a small scale, happened today as FullTilt, a PIM provider, was bought by QAD. QAD is a public company selling ERP software, with around 1,500 employees which has been listed since 1997 though ... http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2008/04/tilting-at-windmills/ Informatica did indeed make a purchase this week, but not the one some people were expecting. Instead of buying an MDM platform vendor they purchased Identity Systems for USD 85 million. Identity systems has a strong reputation in the data quality world, and amongst others has plenty of ... http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2008/04/buying-an-identity/ The MDM market, from a term barely used before 2003, has grown up into a market where literally dozens of vendors compete. As with any fast growing market, the big players have tended to acquire rather than build their own technology. IBM bought Trigo and DWL, Oracle bought ... http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2008/04/snack-time/ Jill Dyche raises an important point about the how companies are tackling MDM. She mentions the "random acts of MDM" that are done in isolation in a particular business area, or involving a particular data domain, which are unlikely to evolve into an enterprise-wide MDM solution. The tricky issue that ... http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2008/04/squaring-the-mdm-circle/ I just read a particularly clear explanation of how XML contributes to helping with, but does not really solve, the problem of data integration. This is major issue as companies begin to deploy applications in the form of services, since as you bring elements of an application together via ... http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2008/03/xml-is-not-enough/ At various times in this blog I have discussed the buying process that enterprise software buyers go through, and suggested some tips and things to avoid. I have just come across an entertaining and useful "mini book" by ex software salesman Doug Mitchell, which you can read here. Some of ... http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2008/03/psst-wanna-buy-some-software/ One of the issues often underestimated by new vendors attacking an entrenched competitor is the sheer cost of platform migration. For example, in the database world, if someone comes out with a new, shiny DBMS that is faster and cheaper than the incumbents, why would customers not just switch? ... http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2008/03/clearing-a-migraton-path/ I have recently noticed a pronounced division in the mentality of software vendors to disclosing information. On the credit side of the column are vendors like Kognitio, whose CEO happily discussed the company strategy, their revenues, profitability and customer deployments. At the other end of the spectrum was ... http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2008/03/let-the-sunlight-in/