We have a business case for MDM, but our goal for a golden record does not
address client nor product. It concerns the company assets: equipment. I'm considering looking into
product information management (PIM) vendors. Is it the right direction?
Also I want to build a hub that services both operations and analytical needs. MDM vendors often separate these two, so how do I select which one will fit our requirements?
Cool! Actually almost any master data management (MDM vendor) -- even those with a strong
customer data integration message -- can help you solve your equipment asset problem. After all,
most of them have the chops to identify an item based on a series of identifying attributes. As
they say in the hot dog business, "parts is parts." (Or is that the dog food industry? Either way:
Ick.)
To your second question, most purpose-built MDM products can serve any kind of "consuming" system, whether it be a homegrown operational billing system or an enterprise data warehouse. The key is to centrally manage the identification and resolution of your master data. Given your requirements I'd be less inclined to engage your data warehouse vendor first and instead look at some of the more general-purpose MDM vendors.
This was first published in August 2010