What’s In Store for the Future for Master Data Management (MDM)?

Master Data Management (MDM) has been around for a long time, and many people like myself, have been involved in MDM for many years. But, like all technologies, it must evolve to be successful. So what are those changes likely to be, and how will they happen?

In my view, MDM is and will change in important two ways in the coming years. First, there will be technological changes, such as moving MDM into the cloud or moving into more ‘software as a service’, or SaaS, offerings, which will change the way MDM systems are built and operated. Secondly, there are and will be more fundamental changes within MDM itself, such as moving MDM from single domain models into truly multi-domain models. Let’s look at these in more details.

New and disruptive technologies make fundamental changes to the way we do most things. In the area of MDM, I expect that to change in two main areas. First comes the cloud. In all areas that matter in data we are seeing moves into the cloud and I expect MDM to be no different. The reasons are simple and obvious, the move towards MDM being offered as a SaaS offering brings cost savings in build, support, operation, automation and maintenance and is therefore hugely attractive to all businesses. I expect that going forward we will see MDM more and more being offered as a SaaS.

The second area I see changes happening are more fundamental. Currently, many MDM systems concentrate on single-domain models. This is the way it has been for many years and currently manifests itself in the form of a ‘customer model’ or a ‘product model’. Over time I believe this will change. More and more businesses are looking towards multi-domain models that will, for example, allow models to be built that have the links between customer and partners, products, suppliers etc. This is the future for MDM models, and already at Talend, our multi-domain MDM tool allows you to build models of any domain you choose.