In the world of heavy metal, Metallica is considered, arguably, as the G.O.A.T. Some may contest this claim and cite the forefathers, like Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin, but the prevailing sentiment is that the ‘Tallica boys are at the top of the heap.
One of the key achievements of this band is that they put out the highest-grossing metal album of all time. Released in 1986, Master of Puppets is Metallica’s best-selling album (surpassing every other metal band in the world in terms of raw sales).
If Master of Puppets is Metallica’s magnum opus, then Master Data Management’s masterpiece is no other than TIBCO EBX.
But first…what is Master Data Management?
Master data management (MDM) is the initiative of an enterprise that is keen on having data work for them to create a single repository of all master data, reference data, and metadata in order to minimize, if not totally eliminate, data errors and redundancy in business processes.
An MDM solution would typically be an interplay of Data Quality, Data Integration, and Data Governance practices.
What’s in it for me with Master Data Management?
The provision of a single point of reference for business-critical information eliminates the costliness of data redundancies that occur when organizations rely on multiple versions of data that reside in departmental silos.
For example, MDM can ensure that when customer information changes, the Sales & Marketing Department will not reach out to unreachable or different entities, but will consistently have a single, latest, and accurate view of the customer upon which to target their efforts.
What are the Basic Steps to Master Data Management?
- Discover the relevant and pertinent data sources to be mastered in your enterprise.
- Acquire the data (Data Integration proper, ETL, streaming, etc.).
- Cleanse the data (Data Quality proper).
- Enrich the data with data from other data sources that are external to your enterprise but are useful (e.g. social media, websites, etc.).
- Match the data with other data and look/flag for duplication.
- Merge the data and select the most up-to-date version of the data.
- Relate the mastered data with other relatable data in the enterprise.
- Secure the mastered data (masking, user roles & privileges, etc.).
- Deliver the mastered data to the appropriate and intended consumers and stakeholders.
- Govern the mastered data and ensure that master data management becomes a secure, repeatable, sustainable, and value-generating key framework in the enterprise.
Why rock with TIBCO EBX?
First, a history lesson. TIBCO EBX was the result of the acquisition of Orchestra Networks, a leader in MDM, by TIBCO Software last 2018. This assimilation proved monumental as evidenced by TIBCO EBX’s rankings in Gartner’s evaluations:
As you can see, TIBCO EBX is among the Top 2 leaders in the Leader quadrant, alongside the very expensive Informatica.
In actual MDM use cases, however, TIBCO EBX ranked highest in 5 of 6:
The latest 2020 Gartner report on the MDM space pretty much tells the same story:
Again…why rock with TIBCO EBX?
ONE PLATFORM FOR ALL YOUR DATA MANAGEMENT NEEDS
With EBX software, you only need one platform to do the job of multiple products, including MDM, reference data management, product master data management, party master data management, data governance, and hierarchy management.
SUPPORT FOR ALL TYPES OF BUSINESS FUNCTIONS
Operational and analytical processes may be different, but they have one thing in common: data powers them all. Instead of managing these assets in multiple, separate applications, the EBX platform provides a single resource to govern and manage them, providing consistency and cohesion to processes across your organization.
SUPPORT FOR ALL LEVELS OF USERS
- Business Users: Delivers an intuitive, self-service experience for your business teams. Users view, search, author, edit, and approve changes in a workflow-driven, collaborative interface.
- Data Stewards: Helps data stewards easily discern the quality of their data and take action using powerful data governance, matching, profiling, cleansing, workflow monitoring, quality analytics, and audit trail capabilities.
- Developers/Analysts: Supports building and adapting applications quickly, without long and costly development projects. Project teams have full control over data models, workflow models, business rules, UI configuration, and data services.
FLEXIBILITY AND AGILITY
Custom applications and purpose-built MDM solutions are hard to change, but EBX software is flexible and agile. It uses a unique what-you-model-is-what-you-get design approach, with fully configurable applications generated on-the-fly. Long, costly development projects are eliminated. And EBX software includes all the enterprise class capabilities you need to create data management applications including user interfaces for authoring and data stewardship, workflow, hierarchy management, and data integration tools.1
Is that all?
TIBCO EBX’s best-of-breed capabilities include:
DATA MODELING
What you model is what you get. The flexible data model supports any master domain and relationships as well as complex and simple forms of data.
COLLABORATIVE WORKFLOW
Collaborate with everyone who touches your data. Manage updates, oversee change requests, and provide approvals through a customizable workflow.
HIERARCHY MANAGEMENT
Support any type of hierarchy and create alternate hierarchies without duplication. Now it’s easy to visualize and maintain complex relationships.
VERSION CONTROL
Manage and connect every version of data—past, present, and future.
PLATFORM COMPATIBILITY
Integrate with multiple platforms on-premises or in the cloud. Works with a wide range of interfaces, application servers, databases, and infrastructures.
INSIGHT WITH DASHBOARDS AND KPIS
Track, analyze, and measure data quality and performance through EBX dashboards.2
How can I buy tickets to the next concert?
If you want to learn more about MDM and how TIBCO EBX can help your organization eliminate bad data, data silos, and poor data visibility, contact EXIST Software Labs today!
Keep rockin’!
Footnotes:
1 TIBCO EBX Datasheet
2 ibid.