Information Builders Tackles Master Data Management

Sean Michael

Updated · Nov 18, 2015

While companies are interested in adopting master data management (MDM) to improve customer service initiatives and boost decision-making capabilities, among other reasons, they sometimes struggle to make a business case for MDM due to concerns over its costs and complexity.

Gathering business requirements for MDM often creates a bottleneck, and Information Builders hopes to address this issue with a new product called Omni-Gen.

According to the company, Omni-Gen starts with business-level requirements and generates many of the artifacts needed to implement the project. As business requirements develop and change, the artifacts are regenerated rather than re-coded, which cuts down on the complexity, time and cost of requirements gathering, specification, development and testing.

The software makes it easier for business users and IT to collaborate on MDM projects, by supporting an iterative, agile process that continually refines the warehouse models or master record definitions that business users require. Omni-Gen also eliminates the typical use of spreadsheets during the design of data models and cleansing rules.

Because Omni-Gen generates many of the necessary data mastering steps, developers spend less time coding and can focus more of their resources on defining rules and configuring the necessary components. In addition, the software includes all of the integration, data quality, remediation, mastering and other technologies required to maintain an application, so the number of tools, skills and vendors needed for MDM initiatives are reduced.

“We designed Omni-Gen to ensure our customers are able to eliminate the barriers that have historically prevented them from embarking on (MDM) projects,” said Gerald Cohen, president and CEO of Information Builders, in a statement. “The unified solution lays the framework for a more agile, efficient data management lifecycle, enabling companies to reap the benefits of their data mastering projects faster while simultaneously reducing risk and maximizing resources.”

According to the company, beta users of the solution have reduced the time needed for their MDM projects by up to two-thirds.

Sean Michael
Sean Michael

Sean Michael is a writer who focuses on innovation and how science and technology intersect with industry, technology Wordpress, VMware Salesforce, And Application tech. TechCrunch Europas shortlisted her for the best tech journalist award. She enjoys finding stories that open people's eyes. She graduated from the University of California.

More Posts By Sean Michael