By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
  • Analytics
    AnalyticsShow More
    data Analytics instagram stories
    Data Analytics Helps Marketers Make the Most of Instagram Stories
    15 Min Read
    analyst,women,looking,at,kpi,data,on,computer,screen
    What to Know Before Recruiting an Analyst to Handle Company Data
    6 Min Read
    AI analytics
    AI-Based Analytics Are Changing the Future of Credit Cards
    6 Min Read
    data overload showing data analytics
    How Does Next-Gen SIEM Prevent Data Overload For Security Analysts?
    8 Min Read
    hire a marketing agency with a background in data analytics
    5 Reasons to Hire a Marketing Agency that Knows Data Analytics
    7 Min Read
  • Big Data
  • BI
  • Exclusive
  • IT
  • Marketing
  • Software
Search
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Ode to Initiate Systems
Share
Notification Show More
Aa
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
Aa
Search
  • About
  • Help
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
SmartData Collective > Big Data > Data Warehousing > Ode to Initiate Systems
Data Warehousing

Ode to Initiate Systems

JillDyche
Last updated: 2010/02/04 at 6:26 PM
JillDyche
6 Min Read
SHARE

In which Jill pays homage to a class act.

Initiate and IBM

The rumors of IBM’s acquisition of MDM vendor Initiate Systems were confirmed yesterday in an IBM press release.  Herewith, a brief homage.

More Read

master data management

Master Data Becomes Incredible Differentiator For Countless Businesses

How MDM Solutions Are Taking Enterprise by Storm
Let Them Eat KPI: An Integrated Approach to KPI and MDM in Healthcare
Informatica’s Master Data Management Strategy
Informatica Gets Heiler for PIM and Product Information Management

A few years ago Initiate Chief Scientist Scott Schumacher dropped by our L.A. offices to introduce his fledgling company and to share some MDM successes. If you don’t know Scott, this is like saying that Robert Deniro showed up to block a couple scenes, or that Jimmy Page needed to borrow your guitar to try out a new riff. Needless to say, I took notes.

Upon learning of our forthcoming book on CDI, Initiate referred Evan and me to several of its customers. One was Marty Moseley, at the time Intuit’s Chief Architect. These were the days when people still couldn’t articulate the difference between an MDM hub and a data warehouse. I asked Marty how he made the internal pitch for MDM at Intuit, and his answer was refreshingly plainspoken: “We have SOA here at Intuit. It helps us make sure that our systems do what they’re good at. Why would I use my data warehouse to do MDM? That’s like saying SAP can do everything. We needed to operationally integrate our customer data. So we bought a hub. …

In which Jill pays homage to a class act.

Initiate and IBM

The rumors of IBM’s acquisition of MDM vendor Initiate Systems were confirmed yesterday in an IBM press release.  Herewith, a brief homage.

A few years ago Initiate Chief Scientist Scott Schumacher dropped by our L.A. offices to introduce his fledgling company and to share some MDM successes. If you don’t know Scott, this is like saying that Robert Deniro showed up to block a couple scenes, or that Jimmy Page needed to borrow your guitar to try out a new riff. Needless to say, I took notes.

Upon learning of our forthcoming book on CDI, Initiate referred Evan and me to several of its customers. One was Marty Moseley, at the time Intuit’s Chief Architect. These were the days when people still couldn’t articulate the difference between an MDM hub and a data warehouse. I asked Marty how he made the internal pitch for MDM at Intuit, and his answer was refreshingly plainspoken: “We have SOA here at Intuit. It helps us make sure that our systems do what they’re good at. Why would I use my data warehouse to do MDM? That’s like saying SAP can do everything. We needed to operationally integrate our customer data. So we bought a hub.” Marty went on to become Initiate’s CTO and a good friend.

Where other vendors hoard contacts and micro-manage their messaging, Initiate made transparency part of its culture. When our book was published CEO Bill Conroy personally offered his support and that of his management staff, and would follow up with personal notes of congratulation and regular company updates. Bill knows how to build a good management team too, and Gina Sandon and her marketing team fell over backwards to provide me with industry research. Ian Stahl, Andrea Zivalich, Michelle Woolfolk, Rick Clements, Jim Cushman, Lorraine Fernandes, and Greg Shaw have all been similarly supportive and impressive.

In addition to being an acknowledged leader in healthcare (most notably, master patient index) and government (person-of-interest recognition), Initiate has blazed a trail across a range of industries, geographies, and value propositions. Its matching algorithm is arguably second-to-none, it led the way in defining the concept of exchanges, and its data governance and stewardship offerings were first out of the gate.

Initiate’s acquisition means that its new parent company can now make good on those Sunday-morning network commercials that flaunt its leadership in health care and information integration. I do predict that Initiate will be more difficult to absorb into IBM than its rival Siperian will with Informatica. I’ve spoken to two Initiate Customer Advisory Board gatherings and the consensus among heavy-hitter customers is that they invested in Initiate precisely because it wasn’t a one of the big enterprise app vendors.

In the dark of night most owners of MDM programs will admit that they ultimately chose their MDM solution because the vendor was already incumbent, or because the incumbent vendor was willing to provide a steep discount (read, free) in exchange for a reference. But Initiate customers tell a different story. “We bought Initiate because of [insert Initiate employee name here]. And because they weren’t [insert large vendor name here].”

Don’t eff it up, IBM.

Link to original post

TAGGED: mdm
JillDyche February 4, 2010
Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn
Share

Follow us on Facebook

Latest News

smart home data
7 Mind-Blowing Ways Smart Homes Use Data to Save Your Money
Big Data
ai low code frameworks
AI Can Help Accelerate Development with Low-Code Frameworks
Artificial Intelligence
data Analytics instagram stories
Data Analytics Helps Marketers Make the Most of Instagram Stories
Analytics
data breaches
How Hospital Security Breaches Devastate Local Communities
Policy and Governance

Stay Connected

1.2k Followers Like
33.7k Followers Follow
222 Followers Pin

You Might also Like

master data management
Big DataBusiness IntelligenceExclusive

Master Data Becomes Incredible Differentiator For Countless Businesses

6 Min Read
Image
Mobility

How MDM Solutions Are Taking Enterprise by Storm

6 Min Read
KPI healthcare
Best PracticesCulture/LeadershipData ManagementPolicy and Governance

Let Them Eat KPI: An Integrated Approach to KPI and MDM in Healthcare

7 Min Read
big data management
Big DataBusiness IntelligenceData ManagementInside CompaniesITNews

Informatica’s Master Data Management Strategy

3 Min Read

SmartData Collective is one of the largest & trusted community covering technical content about Big Data, BI, Cloud, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & more.

AI chatbots
AI Chatbots Can Help Retailers Convert Live Broadcast Viewers into Sales!
Chatbots
giveaway chatbots
How To Get An Award Winning Giveaway Bot
Big Data Chatbots Exclusive

Quick Link

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?