As master data management solutions become more agile and accessible, more and more players are entering the market. If you’re looking for an MDM software solution, the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant report is an excellent place to start your search. See which companies are leaders in the market and which ones suit your needs the best.
What’s a Magic Quadrant?
Every year, Gartner Magic Quadrant reports provide visual snapshots and in-depth analysis of top technology providers in various markets. The Magic Quadrant itself is a graphic that shows each market on a two-dimensional matrix based on a vendor’s completeness of vision and ability to execute. This graphic splits into four quadrants: niche players, visionaries, challengers, and leaders. Accompanied by a comprehensive evaluation of critical capabilities, this report can help investors choose which tech solution meets their needs the best.
What’s Master Data Management?
Data is rapidly becoming a top asset among businesses. When managed and analyzed to the best ability, data can provide meaningful insights, reveal opportunities, and increase productivity and revenue. The challenge is that there’s simply so much data, it’s difficult to process and analyze. To put it into perspective, it’s estimated that there are 40 times more bytes of data in the universe than observable stars. That number will continue to skyrocket, which makes data management increasingly important.
Master data management solutions provide an all-in-one approach to govern, manage, and consume the shared data assets across an entire organization. It brings all of your data sources and systems together into one cohesive, accurate, and consistent record. Customizable, business-friendly user interfaces expand real-time information to everyone so they can make smarter, faster decisions.
Not all MDM solutions are equal, which is why the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant MDM Solutions report can help identify the leaders in the market. Along with customer satisfaction surveys and other metrics, Gartner evaluates MDM solutions on their ability to meet these critical capabilities:
1. Information Quality & Semantics
Perhaps the most essential capability of an MDM solution is to provide accurate, consistent, and up-to-date information. All of these other capabilities will be rendered useless if the data you start with is of poor quality. A master data management solution is of no value unless it has robust facilities for profiling, cleansing, matching, linking, and semantically reconciling master data into a single record of truth.
2. Data Modeling
The MDM solution must be able to flexibly model complex relationships between various sources and domains. End-users should have the ability to create customizable and easy-to-configure models to create data-driven applications.
3. Data Governance
Another core capability is providing support for data governance functions such as policy evaluation and creation. MDM solutions should also enable users to perform policy change management and impact analysis based on those changes. Supporting data governance functions improves the compliance and data stewardship functionality of an MDM program.
5. Hierarchy Management
MDM solutions should also support hierarchies within and across data domains, including alternate and stand-alone hierarchies. It should contain a visualization component that presents hierarchical data, enabling users to see and manage complex relationships with ease.
6. Multiple Usage Scenarios
The best MDM solutions will combine operational, analytical, and governance uses into a single software platform. This collaborative approach ensures more accurate information, reduced costs, and less effort and time.
Of course, these aren’t all of the capabilities or metrics used in Gartner’s methodology, but they are core requirements of any master data management solution. To get a more comprehensive view, you should look over the full Magic Quadrant report on MDM solutions. Ensure that your master data management plan includes the best software solution for your specific needs.
