MDM is not a product!

Rob Karel, Forrester Research, Inc. (FORR), wrote an interesting year-end review of his 2007 Master Data Management (MDM) forecasts in the Forrester Information Management blog on December 26th. Rob hits on a few themes that I am constantly discussing with clients and colleagues:
“While all of the product development, marketing, and M&A activity coming from the MDM vendors is interesting and entertaining, the most valuable and insightful information about the evolution of the MDM market comes from the Forrester customers I speak to every day. Unlike my coverage of more mature data integration technologies like ETL where vendor selection is the most common question asked, I rarely field questions about MDM vendor selection. Regarding MDM, these customers are more concerned about data governance, organizational readiness, architectural strategy, business case development, prioritization, and the biggie — do we really need to worry about MDM? If so, why?
What does it all mean? I'm happy to report that it means you are asking the right questions at the right time. …be sure your organization is prepared to deal with the cross-functional and technical complexities of adopting a master data management strategy….”