July 2008 Archives

DataFlux was founded in 1997 and acquired by SAS in 2000. They have grown quickly and recently were named the leader in the 2008 Gartner Data Quality Magic Quadrant this report ranks companies by ability to execute and completeness of vision DataFlux beat out Business Objects, IBM, Trillium and Informatica and others in the space on both criteria. They are finding traction to risk mitigation, revenue optimization and cost control areas of the enterprise.

We spent time today reviewing DataFlux's Data Governance Maturity Model the methodology/roadmap organizations should follow to attain the highest levels of governance and quality of data. Typically companies move from undisciplined to reactive to proactive and governed the DataFlux solution has features and tools that help customer move forward throughout the process step by step. This end to end solution positions DataFlux as the platform for long term strategy around your governance strategy.

Data Governance Maturity Model
I think the most impressive part of today's briefing is how well DataFlux understands the various steps and challenges companies must overcome to archive the highest level of execution. This may sound simple or even expected but its not the case with many vendors. The ability to understand what your client is going through and predefining strategies and guiding them along the way isn't a skill that everyone in the market has. Its especially important in the world of CDI/MDM/Governance where politics and company culture effect the outcome. As we review the features of the DataFlux platform its clear why they are leading the pack in Data Quality.


Tags: Data Quality, DataFlux, Data Governance

The July 25 meeting of BBBT focused on DataFlux. Presenting were Dan Soceanu, Product Marketing Manager, and Joe Rademacher, Senior Solutions engineer.

DataFlux is a leading provider of data quality (DQ) tools since 1997. Acquiring by SAS in 2000, they are operated as a separate subsidiary. Their competitors tend to be the high-end DQ vendors, such as IBM, Trillium, Informatica, and SAP Business Objects. The recent Gartner magic quadrant for DQ (6/4/08) moved DataFlux to the highest rating on Completeness of Vision, especially when compared with IBM. Anyone know why?

The business motivation for DataFlux customer is in three areas: risk mitigation, revenue optimization, and cost control. Joe shared that, when they are asked for help, it is usually for a specific problem, rather than a long-term strategy. He used a Data Governance Maturity Model to explain the real world trauma that most corporations go through in their struggle with DQ. View Maturity Model image here

The challenge is to respond to immediate biz problems while building infrastructure and especially evolve into a full data governance environment. The approach is to take the core DQ functions and package them into 'accelerators', which are services (SOA) that can be incorporated into other processes. Then, the accelerators form the base for their Master Data Mgt solution that is a complete bungle of data models and cleansing algorithms for products, customers, supplier and so on.

Reflection... DataFlux continues to be well positioned in a biz hot spot having preceived value to low-tech executive. In other words, dirty data costs real money! Their evolution from core DQ to accelerator services to MDM solution illustrates a decade of in-the-trenches experiences with tough customer situations. The challenge will be for DataFlux to evolve the next step into Data Governance (DG). Joe observed that customers usually consider DQ and DG to be separate issues. It seems to me that DQ and DG are tightly intertwined.