Hub Solution Designs

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I’m really looking forward to speaking at next week’s Decisions, Information and Governance conference in Las Vegas, sponsored by The Palladium Group.
And I spoke earlier this week at the New England Oracle SOA Users Group, talking about Master Data Management as a [...]

Filed under: Best Practices, CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, Governance, MDM, Master Data Management, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged: analytics, BI, business intelligence, CDI, Customer Data Integration, data, DIG2008, information, Master Data Management, MDM, service oriented architecture, soa | 1 Comment »

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I was interviewed recently at the Spring 2008 MDM Summit in San Francisco.
DMRadio (which broadcasts weekly on DMReview.com) did a broadcast from the exhibit floor, featuring:

Marty Moseley from Initiate Systems
Christopher Dwight from Oracle
Dan Power from Hub Solution Designs
Justin Magruder from Freddie Mac
Richard [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, Governance, MDM, MDM Summit, Master Data Management, Politics, Strategy | Tagged: CDI, Customer Data Integration, DMRadio, DMReview.com, Initiate Systems, Master Data Management, MDM, Oracle | No Comments »

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A very interesting MDM speaking engagement came up recently, at the DIG 2008: Decisions, Information and Governance Conference in Las Vegas on May 13-15.
The conference organizer, The Palladium Group, says:
DIG is the foremost performance management and analytics conference designed to provide business leaders [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Governance, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: CDI, conferences, Customer Data Integration, data governance, DIG 2008, Master Data Management, MDM, Palladium | No Comments »

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At the recent MDM Summit conference in San Francisco, I attended the “MDM Boot Camp” session put on by Aaron Zornes and Ed Allburn with my colleague, Maureen Butler.
I’ve attended five MDM Summit conferences at this point, but never had a chance [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Governance, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: Aaron Zornes, CDI, Customer Data Integration, data governance, Master Data Management, MDM, MDM Summit | No Comments »

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I just got the “MDM Report” newsletter from DMReview.com, and it had a good article by Jim Ericson on the MDM Summit held recently in San Francisco.
It also featured our article on “The Politics of Master Data Management and Data Governance“.
I thought [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Governance, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: Master Data Management, MDM, MDM Summit, Politics | No Comments »

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I just attended a great session by Haidong Song from Oracle in the MDM track at the COLLABORATE 08 conference, being put on this week in Denver by the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG). 
I’ve known Haidong for several years, from my “previous life” [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, Governance, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: Acxiom, CDI, Customer Data Integration, D&B, data, Master Data Management, MDM, Oracle | No Comments »

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Last week’s MDM Summit conference was great, as usual.  Attendance may have been down slightly due to the well-publicized economic situation.  But there were still a lot of “end user companies” in attendance, either speaking or attending to learn more about this fast-growing [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Governance, MDM, MDM Summit, Master Data Management, Strategy, business case | Tagged: business, CDI, Customer Data Integration, data governance, Master Data Management, MDM | No Comments »

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We’re really looking forward to the MDM Summit conference in San Francisco, which runs from Sunday, March 30th through Tuesday, April 1st.
This is a very exciting space. Over the past few years, we’ve seen the mega-vendors like Oracle, IBM and SAP get more [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, Governance, MDM, MDM Summit, Master Data Management | Tagged: Aaron Zornes, business, Master Data Management, MDM, MDM Summit, SourceMedia, technology | No Comments »

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Hub Solution Designs, Inc. was incorporated in September 2007. At this point in our history, I thought I’d spend a few minutes reflecting on what we’ve done so far and where we’re headed.
Clients: we’ve been lucky to get off to a strong start [...]

Filed under: CDI, Company, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, Governance, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: data, Master Data Management, MDM, OAUG, Oracle, Oracle Applications User Group, Relationships | No Comments »

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I was reading a whitepaper by Aaron Zornes today (”2007-2008 Scorecards for Data Governance in the Global 5000 Enterprise” and came across an interesting quote:
“Although many organizations have improved end-to-end business processes through CRM implementations, the challenge of developing a unified [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, Governance, MDM, Master Data Management, Politics, Strategy | Tagged: CRM, data, Data Quality, ERP, Governance, information, integration, Master Data Management, MDM, people, processes | No Comments »

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We just published the March issue of our monthly newsletter on MDM Best Practices. 
This issue has a great article on “How to Write an RFP for Master Data Management” by Ravi Shankar of Siperian.  We’ve also got a new team member who [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, Governance, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: Newsletter | No Comments »

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I don’t want to interrupt the flow of Maureen Butler’s great series on “Building the Business Case”, but I just spoke to Julie Langenkamp, Editor-in-Chief at DM Review, and I’ve agreed to become a monthly columnist for their online edition. 
The column will run [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, Governance, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: column, DM Review | No Comments »

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Some client quotes at the end of a recent site visit:
“It’s not possible for one person to have all the necessary expertise, so we underutilize a lot of the tools.  We struggle for the fixes, for the process; we don’t know next [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, Governance, MDM, Master Data Management, Strategy | Tagged: client, quotes, site visit | 1 Comment »

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We wrote the cover story in this month’s issue of DM Review magazine. 
The article is on “The Politics of Master Data Management & Data Governance”, and you can find it at: http://www.dmreview.com/issues/2007_45/10000894-1.html.
Please let us know what you think!

Filed under: Governance, MDM, Master Data Management, Politics | Tagged: cover story, DM Review, magazine | No Comments »

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Just saw Microsoft’s MDM Roadmap on a blog entry by someone named Sandeep Kalyanimath.
It was interesting reading.  Seems Microsoft didn’t bury the Stratature technology after all, but is using it as the foundation for its entry into the MDM market.  The new [...]

Filed under: MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: Microsoft, roadmap, Stratature | No Comments »

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I’m very pleased to announce that Maureen Butler is joining us as a Senior Consultant. She brings significant SAP information management, marketing, supply chain, organizational design and change management expertise to the team.
Prior to joining the firm, she was Director, Customer Information [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, MDM, Master Data Management, Strategy | Tagged: Company, Consultants, SAP | No Comments »

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At Hub Solution Designs, our MDM partnership strategy is pretty straightforward.
We are a management & technology consulting firm focused exclusively on Master Data Management and Data Governance.  Our strategy is to partner with all of the leading MDM vendors, because there is no [...]

Filed under: Assessment, CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, Governance, MDM, Master Data Management, Readiness, Strategy | Tagged: D&B, IBM, Initiate, Oracle, Oracle Applications Users Group, partnership, Purisma, SAP, Siperian | 2 Comments »

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Another one-pager today on our MDM Software Evaluation & Selection service offering.
Please let us know if you have any feedback for us on it.
Also, we’ll be announcing a new team member later on today, and we’re very excited about her joining us!

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, MDM, Master Data Management, Strategy | Tagged: one-pager, service offerings, software selection | No Comments »

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We published another one-page document today on our Business Case Creation & ROI Analysis service offering. Please let us know what you think …

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, Governance, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: business case, one-pager, ROI analysis, service offerings | No Comments »

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Today, we published two one-page documents on our Educational Workshops and Readiness Assessment service offerings on our web site.
Please let us know what you think of them …

Filed under: Assessment, CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, MDM, Master Data Management, Readiness, Strategy | Tagged: educational, one-pager, service offerings, workshops | No Comments »

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It never rains but it pours. It looks like we’re going to be doing two speaking engagements in March & April - at the Spring 2008 MDM Summit in San Francisco, CA, and the Oracle Applications Users Group COLLABORATE 08 conference in [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, Governance, MDM, Master Data Management, Politics, Pragmatic | Tagged: Oracle Applications Users Group | No Comments »

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We’ve just launched a completely redesigned web site for Hub Solution Designs, Inc..
We evaluated several hosted website building tools, and ended up selecting SiteKreator. It had the right blend of features & functionality, and included reasonably priced site hosting in addition to [...]

Filed under: Web Design | Tagged: Branding, Company, new web site, SiteKreator, Web Design | 1 Comment »

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A Squidoo “lens” is a view of a particular topic like Master Data Management. It’s an easy-to-build web page that can point to
• blogs
• favorite links
• RSS feeds
• Flickr photos
• Amazon books
• etc.
So when people are looking for information [...]

Filed under: Data Quality, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: data governance, Data Quality, lens, Master Data Management, MDM, Squidoo | No Comments »

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We’ll resume the discussion on simplifying an MDM initiative down to its two core elements.
On enrichment with external or “third party” content, things tend to go two different ways here. Either your industry and company’s requirements require a large number of external [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: CDI, Customer Data Integration, data governance, Data Quality, Master Data Management, MDM | No Comments »

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As we’ve written before, we think there are five essential elements in successful Master Data Management initiatives:
(1) some type of MDM Hub
(2) some form of middleware & business process management
(3) enterprise data quality capabilities
(4) enrichment with external content
(5) data governance
But let’s try [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: CDI, Customer Data Integration, data governance, Data Quality, Master Data Management, MDM | No Comments »

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While I don’t have the latest market sizing figures in front of me (and I’m not sure how accurate they are anyway), I do believe that the Master Data Management market is growing fast.
But I don’t think that we’ve quite left [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Master Data Management, MDM | No Comments »

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There’s a lot going on in the Hub Solution Designs and MDM world since we ticked over to a new year on the calendar:

We’ve got an article coming out in the March issue of DM Review
We’ve helped finalize the agenda for [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: CDI, Company, Customer Data Integration, Entrepreneurship, Master Data Management, MDM, OAUG, Oracle Applications Users Group | 2 Comments »

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There are many challenges in starting a new consulting company, and in being in a fast-growing space like Master Data Management.  But there are many rewards as well.
Rewards like our great clients, and our wonderful team members - Tim, Gaurav, Eric [...]

Filed under: Off Topic | Tagged: Entrepreneurship, Happy Holidays! | No Comments »

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The Fall 2007 CDI-MDM Summit has wrapped up. It seemed even more intense than the Spring ‘07 conference. More consulting firms and software vendors exhibiting, more real world case studies from companies that have implemented or are implementing MDM solutions. More hallway [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: CDI, CDI-MDM Summit, Customer Data Integration, Master Data Management, MDM | 1 Comment »

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Well, the first day of the CDI-MDM Summit is behind us.
I always enjoy the conferences that Aaron Zornes and SourceMedia put on.  I attended and spoke at both of the U.S. CDI-MDM Summit conference in 2006, and the Spring 2007 conference [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Master Data Management, MDM | No Comments »

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This morning, Tim O’Sullivan and I attended David Loshin’s session on “Data Profiling, Data Governance, and Data Quality for Master Data Governance”.
I really enjoyed it. Being a self-admitted “data geek”, it was a great review, and I learned a few new [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Data Quality, MDM, Master Data Management | No Comments »

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The deadline for submitting a paper to the Collaborate 2008 conference of the Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG) is 11:59 pm Eastern time TODAY!
Gaurav Arora and myself have both submitted our own papers.  Andrew Kapochunas from D&B submitted one that he [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Master Data Management, MDM, OAUG, Oracle Applications User Group | No Comments »

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Tim O’Sullivan and I are really looking forward to the CDI-MDM Summit next week in New York. 
We’ve been looking over the agenda and it looks great.  There are a lot of very good sessions planned.  I’ve spoken at all three of the [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: CDI, CDI-MDM Summit, Customer Data Integration, Master Data Management, MDM | No Comments »

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Tonight, Hub Solution Designs joined the Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG).
I’ve been an OAUG member at previous companies since 1995, and have always found it a great organization.  The idea of having a strong, independent Oracle Applications users group makes a [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Master Data Management, MDM, OAUG, Oracle Applications User Group | 2 Comments »

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I just read a great article by Stephen Putman at http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/6122.
His main points are that:

CDI and MDM platforms ”are ‘just another system’, with the attendant expense in both procurement and implementation”
“The products (naturally) work best in a homogenous environment, ignoring the reality [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: CDI, Customer Data Integration, Master Data Management, MDM | No Comments »

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At Hub Solution Designs, we refer to the different major areas of master data as “domains”. 
According to a survey by The Data Warehousing Institute in mid-2006, the domain most often defined in master data is the customer (74%), followed by products (54%) [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, MDM, Master Data Management | No Comments »

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Here are ten best practices for MDM and CDI that I’ve picked up, based on years of working as a technology consultant and managing a strategic alliance between one of the leading information providers and a large software company.
1. Active, involved executive [...]

Filed under: Best Practices, CDI, Customer Data Integration, MDM, Master Data Management | No Comments »

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As a member of the Education Committee for the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG), I’m helping to plan next April’s COLLABORATE 08 Conference (I’m managing the “Master Data Management” track).  Here’s the announcement of the current Call for Papers, which ends at [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, MDM, Master Data Management | Tagged: Oracle Applications Users Group | No Comments »

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I’ve been working with Oracle’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application, now called the E-Business Suite, since 1995.
My first exposure was as the project manager for an Oracle Release 10.5 implementation at a manufacturing company.  Later, I was part of the Oracle practices [...]

Filed under: CDI, Customer Data Integration, MDM, Master Data Management | 1 Comment »

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I realized over the weekend that I haven’t written at all about my Hub Designs colleagues, Tim O’Sullivan, Gaurav Arora and Eric Gustafson.
I’ve known Tim O’Sullivan for more than five years. We met through a playgroup that his son Aidan and [...]

Filed under: Company | Tagged: Company, Consultants | No Comments »

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Well, this week we formally launched the company.
On Sunday, I started by sending the launch announcement / press release to 425 former colleagues at D&B. I got a lot of very nice e-mails from people saying congratulations, and a few interesting [...]

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The last week has been very busy with some basic things that just had to be done.
First on the list was incorporating. I used a local attorney with an excellent reputation who happens to be a neighbor of mine. [...]

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“Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.” — Ambrose Bierce, American journalist and writer
The organizational, political and cultural aspects of Master Data Management (MDM) and Customer Data Integration (CDI) can be more challenging than the [...]

Filed under: Customer Data Integration, Master Data Management | 1 Comment »

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I think you can boil a successful Master Data Management (MDM) or Customer Data Integration (CDI) initiative down to these five essential elements:
(1) a Hub of some type - there are three major types of MDM-CDI hubs. In a [...]

Filed under: Customer Data Integration, Master Data Management | 2 Comments »

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The following first appeared in an article I wrote for DM Review, “Clean, Accurate and Synchronized: Overcoming Master Data Management Challenges,” which was published in its February 15 Special Report on Customer Data Integration.
Introduction
In today’s complex enterprises, companies need [...]

Filed under: Customer Data Integration, Master Data Management | 1 Comment »

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Well, Hub Solution Designs started its first actual client engagement today. Obviously, I can’t say who the client is here, but it’s a Massachusetts company that was looking for some help understanding and implementing the Trading Community Architecture in Oracle [...]

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One of the things I’m hoping for in starting Hub Solution Designs is more control over my time. So far, so good. I’ll probably get real busy again after Labor Day, but for now I’m enjoying the ability to knock [...]

Filed under: Company | Tagged: Lifestyle | No Comments »

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I tend to write my blog posts at the end of the day, when I have something to write about - what I’ve accomplished that day, what I’m working on, etc.
But what’s really interesting to me right now is [...]

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Well, today was my first day back from vacation and it was another day of getting a lot accomplished in a short time.
The first order of business was to create a logo for Hub Solution Designs.
I started with a [...]

Filed under: Web Design | Tagged: Branding | No Comments »

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Having done it once before twenty years ago, right after graduating from college, I know exactly what’s ahead of me in launching this company, but it *is* a lot of work.
I’ve got the company name, domain, e-mail and blog [...]

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Well, a lot of great stuff happened today.
We invited some good friends over for dinner and a birthday party for their son, and during a brainstorming session before the meal, we came up with a company name I really [...]

Filed under: Company | Tagged: Branding, Naming | No Comments »