Global CIO: IBM Data Strategy Is Flawed, Say Kalido And InformaticaGlobal CIO: IBM Data Strategy Is Flawed, Say Kalido And Informatica

--Why did IBM not even mention Initiate as an MDM company in their press release today? Is IBM not committed to MDM?

--Which of IBM’s multiple overlapping technologies in the MDM and Data Quality markets will survive?

--And are you as a customer willing to bet on one of these technologies if it will be EOLed in the short term?

--How long will IBM’s fragmented approach to MDM take to be clarified?

--Is IBM working on the integrating all of their MDM technologies or is that customers responsibilities?

And my colleague Doug Henschen, who does an excellent job in covering and analyzing the Information Management marketplace over at information's Intelligent Enterprise, offered these thoughts:

"The MDM market has been growing steadily over the last three years, and there was open speculation that Informatica would jump in with both feet. Siperian was the odds-on favorite because it OEMs Informatica data quality software, but Informatica was also partnered with Initiate Systems," says Henschen.

"Given the state of the economy, vendor viability has been a real question in customer minds over the last two years. That's fueling acquisitions and sweet deals for the large vendors these days. No doubt both IBM and Informatica had their latest acquisitions in the pipeline for some time, so there's no telling which vendor moved first and sparked the consolidation."

And Kalido, says Henschen, has a broad product line that precludes it from being considered as a niche player that one of the Big Guys could swallow up easily.

"Kalido is as well-known for rapid data-warehouse development and modeling as it is for MDM software, so it’s not a one-trick pony," Henschen says. "Kalido's diversity may give it better staying power even if the MDM market is now viewed as consolidated by the likes of IBM, Oracle, SAP and Informatica."

On top of that, Kalido has a large and passionate base of customers, judging from some of their endorsements of the company.

Kalido's customers—among which are BP, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Labatt Breweries of Canada, Post Office Limited (in the UK), Daymon Worldwide—commented on the completeness of the Kalido platform, its ability to map to business requirements, and its simplicity of installation, with one client saying he's saving $1.5 million annually with Kalido.

Daymon Worldwide CIO Mark Bieler in a Kalido press release late last year praised the company's "complete information management platform" across MDM, data warehousing and data quality, and said the company "is part of the team that is transforming our information systems."

At Kalido's user conference late last year, David Banks, manager of BI data warehouse and operations of Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices EMEA, said the "Kalido Information Engine has been fantastic" in helping the IT team "capture and define business requirements."

And Mike Stanton, director of BI and data warehousing at Eisai, offered this perspective on Kalido during his presentation at its user conference late last year:

"The sales and marketing department challenged us to build a robust, flexible business intelligence infrastructure that wouldn’t take two years to build and be obsolete by the time it was complete," Stanton said. "Our answer to them was Kalido. For example, we were able to reflect a sales-force realignment within three months, when it previously would have taken us nine to 12 months. Overall, with Kalido, we’re realizing cost savings of $1.5 million every year, thereby showing our management team not just the soft value, but the hard, tangible savings as well."

So as you try to get your arms around this highly strategic area, it's clear there are still lots of questions. The trick is separating the self-serving answers from the valuable ones.

RECOMMENDED READING: Global CIO: Will Informatica's Surging Success Trigger A Takeover? Global CIO: IBM Calls Out Oracle's Ellison On Database Claims Global CIO: Informatica Joins Ranks Of Elite Enterprise Software Companies Global CIO: The Top 10 CIO Issues For 2010 IBM CEO Sam Palmisano Talks With Global CIO Bob Evans is senior VP and director of information's Global CIO unit.

To find out more about Bob Evans, please visit his page.

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or write to Bob at [email protected].