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What happened in Vegas at Gartner MDM...

I recently attended a very busy Gartner MDM conference in Las Vegas. Gartner brilliantly decided to combine it with the Enterprise Architecture and BI conferences, bringing together professionals who should be talking more.

Good conferences always feel like you're cramming for finals, absorbing as much information and new friends as possible, until you collapse when it's over. I've finally recovered and have a series of topics to share.

Waves of MDM

MDM is finally mainstream, but there are a few different waves:

1)  Let's Master the Data
2)  Let's Steward & Govern the Data
3)  Let's Share the Data

Although much of the historical discussion has been around #1, Gartner analysts and seasoned participants zeroed in on #2 and #3.There are many good insights for the latter, including Initiate's UMass Memorial Health Care presentation.

Broad Data Sharing is the new Black

All the cool, hip kids are doing it.  Just like social media is generating significant value from individuals sharing appropriate information*, businesses are seeing positive returns from sharing information beyond typical organizational boundaries.

Thought leaders are constantly searching for faster ways to put mastered data in the hands of business users and partners.

Dimensional Data vs Master Data

Mark Beyer of Gartner has multiple great points about the intertwining of these two types of data.

Change Management is Key

This topic was everywhere. MDM (and Data Governance) are as much organization and political challenges as technology ones - although your choice of technology can burden or accelerate this! Marty Moseley and Larry Dubov have both written extensively on these topics.

My Two Favorite Gartner Moments

The kick-off presentation included a great idea to have the analysts give a "60 or bust" overview of their presentations, with one slide that was key. This was fantastic to assist in selecting presentations and follow up...but John Radcliffe took 5 minutes to explain it (it's all good, John!)

Two, the session with Mark Beyer & Andrew White in formal debate whether "analytical MDM" means anything. The audience participation was great, including an exchange with Evan Levy. Of course, it wasn't until the end Mark mentioned that Gartner had already decided it's not a meaningful concept when they indicated it would not make the transition to over the "peak of inflated expectations" last year! Kalido’s Winston Chen wrote a great post on the conference chatter, and I actually blogged on the topic last August. Andrew also has a post from last fall in which he discusses the differences between operational and analytical MDM.

Overall, I had a great time. Were you there? Did different things catch your attention?

* I'm looking at your "Shake what your Momma Gave You" print ads in Information Management, Baseline Consulting...they walk the line like Johnny Cash.