Custom Domain (Asset Data Management) the next innovation for Communication industry?
Multi domain MDM has been the buzz word in most Analyst forums. Many software vendors have jumped into the bandwagon, with the aim to create separate product offerings for each of these domains. While few software vendors have added "customization capabilities" to existing product stack with the ability to create new domain. So which is the right approach?
As always the customer's specific business needs drive the product selection. Of course the final implementation budget, as well. Most of the package offerings are aligned to Customer, Product, Hierarchy, Site and Supplier data domains. However there are not many packages addressing "asset" or "risk" domain.
Typically asset master is very critical element in Communication Media and Entertainment (CME) industry. E.g. In a typically telecom industry we are attuned to find shared infrastructure e.g. cell towers (Ground Base Tower, Roof Top Tower, Rapid Transport Tower provided by an external). On this shared infrastructure, the telecom provider install the hardware (basic switch center and master switch center) and the software (owned equipments) and it is essential for the telecom provider to track back where these assets are deployed and under which location. This allows them to track back the warranty of each device so installed and manage the life cycle of these assets.
In the current world, there are no master data management products supporting this subject area, and it is essential to custom built a solution. Based on a quick assessment, a SME has evaluated a cost saving of $217,000 in positive business benefits in a traditional large enterprise over three years.
Gartner magic quadrant states the following "In addition, although many MDM solutions are marketed as multi domain MDM, we find that they don't provide similar depth of capability in every data domain"
So is this not a sufficient inflection point, to create an "asset" master management solution? If yes, should we partner with a product vendor to co-create a new product offering or extend the capabilities of the product to support a new data domain?
At least a few players such as Siperian and IBM have provided the ability to create an extensible data model that can support new data domain. At the time of writing this blog, IBM as part of the Infosphere Master Information Hub, has announced support for custom domain. What it means is that, the ability to create a new domain is limited or constrained by your imagination, rather than the support by the product.
Oracle had plug-ins for managing asset master data through its extensible Siebel Data model, however this domain has yet to be published in its product road map view.
