In my earlier post Why MDM should be part of CRM Strategy I discussed the importance of having a MDM strategy along with the CRM initiative. Proliferation of cloud CRM solutions like Salesforce is a blessing and it can also be an IT nightmare, if it is not managed properly. In many companies Salesforce implementation is left to the Business discretion with minimal IT interaction.
In one of our client interactions, the IT leader was in fact trying his best not to address the Master Data issue and just implement what the business was asking without addressing the Master Data implications. CRM implementation or enhancement is an opportunity for IT to get engaged and put their Master Data strategy in place. See my post on Why Master Data is different from CRM?
Though Master Data has been a familiar term many companies are far from implementing it. Mostly lack of ownership and cost justification barriers hold up the progress. In this blog, I want to show the reference architecture for Cloud MDM solution from Informatica which can be an alternative to the traditional MDM on the cloud (see – my earlier post). Total cost of ownership will be much less than the traditional MDM.
Typically the customer records are created in Salesforce and some key application systems like ERP or on-line store (eCommerce) sites. Cloud MDM which is typically installed in one of the Salesforce instances (Master) can be integrated with subscribing and Authoring applications synchronously or asynchronously depending on the timing requirements. All the de-dup and stewardship activities are performed using the Cloud MDM tool. Informatica Cloud MDM is a native Salesforce application which is deployed in the client’s Salesforce instance. This Architecture shows the expanded Cloud MDM solution integrating to Enterprise applications. This architecture supports only Customer Master.
Using this Architecture most of the Customer Master Data can be managed. This can also be a stepping stone for a full-blown future multi-domain MDM initiative.
See also our recent webinar on Cloud MDM specifically addressing salesforce based Customer Master Data management and the following related blog posts Cloud MDM – Are we getting closer? , Reference Architecture for Public Cloud Platform, Customer Analytics and Master Data, Master Data – Why is it different from CRM?, and Why MDM should be part of CRM Strategy?
