Informatica MDM Reviews

Primary use case is generally for product items and demonstration. 

I like that Informatica MDM doesn't require a separate IDQ. In the IBM InfoSphere, we need exclusive data quality to identify the issues in the source system. But if you use Informatica MDM, that's not the case. The MDM itself identifies the issues and we can use the data quality tools and the score card. It's good compared to other tools. Troubleshooting is very easy and I believe performance is better than any other tool. It solves any complex queries you can connect, any complex route, any complex mappings, you can do it all with Informatica MDM.

I'd like the ability to directly connect from MDM to any of the analytical tools. It's a feature that would be very helpful for analytical reporting. When you connect to the cloud, there are multi-cloud technologies that will have some problem and when you connect from on-prem to cloud, there are more data latency issues than with other tools. The product is more expensive than other similar solutions. 

I have six years of experience with Informatica. 

It is a stable product compared to other MDM products. Other solutions like Oracle CLM and CDH are similar tools but they're not great when compared to Informatica MDM. Of course, it is very stable compared to any other MDM products.

The solution is scalable but when you do the design, you have to know what the data load will be and the number of concurrent users. Based on that you have to design the infrastructure and measure capacity. 

I've implemented this solution in three or four different projects.

I rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

We use the solution for party data management. The tool ensures that the information is the same in every business system so that all the systems have the same view of what parties are involved in an agreement.

It is easy to create REST-based interfaces of the master data objects. It can be used for reading, creating, and modifying the master data objects of the parties, their addresses, and contact information. The creation and modification features always consider the data quality rules, and it is a very powerful way to provide a data interface to master data objects. It is missing in many other tools.

The solution meets the performance needs of my organization. There isn't much that Informatica doesn't do. The maintenance of the data quality rules has been improved. It’s a lot better than it was when we started. Replacing the old SOAP APIs with the new REST APIs is a great improvement. It’s still a work in progress. Some interfaces still use the old SOAP APIs.

The management of different properties is sometimes divided between different user interfaces. The tool should provide a unified user interface to manage the data objects.

I have been working with the tool for ten years.

The tool can scale according to our needs.

The initial setup was not difficult. We had very good support from Informatica’s professional services.

The team was a mix of in-house, vendor and other consultants.

The product has a high price point. However, it does not lack features. TIBCO EBX and Profisee are much cheaper. However, they lack features that Informatica MDM provides out of the box. Though the list price of Informatica MDM is high, it is negotiable.

I do not have experience with the new workflow engine. It is much more extensible because it is a full business process engine. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

Informatica MDM's most valuable feature is the interconnection between multiple Master Data domains.

Informatica MDM could be improved by adding drag and drop options, business data insights, and visualization reporting.

I've been using Informatica MDM for six months.

Informatica MDM is scalable.

Informatica's technical support is good, except for response delays because of time zone differences.

Neutral

The initial setup is simple.

Informatica MDM's price could be lower.

We evaluated TIBCO, IBM, and Microsoft.

I would rate Informatica MDM eight out of ten.

I have worked with two clients implementing Informatica MDM. One use case was for the regulatory master data in big pharma (using multidomain edition), on premise installation. The other installation was related to several data domains implemented using Informatica multi-domain MDM edition, but hosted by vendor.

Helped identifying and reducing data duplication. Helped in improving data quality.

Its data cleansing capabilities are very valuable. The match and merge and the audit trail functionalities are very useful. Review and approval workflows are widely used by the user community.

Informatica support should be improved, as resolution of some cases takes definitely too long. Scalability of the solution should also be improved.

I would also like to have a bit more modern and friendly UI for the end-users. There should definitely be a simplified way to configure the system and set it up for the end users.

I have been working with Informatica MDM for three years - on premise and hosted version. I started with MDM 10.2, and then with version 10.3 upgrade to 10.4, which is the latest one.

Its stability is pretty good. We don't have any major concerns.

It is scalable, but its scalability should be improved especially with the hosted version.

It is a strategic MDM solution in the company, so it is extensively used.

We have had some trouble with their support from time to time. Resolution time could be improved.

We have been replacing several very old solutions which reached end of extended support life and several old bespoke systems.

It is a pretty complex product, so the initial setup is also complex. You require skilled resources to deploy this product. Its deployment can take several months.

We use an experienced system integrator and seasoned external consultants.

It is a pretty good and advanced tool, but at the same pretty complex to set up. To implement Informatica MDM, you should look for very skilled resources with past experience in deploying Informatica MDM, not competitive solutions. 

Informatica MDM is one of the best in the market in the master data management area. Make sure that you realize the potential of this solution and like with all other MDM projects - plan your roadmap carefully. Start small, enable most important capabilities and then work on enabling additional features.

Don't overengineer. Informatica MDM is very flexible in defining the underlying models, setting up workflows, enabling cleansing, etc. Hence a risk of misusing the product or make it too complex and downgrade its performance of usability. If you don't have really skilled resources who have worked with Informatica MDM, there is a good chance that the project will simply fail, or it will take you much longer than expected to deploy and benefit from this product.

I would rate Informatica MDM a nine out of ten.

We have it deployed on the cloud, but I don't think Informatica has been involved much with cloud-based solutions. They have multiple issues, especially related to LDAP and other configurations. Plus, their certified and supported versions are also not what every client has, so they're still evolving in terms of AWS. I don't think they have any support on Azure. They say that for the time being in the Azure setup, you can install MDM the way you would install it on-premise, but we don't have a built-in solution as they have for the on-prem database. That is my understanding for now.

With a Java user configuration, I will probably see 70 to 75 percent of the use cases met. I'm not talking about workflow integration. Instead of going to an active worksite, I'm managing everything from Informatica PowerCenter. I used to do those things, but now I'm just keeping my viewpoint specifically within MDM. I think with the configuration, you can achieve 75 percent of use cases. New tools are coming out that will enable you to achieve 90 percent of use cases with the out-of-the-box configuration, but I would like to keep Informatica tight here. Otherwise, you need a Java user edit course and other things to do multiple things that you cannot configure out of the box. They have to go through those use cases to do something if those can also be configured rather than coded.

We promote our code changes from a lower to a higher environment, which is highly complex when working with a multi-domain MDM like Informatica. This is the biggest obstacle for Informatica MDM, and I think they should change it because that's very time-consuming. You have to be very, very focused. Also, Informatica should develop a process where all the application servers are synced for people using multiple application servers. That's another significant drawback I've seen with Informatica MDM.

Informatica MDM's pricetag should come down. They have to cut some costs.

I rate Informatica MDM nine out of 10. It's one of the best tools in its class. It gets a high rating because of the improvements in the latest version. I was working on a very outdated edition that was seven to 10 years old. There were multiple issues, but they have made a lot of progress, especially in the newer version. For example, they moved away from DB to a different DB-sorted feature. 

Each use case is basically based on two pillars, one is MDM tools (for better consolidated integrated master data) and the second pillar is the e-governance (the quality dimension).

You can build something, you can expose it as a service, which can be consumed by anyone. But there is a good benefit that helps us on boarding new applications, having a seamless connectivity between these. Our center which plays a very good role in ATL, also works well. It has an ADT Meta Data Management business glossary, for filing those kind of components, and it helped us in really maturing from a governance point of view and from an infrastructure set-up point of view.

It gives you accountability to centralize your data and have it available to different applications. Its not limited up to specific platform, SAP for example is quite rigid in connecting outside SAP, and within SAP it is fantastic. 

I think they should work really hard on UI.

The stability is considered "number one." The agility is much better as compared to others.

The scalability of the solution is excellent.

Tech support is good. 

The initial setup was straightforward. If you want to use immediate features, it has out-of-the-box features. But, if you want to play around with it, then it can get more complex.

It's expensive, but if you're looking for a stable solution, Informatica is a good one to choose.

We looked at Informatica MDM vs SAP (solutions) and Informatica MDM vs Microsoft MDS.

It's about mastering various domains. For example, an organization might want to master customer data residing within their IT landscape. This includes all master attributes related to customers, like name, email ID, phone number, address, and potential information like stores they visit. Ideally, if the organization also stores data related to those stores, all that information, files, and everything would be included. So, these master attributes would lie within the MDM system.

Here's where things get interesting. I'd bring this data from disparate sources. For example, accounting systems hold phone numbers, email addresses, and maybe even bank information (just an example). 

But another system, like the ER system, might have different information, like the customer's spouse. So, I'd likely get streams from both these systems, but there might be an additional attribute in the ERP system, like the spouse's name.

Now, looking at all these different attributes lying in different systems, one system might have my name as "Raja S.," while another might have it as "Raja Soni." So, the question becomes: are Raja S. and Raja Soni the same person? How do you identify them from these records?

They try to match these records based on phone numbers or any other common attribute between the two systems. Then, I would have a complete record in MDM, which is called the "Golden Record" - the single version of truth within the system.

Furthermore, MDM can also contain additional attributes that the ERP or accounting systems didn't have. So, imagine ten different applications or data sources feeding customer information. I can gather all of that information and create a single version of the truth for a particular customer within the MDM system.

Additionally, if I want my customers to update any information, I can provide a form where they can enrich their data. For example, they could potentially enter their Social Security number (although this wouldn't be common practice). This is just an example of how someone might want to collect this information. So, I can create a form and say, "Okay, can you directly feed this into the MDM system?" This becomes an enrichment opportunity as well.

With Informatica MDM, before you consume the data, you need to check what kind of data it is. There could be some systems where the first name is missing, or the last name is listed as "missing." 

This is where, before consuming or ingesting data into any MDM system, I can filter it out or rather do profiling using Informatica's data quality tool, which is a different tool called IDQ. I can profile the data, okay, and see the current state of the data from our system, any other database, or any source system. 

This is where I'll identify issues like missing phone numbers, incorrect cities, and other things.

So, when I see that the data is incorrect or incomplete (not just incorrect, but also incomplete), I can go back to the source system based on these profiling reports. I would say, "Source XYZ, you have missing data. Can you please ensure that you send it?" So, when I ingest data into the MDM system, I will only ingest it with certain rules. 

These rules define that only records with a first name, last name, city, phone number, and email address should get into MDM. If any of this is missing, I'm not going to let it get into the system.

I would ask the business to review those and then probably ask the system to correct them and then feed them again until the defined criteria are achieved. That's how I improve data quality using Informatica MDM.

Plus, I can also decide that once the data is in MDM, it can feed back to these source systems from where it was originally consuming the data. So, whatever is corrected gets looped back to these sources if they allow me to publish it to them. 

Then, this automatically becomes a cycle: data comes in, gets a data quality check, then enters MDM, and then can be fed back to the source systems if they accept it.

First and foremost, data profiling is a very important aspect, because it allows me to understand the state of the data from the different source systems and applications I'm going to pull into MDM. This is crucial, as it helps me understand the existing data landscape.

Next, Informatica MDM allows you to perform fuzzy matching. Like the example of Raja S and Raja Soni mentioned above. With fuzzy matching, I can define a threshold, and the system will let me know whether these two records are the same or not. 

This is where I think MDM shines - with its strong fuzzy matching algorithm. This is the essence of Informatica MDM. Based on these results, I can write our match conditions and then perform the corresponding data management activities.

When it comes to how data is governed - how accurate it is, what's missing, and what's not.

There are other Informatica tools involved: Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog (EDC) and Informatica Axon, which is specifically a governance tool. With these tools, users can understand data quality. 

Data quality, Informatica EDC, and Axon work together - they "talk" to each other. The moment Axon identifies that data is bad, incomplete, incorrect, or whatever, the governance tool allows you to monitor all of these things and feed them back into the organization.

For example, if someone within the organization is using the governance tool, which is connected to data quality, they might realize: "This particular source isn't giving me certain information, like city data. But I need city information for my XYZ data usage. So, I should focus on another data source or application where customer cities are available." Based on this, data governance can be implemented, and workflows can be established.

MDM also provides workflows. When records come in or if a customer wants to update a record directly in MDM, different personas can be defined. 

A workflow would then be triggered, and someone could review the data being fed through these forms or sources. They might reject or accept it based on predefined criteria. This is how data entering MDM is governed, ensuring everything is correct and meets organizational standards.

I feel the out-of-the-box APIs or the API management could be improved slightly from their current state. It could be more user-friendly.

In future releases, I would love to have more reports and dashboards available within Informatica MDM specifically for master data reporting. 

Currently, there aren't many reporting functionalities offered. While it's true that reporting isn't a core feature of any MDM system, they do have basic dashboard reports. I'd like to see them made more customizable and offer more options for creating reports.

I have been working with it for more than ten years. 

Stability-wise, it's also pretty decent and stable. So, I would rate the stability an eight out of ten. 

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. It's pretty good because mastering data across various domains like suppliers is crucial. Informatica is probably the best when it comes to multi-domain solutions.

There are around 500 end users. 

The quality of resources is good, and the time is acceptable. However, the initial quality of resources assigned to support tickets could be better.

Neutral

I'd rate Informatica higher. The biggest reason is the multi-domain capability. Not all vendors offer that flexibility. 

Additionally, Informatica is actively working on a clear, built-in AI engine for its tools. The SaaS version functions well, and they've introduced CLAIRE AI engine for on-premise versions. This engine learns from usage within your organization, further enhancing the experience.

The complexity of the setup depends. For example, it is different for the on-premise version. Now, Informatica has mostly shifted towards a SaaS model, which is essentially plug-and-play. You just need to log in and start using it, making it very simple. 

However, for the on-premise version, the setup process requires some expertise. It's not something just anyone can do. You need experts in place to handle the setup effectively.

Within the organization, businesses have benefited significantly. Tasks that used to take four to six weeks now only take three to four days.

Pricing can vary because Informatica doesn't have a standard price across the board. It depends more on the sales representatives in different regions. They essentially call the shots and decide the discount percentage for each customer.

So, it's quite flexible, like a bargain, in a way, but it depends on the salesperson.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

I absolutely recommend it. If you're looking to implement a Master Data Management (MDM) solution, Informatica MDM is the most flexible tool available in the market. Compared to its competitors, it offers several advantages.

Firstly, it provides the option to move seamlessly between on-premise and SaaS versions. If you start with the on-premise version, you can easily transition to the SaaS model later, if needed. 

We use this solution for MDM in the commercial sector. I'm a lead software engineer for EPAM Systems.

The product provides all the typical MDM capabilities like deduplication, machine survivorship, and other things. 

The downside of this solution is that the UI is terrible and not user-friendly. The solution was developed a long time ago and it no longer provides a lot of value. Our organization is considering decommissioning the solution or reducing usage. The problems seem to be more about the design and not the tool. The UI and general user experience need to be improved. Making changes on Informatica takes a lot of time compared to making changes on other MDM tools.

I've been using this solution for seven months. 

I haven't heard any complaints about stability. 

Before my time, the company used a legacy MDM solution for dealing with customers. It was created for reporting purposes, to create some compliance reporting, but its functionality didn't allow the addition of more MDM features, so they decided to build a new solution based on Informatica MDM, and from there they basically merged two solutions, the legacy one and this one into Informatica MDM.

The initial setup was carried out prior to my joining the company. 

A lot of the solutions on the market are expensive and Informatica is at the top end in terms of licensing costs. They use a bundle model so you choose what you want to include in your bundle and that's what you pay for.

Informatica MDM is a typical MDM tool. I've worked with others and they are all more or less the same. It requires more work than some other tools in terms of development and adding additional features. It has lots of features and is rated highly by Gartner. 

I rate this solution seven out of 10.