Event Report: Initiate Exchange - Customers Confirm Latest Customer Hub/MDM Trends

October 2, 2008

Quick thoughts from Scottsdale.  Initiate as many you know is one of the leaders in the customer hubs/MDM market.  At their annual conference, Initiate Exchange, a few key trends emerged from conversations with customers and partners:

  • Rapid deployment still key to securing buy-in a the business level. The registry style approach lends itself to demonstrating quick value.  This has led project sponsors to secure more funding for longer term MDM projects.  Conversations with Initiate customers confirm that implementation times are quicker because of the types and complexity of the initial deployments.
  • Exchanges move beyond the healthcare arena. Commercial customers are learning from the trend of collaborative Healthcare networks.  These networks typically share patient and provider data within and across their networks in order to support accurate information across the ecosystem.  Retailers and manufacturers are starting to see the value in this area.
  • Scarce skill sets abound in kicking off MDM projects. Customers confirm that staffing of technical resources has improved significantly.  But both system integrators and customers admit that scarce skill exist for project kick off activities such as setting the stage from change management, building the infrastructure for data governance, and creating and staffing effective program management.  This is a trend not just for attendees but across the industry.
  • Version 8.5 generates a lot of interest. Customers who stopped by the demo kiosk expressed positive comments about the new collaborative data stewardship capabilities, streamlined user experience, and the Initiate Inspector Inbox.  Those with Group 1 looked forward to using the geo codes in the new adapters.

The bottom line
Initiate customers remain quite satisfied with their choice and the level of investment in R&D by the management team.  A growing list of partners continue to bolster Initiate's mind share in industries outside of their core pharma, health care, and public sector.
Your POV
Do these trends jive with what you are seeing in MDM and CDI?  Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.  Post a comment or privately reach out to me at [email protected]  Check it out on the Forrester Blogs.
Copyright © 2008 R Wang. All rights reserved.

Cupertino Ray Wang Ray R Wang Amitive Community Centric SaaS supply chain Monday's Musings activity feeds Activity streams feeds social feeds social streams Aneel Bhusri Cloud cloud computing disruptive disruptive technologies disruptive technology Executive Profiles R "Ray" Wang; rwang0 Software Insider SoftwareInsider Thursday's Tech Showcase WorkDay BunchBall Constellation Research enterprise applications enterprise apps Enterprise Software Forbes Gamification Rajat Paharia SCRM Social Business social business software social enterprise social enterprise apps social technologies BrandWatch IBM Lotus iToilet LeWeb Loic Le Meur mobile Myzeo Seesmic Social CRM Yammer Zendesk application development application extension and usability Apps Strategy Box Box.net CIO cloud integration Cloud options Cloud Wars CoIT collaboration collaboration software Consumerization of IT emerging technologies Enterprise 2.0 Enterprise apps strategy Enterprise Business Apps Enterprise Business Apps Vendors enterprise class enterprise collaboration Microsoft online services vendor event Forrester Teleconference Jam Sessions vendor management 2009 analyst event Colorado Inside Intelligence SAS Insitute Steamboat Grand Steamboat Springs AI driven smart services #FFCommLive19 2019 accounting AI artificial intelligence best practices business transformation C-Suite CDO CEO cfo Chief Data Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Innovation Officer Chief Procurement Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Sales Officer Chief Security Officer Chief Service Officer Chief Technology Officer Cloud ERP COO CTO Dan Brown data driven data driven digital network Data to Decisions Data2Decisions Digital Business Digital Disruption digital strategy digital transformation DigitalBiz digitaltransformation Enteprise Resource Planning Enterprise Enterprise Resource Planning ERP event report finance financial apps FinancialForce inventory management leadership News Analysis order management public cloud retail revenue recognition service billing subscription billing subscription revenues Tod Nielsen vendor strategy #digital 2020 acquisition acquisitions ambient experience ambient experiences B2C B2C E-commerce British Columbia Business continuity planning Change Agents Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer Cloud push CMO Commerce Commerce Cloud contactless commerce COVID-19 crowdsourcing customer experience Digital acceleration digital commerce digital monetization Digitize channels direct to consumer direct to consumer. pricing optimization disruptive business models Diversify supply chains dynamic feedback loops e-commerce event driven architectures events headless commerce marketing automation Matrix Commerce Mental health support mergers mergers and acquisitions microservices mobify open vs closed Perception and communications Personalization personalization at scale Salesforce Commere Cloud SalesForce.com Vancouver Apple Friday's Feature IFS iPod ue ui usability user experience user interaction ux dashboard environmental sustainability Microsoft Business Solutions Microsoft Dynamics AX Microsoft Dynamics NAV snapshots Contract Negotiations contract strategy IT Strategy license fees license policy maintenance fees Oracle PeopleSoft SAP Siebel software contract reviews software licensing software licesing and pricing software pricing baan Great Plains JD Edwards Lawson Software Lawson IBM IT Services IT services firms management consulting non-compete Price Waterhouse Coopers PWC system integrator 2008 Convergence Dynamics Project Green vendor events design phase governance implementation long term apps strategy OP=Q+R+S+T pmo program management CDC Software Epicor Financials JDA Software NetSuite Q1 QAD Quarterly Financial Tracker RightNow order management hubs Perfect Order Infor Trends vendor financing John Ragsdale reality check sales reps sales strategies Maintenance Hike software licensing and pricing software vendors stupid idea ISV's solution centric ecosystems Concur Deltek Quarterly Revenues middleware platforms PaaS cdi customer data integration Customer Hubs intiate scottsdale customer summit iGate indian data warehouse las vegas teradata Vendor Selection Customer Feedback Forrester Hike Maintenance UK and Ireland SAP Users Group UK bridgewater nj Siperian financial crisis hp intel sun long term apps strategies shelf ware Tuesday's Tip promotions Wednesday's Whispers initiate systems master data management MDM