A new study from research and advisory firm Aite Group exploring the challenges and opportunities presented by ‘enterprise data management’ (EDM) projects has found that most financial institutions do not have a single master data repository. Aite Group expects firms globally to spend more than $2.5 billion in 2008 addressing the connectivity challenge associated with EDM projects, predicting spending could rise to $3.7 billion by 2010.
Those firms that have completed the first stage of an EDM project - initial data cleansing - have a long way to go, says the report entitled 'Navigating the Rapids of Downstream Data Connectivity'. "The easiest stage in implementing any EDM project tends to be the first, which could take as little as a few weeks or even days," comments Adam Honoré, senior analyst and author of the report. "At that point, firms have hardly earned the 'e' in 'enterprise'. The subsequent processes can take years of downstream connectivity effort, at a considerable expense. However, the effort comes with a potentially significant reward: the elusive utopia associated with a single master data repository," he continues.
Budgeting and technology considerations are also addressed in the report, whose findings are derived from interviewees with executives in both the U.S. and Europe that have successfully completed the initial stages of EDM projects and are currently engaged in subsequent 'downstream' activities.