IBM recently introduced version 8 of its master data management (MDM) technologies, now known as Infosphere MDM Server. IBM's has built up a suite of MDM offerings based around the acquired technologies of DWL (customer hub), Trigo (product information management) and Ascential. There are two important aspects to V8, the first technical, the second commercial.

On the technology side, MDM Server is an important step in positioning IBM's MDM offerings as genuinely multi-domain, i.e. being able to handle all master data types, rather than having separate approaches to customer and product data. This is sensible for many reasons. While the operational characteristics of customer data and product data may differ, enterprises increasingly want to see a coherent, unified approach to dealing with master data of whatever type. Moreover there are many other types of master data beyond customer and product, and enterprise architects wish to avoid a profusion of hubs based on un-integrated technologies. At this stage it is important to understand that there are still two distinct IBM product lines, but V8 is the first step along the path to unifying these into a true multi-domain MDM technology, a multi-year roadmap. Over time I would expect to see, for example, unified data governance functionality across both product lines e.g. common data stewardship and security applications. Amongst the improvements V8 offers are enhancements to the underlying product domain, allowing support for hierarchies, types, sub-types, categories and terms and conditions associated with a product. There is also a new "account" domain, an account being an agreement between two parties with terms and conditions that can be enforced through the MDM Server.

With Version 8 comes a more flexible pricing structure. IBM's MDM offering has traditionally been perceived as a big ticket item, with software licence costs upwards of USD 1 million for a typical deal. With its recent version 8 release (February 2008) came a new "entry level" pricing model. This pricing is based on a mixture of the data domains to be covered and record volumes to be held; allowing customers to get started at a significantly lower price point than previously, and scale up as needed. This makes good sense, since very few MDM projects are big-bang affairs where customers immediately switch on an enterprise hub covering multiple data domains. It is more usual for customers to begin with a particular data domain (maybe customer, product, location or asset) and deploy a hub in a particular division or subsidiary, gradually increasing the scope of the hub coverage over time. By being more flexible in its pricing IBM is widening its potential market, and giving the potential for up-sell opportunities later.

Recently IBM has seen an increase in customers outside its traditionally strong base in financial services (no bad thing given the current issues in the financial markets), with recent customer wins in retail, automotive, and in Asia Pacific e.g. the Vietnamese tax department. Interestingly Q4 2007 and Q1 2008 were the most successful quarters ever for the company in terms of MDM customer shipments, which is surprising given the meltdown in financial services. Its roadmap towards a unified multi-domain approach is a positive and important step in appealing to MDM customers beyond the financial services vertical.