We Answer Your Top 12 Questions about Migrating from Legacy MDM to Innovative MDM
Data leaders and architects want to accelerate their company’s digital transformation and enable connected customer experiences with connected data. But, many are held back because outdated master data management tools are slow, rigid and constrained. If this sounds like your situation, we want to help.
At Reltio, we’re on a mission to enable digital transformation by delivering a single source of truth for enterprise data designed for the digital experience economy. We disrupted the master data management (MDM) software market when we launched the first cloud-native MDM software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. The Reltio Connected Data Platform leverages a cloud-native, multi-tenant architecture and our ecosystem to enable speed, agility and flexibility at scale. Companies across industries rely on Reltio to deliver mission-critical, secure, trusted real-time data at scale to create connected experiences across digital and human interactions for their customers, partners and employees.
Now is a great time to migrate from your outdated MDM tool to Reltio’s innovative MDM, which was built for the digital experience economy to enable connected customer experiences across channels. We’re offering a major financial incentive to liberate enterprises from legacy MDM vendor lock-in. It’s a great opportunity to switch now and save! Get 6 months of subscription and $100,000 of expert services at no cost.*
Since we’ve been getting a lot of questions about how to successfully execute a master data migration strategy, I invited Ranga Iyengar, our Vice President of Expert Services to provide answers. For the last 4 years Ranga has been leading our expert services team. Before that he ran customer success at Reltio.
In the past, I had the pleasure of working with Ranga at Siperian, which was acquired by Informatica about 10 years ago. So he has 5 years of experience with the legacy MDM technology that many companies are still using today. And, he has deep experience migrating from any legacy MDM tool to the Reltio Connected Data Platform. That experience has been developed and optimized into our “Reltio Rapid Results Migration Methodology.”
Jakki: Ranga, your team alongside our partners have executed 100+ migrations from outdated master data management management systems to the Reltio Connected Data Platform, which was built for the digital experience economy. What are the top reasons data innovators are making the switch?
Ranga: The top 3 reasons why data innovators at Global 2000 companies are switching to the Reltio Connected Data Platform are:
-
- Cloud-Native Multi-domain Master Data Management Saas Platform: Most companies are moving to cloud/Saas based infrastructure and applications for speed, agility and lower total cost of ownership (TCO)
- High Performance, Highly Available Real-time Services and Mastering: Customer master data needs to connect every critical system from initial entry or sign up through marketing, sales, billing and fulfillment to deliver omnichannel connected customer experiences
- Flexible, Extensible, Configurable Data Structure and Services: Business processes, customer insights and data integrations need to be changed and adapt more quickly in a digital future. Reltio’s business UI reflects configuration changes immediately.
Jakki: Many outdated MDM vendors are hosting their on-premises MDM in a 3rd party hosted environment and calling it cloud MDM. Can you explain the unique benefits of having a cloud native multi-domain MDM SaaS platform versus a hosted MDM in a managed service provider (MSP) model?
Ranga: There’s a misconception that by hosting an on-premises legacy MDM using an MSP model, data leaders gain all the benefits of a cloud offering. That’s not the case. They are also missing out on savings that come from Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). They will still have to suffer through time-consuming and costly upgrades. In addition, they can’t make changes to the data model quickly and easily. With an outdated MDM system that’s slow, rigid and constrained, data leaders lack the speed and agility they needed to enable their companies to accelerate their digital transformation.
Below is an image that does a nice job explaining the differences. In a nutshell, the Reltio Connected Data Platform can be delivered with a quick implementation and flexible data model. A subscription to the Reltio Connected Data Platform includes all updates and maintenance, including three disruption-free major updates annually. Redundancy and disaster recovery are built in. And, our SaaS platform can scale up and down based on your needs. This is particularly useful during peak times like the holidays for our retail and CPG customers as well as open enrollment for our healthcare customers.
Jakki: What type of financial savings can be expected by migrating from a legacy MDM to Reltio?
Ranga: One of our customers saved his company about $1M per year by replacing the legacy system with Reltio. And, the company saved $12M+ on data operations over 5 years. There’s a buyer’s guide that provides a comparison of three different options: 1) cloud-native, 2) hosted and 3) on-premises MDM. If you want to estimate your total potential savings, use the TCO Calculator.
Jakki: Some may perceive a migration from an outdated MDM to a new MDM as risky. What are the top concerns people have?
Ranga: The top concerns about a migration are:
-
- Will the migration be a long and complex process?
- Will the migration cause an extended downtime period for my users?
- How can I minimize the impact of migration to my source and target systems?
- Will I lose the stewarding work that has already been done on my legacy master data?
Jakki: How does our migration methodology de-risk the migration process?
Ranga: We’ve developed and optimized a migration methodology based on our experience migrating 100+ outdated MDM systems to the Reltio Connected Data Platform. Our migration approach is simple, fast, and proven. We’ve migrated 100+ outdated MDM systems to Reltio with minimal impact to our customers business and minimal need for supporting parallel MDM systems.
At AstraZeneca for example, we helped them replace 67 legacy MDM systems with three regional systems. You can read more from Joanna Walker, Global MDM Lead at AstraZeneca.
We use an iterative implementation approach that results in a continuous stream of value deployed into production at multiple points during the migration project.
-
- The implementation will leverage Reltio’s accelerator as a baseline and extend the capabilities to meet the customers requirements
- In the initial phase, we’ll replace a customers’ legacy MDM while retaining the existing sources and consumers
- Subsequent phases will focus on improving data governance and data quality and enabling real-time consumers
Jakki: Can you share the steps in our proven migration methodology?
Ranga: Yes, our 5 step migration process includes:
-
- Step 1: Discovery. In the first two weeks we’ll review the legacy system, review any new requirements, and create a fit-gap analysis and implementation plan.
- Step 2: Design. In the next four weeks we will design the model, security, match and survivorship rules, and integration approach.
- Step 3: Construct. Then, we’ll build out the MDM configuration in accordance with the design created in the previous stage. We will also help build out the legacy data migration and configure SSO.
- Step 4: Tune and Test. Next, we will complete system integration testing and user acceptance testing.
- Step 5: Deploy. Finally, we’ll migrate the code, configuration and legacy data to production, and enable inbound and outbound integration.
Jakki: What roles are involved in these migrations and work with you and our partner teams?
Ranga: The roles on the customer side of our migration approach are:
-
- MDM system owner
- Project manager
- System architect
- Data governance and data steward teams
- Testing team
- Operations
Jakki: Is there a difference if a company has an analytical MDM versus an operational MDM or both?
Ranga: The methodology is the same, but some of the tasks are different. For example, operational MDM usually has a bigger focus on real-time integration.
Jakki: Can you share some examples of legacy MDM migrations?
Ranga: Below are three specific examples of companies that had different needs in terms of the number of records and the timeframes we were able to meet.
-
- A large high tech company with 100+ Million records migrated from a legacy MDM to Reltio in 6 months.
- A pharmaceutical company with 10+ Million records migrated from a legacy MDM to Reltio in 16 weeks.
- A life sciences company with 1 Million records migrated from a legacy MDM to Reltio in 8 weeks.
Jakki: What are your tips to prepare for a legacy MDM migration?
Ranga:
-
- Tip #1: Before the migration starts, have your data profiling of source systems available and your MDM system documentation available
- Tip #2: Keep in mind that the source data quality does not need to be perfect. It can be brought into Reltio and improved on an ongoing basis.
Jakki: Our financial offer includes 6 months of subscription and $100,000 of expert services at no cost.* Which partners are participating in this offer?
Ranga: We’re excited to share that 7 of our partners are participating in this offer:
-
- IQVIA
- Accenture
- Deloitte
- CTS
- Capgemini
- ZS Associates
- Fresh Gravity
Jakki: What about those companies who have AWS credits to use up before the end of the year?
Ranga: For those who want to complete the transaction through AWS Marketplace can use up to 50% of their committed spend with AWS on a Reltio subscription license.