It is not customary to start a foreword with an admission that the writer of the foreword has only recently come to personally know the author of the book. I started hearing about Adatis, the company for which Jeremy works, a few years ago. The context was always around Business Intelligence implementations in the United Kingdom, always made with a positive context whether it was from someone working at Microsoft, a customer, or an industry analyst. So it was after being introduced to Jeremy by my friend and valued business partner in the UK, Ian Maclachlan, who has headed up European operations for the last two companies I founded around Master Data Management, I started a deeper investigation of both the author and the company he is part of. Starting, as we all do, with their website, I immediately found a kinship with the firm and the author. Their pragmatic approach echoed on almost every web page and blog entry made me realize that I had met another team like ours. Adatis focus on real-world problems and the direct solution of the problem instead of surrounding their projects with reams of expensive strategic and business consulting. Since then my conversations with Jeremy have re-enforced my earlier research. He knows MDS very well indeed.
As the founder of Stratature, the company which delivered +EDM, Enterprise Dimension Manger, to the market nearly ten years ago, it is naturally very gratifying to see four years after Microsoft acquired my prior company, Master Data Services is now doing so well in the market. With the release of MDS in SQL Server 2008 R2 last year, it has taken this long for the market to embrace the new release of SQL Server, due mainly, as far as I can ascertain, to IT approval and software maintenance and update cycles. As this book goes to press, we are seeing unprecedented levels of MDS adoption, so as they say, "timing is everything". As I started Profisee focused on extending MDS as an ISV and partner of Microsoft, I was struck by how long it took to bring MDS to market.
After all, as I was very aware, the technology was already successfully delivered into the market with many customers in production prior to Microsoft's acquisition. "What in the world could be taking three years ?", was often asked at our board meetings. With time I have come to appreciate how much effort and time went into strengthening MDS with its new Services architecture and internationalization. More subtle, but equally important improvements in rules processing and other key server capabilities have made the core MDS engine better than ever. Microsoft is due much credit for this transition of EDM into MDS and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Kirk Haselden and John McAllister as the two key individuals for making this happen. Their vision and execution are to be commended. Both are still with Microsoft, but now working on other initiatives. These two gentlemen had a vision for master data management which extended well beyond my own, and I can't help myself in hoping they may, one day, return to the MDS team to once again lend their weight of experience to Microsoft's Master Data Management vision.
With the upgrade to R2 we are seeing unparalleled interest and adoption of MDS for all sorts of applications. It is interesting that with the consolidation in the MDM marketplace and the major bets and commitments to MDM of companies such as SAP, Oracle, and IBM; that Microsoft has effectively reduced the cost of a base MDM software platform to zero by including it as part of SQL Server Enterprise Edition. As far as I can determine, whereas the cost of the master data software platforms and applications from the other original MDM vendors has done nothing but escalate under their new found mega—vendor owners; Microsoft's approach of including MDS as part of SQL Server has allowed the floodgates to open. This means that companies looking to tackle the big business domains of Customer, Product, Location, Employee, Suppliers, and Partners can do so at a price point previously unavailable. In addition, because every Enterprise Edition of SQL Server now contains MDS; many, many more applications which are suited to the concepts and capabilities of a master data platform are being developed using the platform. After all, the concepts of master data entities, entity relationships, domain lists can be applied much more broadly than Customer or product. I find not a month goes by without a new MDS customer describing a novel new application of MDS. I am often chastised for describing MDS as "free". So to clarify: Yes, it depends on the customer obtaining a SQL Server license. And it must be Enterprise Edition or higher. But in my experience, regardless of the type of license an organization has with Microsoft, most IT directors and CIOs do, for the most part, fully understand the value of a committed investment and want to leverage these commitments as far as possible.
Therefore, in my experience, these same managers understand their adoption of the MDS platform to be a net-zero incremental cost from MDS software license perspective. This doesn't, of course, eliminate the cost of skills acquisition, application implementation, or maintenance, but this is where Microsoft deliver another major advantage. The sheer size of the Microsoft partner ecosystem around the world has proven time and time again that it regulates pricing with a downward trend in price. Just compare how easily and more cost effectively you can acquire skills for SharePoint and Analysis Services technologies for a business intelligence application. MDS has only been in the market as a fully released product from Microsoft for a year and already the cost of ownership for complete, enterprise grade master data management has dropped dramatically. This can only be good news for organizations looking to implement MDM applications in the toughest budget climate.
Another topic worth addressing is the adoption of MDS for specific domains. Microsoft's approach, as far as I can tell, is to focus on a single MDM platform and allow partners like Profisee to deliver specific applications or extensions to functionality suited for key MDM tasks. We may be the first in delivering Master Data Maestro as the world's first software built specifically for MDS, but we will certainly not be the last. I am aware of several application companies developing using MDS and several of the world's largest consulting companies are building comprehensive Master Data practices centered on MDS and custom MDS related MDM project methodologies.
As the original founder of the company which created the technology behind MDS, I am often asked how the market will react to MDS. Drawing on my own personal experience, I point to the introduction of Analysis Services by Microsoft well over 10 years ago. At the time, I was leading a BI team making a living from two of the then leading BI technologies. The market, especially led by Microsoft's competitors and those with invested skills and experience in those competitor's products did everything possible to dismiss Microsoft's first real entry into the BI market. Also included as part of SQL Server and at no additional cost to the SQL Server license, Analysis Services has gradually increased its market share to where most analysts now indicate Analysis Services holds the largest segment of market share in terms of installed BI applications. As one leading BI analyst shared with me, this has always resulted in one problem for Microsoft. Without a separately licensed SKU for products like Analysis Services and Master Data Services it is hard for Microsoft or the analysts to fully understand adoption, revenue contribution and consequently to allocate appropriate levels of investment amongst these software products. Based on my observation of the interest and adoption of MDS this past year alone I predict, that similar to Analysis Services, Master Data Services will in less than 10 years from its initial release be the leading, adopted master data technology in the world in terms of the number of installed applications.
It is with this background and belief in MDS that I formed Profisee and agreed to write this foreword. Making as much information available around the MDS product and implementing MDS applications is a necessity to helping Microsoft partners and customers alike obtain the information they need to attain self-sufficiency in the MDS and MDM skills necessary to succeed with their initial MDM projects.
There are already other books on the topic of MDS, so what makes this book different? The pragmatic style of the author comes through in almost every chapter. It seems to me this book is written ideally for the analyst or developer coming to MDS for the first time. The book lays out the ideal path for taking your first steps with MDS and culminates in excellent coverage of Security and the API which are both areas every new IT specialist wants to understand more thoroughly than the currently available documentation allows.
In conclusion, I'd like to thank Jeremy for taking the time to write this book which will assist many in coming to grips with their first Master Data Services application. Taking the decision to write a good technical reference is a major commitment in time and energy and I'm certain Jeremy has given up much this past year to bring this book to you.
Ian Ahern
Profisee Inc