During the 1957 World Series, legendary coach Yogi Berra noticed that
hitter Hank Aaron was holding the bat the wrong way. Berra told Aaron
to turn the bat so that he could see the trademark. Aaron looked at his
bat, then looked at Berra. "Didn't come up here to read," he said.
"Came up here to hit." Aaron went on to break Babe Ruth's home-run
record.



The reason I re-tell this story is because when it comes to MDM and CDI, people have been waiting in the dugout, chomping on their existing IT infrastructures and scratching their... Nevermind. Some metaphors only go so far.

With MDM, IT practitioners and business professionals alike have stopped talking about the "what" and have begun asking about the "how." They're ready to start playing the game.

To that end, I'm joining Informatica and Initiate Systems for the MDM Forum, an 8-city roadshow that will highlight MDM best practices, critical decision factors, and key trends. You'll learn the issues to weigh when deliberating build versus buy, hear how two MDM heavyweight vendors approach MDM implementations, and deconstruct the core components of the MDM stack.

I'll be rounding out each seminar with a new presentation called "MDM Trends: What Lies Ahead for Your Master Data," in which I'll be citing representative client experiences and case studies that illustrate common roadblocks, milestones, and triumphs in governing and managing master data. I'll be highlighting some of the discussion points here on B-Eye-Network as well as on my Inside the Biz blog.

Consider The MDM Forum "spring training" for your MDM strategy: the seminars will occur throughout March, April, and May. Hundreds of people have already registered. Find out more, and register here:

http://www.informatica.com/mdmforum/

Batter up! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Technorati tag: MDM Forum, Informatica, Initiate Systems, MDM Trends