The most valuable features of Informatica MDM are the IDQ and RDM data management. PowerCenter is the most widely used feature of Informatica MDM.
- "The most valuable features of Informatica MDM are the IDQ and RDM data management."
- "Informatica MDM has a complex user interface, which could be improved."
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
Informatica MDM has a complex user interface, which could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Informatica MDM for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate Informatica MDM an eight out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate Informatica MDM a ten out of ten for scalability. We plan to increase the usage of the solution in the future.
How was the initial setup?
I rate Informatica MDM a four or five out of ten for ease of initial setup.
What about the implementation team?
Our organization's deployment process for Informatica MDM took two to three months. A third-party team did the solution's deployment. Around 10 to 12 IT specialists and engineers were required for the solution's deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Informatica MDM's pricing is not cheap but comparable to other vendors.
What other advice do I have?
I advise others looking into using Informatica MDM in the future to have their use cases in order and know what they want to use it for.
Overall, I rate Informatica MDM a six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
- "Informatica Cloud Data Integration is stable."
- "Informatica Cloud Data Integration could improve the price by making it less expensive."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Informatica Cloud Data Integration to take sources from databases to flat files or from web service to flat files. We do data integration with the tool.
What needs improvement?
Informatica Cloud Data Integration could improve the price by making it less expensive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Informatica Cloud Data Integration for approximately four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Informatica Cloud Data Integration is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Informatica Cloud Data Integration is good.
We have many people in my company using this solution, approximately 100. We do not plan to increase usage.
How are customer service and support?
I have not contacted the support from Informatica Cloud Data Integration.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Informatica Cloud Data Integration is easy. The deployment of the solution only takes a few clicks of the mouse, it takes a few minutes.
What about the implementation team?
We did the implementation of Informatica Cloud Data Integration in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of Informatica Cloud Data Integration could be reduced.
What other advice do I have?
Informatica Cloud Data Integration is good overall. I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Informatica Cloud Data Integration an eight out of ten.
- "MDM is very stable - it can handle millions of hits daily and still run 24/7."
- "The on-prem solution is harder to learn than the cloud-based versions."
What is our primary use case?
I use MDM to collect customer information and ensure that there is no duplicate information on our system.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are that MDM has a very strong master merchant, and it's possible to model all kinds of domains in one solution.
What needs improvement?
An area for improvement would be that the pricing model is not very visible, which makes it hard to understand how much things will cost. In addition, the on-prem solution is harder to learn than the cloud-based versions. I also understand that Informatica is not porting their on-prem system to cloud, so I would like the new cloud solution to include all the features from the on-prem solution and make it the proper multi-domain MDM.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Informatica for around twenty-five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
MDM is very stable - it can handle millions of hits daily and still run 24/7.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
MDM is scalable with no problems.
How are customer service and support?
As a customer, you can raise tickets, but you also have a Customer Success Manager in Informatica who is responsible for customers and helps them get the best value out of their investment. So you can raise your ticket with them, and they will help you with it.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward on cloud, but the on-prem version is not so easy.
What other advice do I have?
Don't underestimate how much work you will have with integration (though this is an issue with every MDM solution, not just Informatica). I would give this solution a score of eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for ETL.
How has it helped my organization?
It's a powerful tool to create data warehouse solutions for our clients. We take unstructured data and use Informatica Cloud to structure it in various ways, making it usable on a reporting front end. This enables clients to make informed business decisions based on the data.
What is most valuable?
It's the accessibility and the range of features that stand out. Before using Informatica Cloud, we were working with Informatica PowerCenter. The transition from PowerCenter to Cloud wasn't entirely effortless, but it was seamless enough for our developers to adapt and continue their work smoothly.
What needs improvement?
Our main issue is transitioning from on-premise to cloud data storage. As many clients move their data to cloud platforms like Azure, Snowflake, and AWS, we're encountering problems with Informatica. Errors that were straightforward and clear with on-premise databases now appear ambiguous in cloud environments. Our developers spend significant time reducing these generic errors, often simple issues like a column not accepting null values. This lack of clarity is causing unnecessary delays as they have to sift through logs or contact support to diagnose problems that would have been more easily identified in an on-premise setup.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Informatica Cloud Data Integration as a financial partner for over five years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have about seven developers. It is a scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
When errors arise, contacting support can be frustrating. Sometimes, the technician can't solve the issue and transfers us to someone else. This makes us less confident that the person helping us is truly equipped to resolve the problem.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is simple and depends on the task. However, it usually takes a couple of hours if development is complete and we're moving from the development environment to production.
What was our ROI?
ROI is strong because we have a structured portal that ensures development is done correctly. It is shareable, scalable, and equipped with enough monitoring tools to quickly address any issues. Ultimately, the client doesn't care what tools we use. They just want problems resolved quickly. Informatica provides the necessary tools and features to help us do that effectively.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It has premium pricing. Depending on what we're working on and which features we're using within Informatica, there can be additional costs. It's mostly data integration, but you might need to upgrade your license to include other aspects of Informatica. Certain connectors require a license upgrade to access.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
- "Informatica MDM's most valuable feature is the interconnection between multiple Master Data domains."
- "Informatica MDM could be improved by adding drag and drop options, business data insights, and visualization reporting."
What is most valuable?
Informatica MDM's most valuable feature is the interconnection between multiple Master Data domains.
What needs improvement?
Informatica MDM could be improved by adding drag and drop options, business data insights, and visualization reporting.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Informatica MDM for six months.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Informatica MDM is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Informatica's technical support is good, except for response delays because of time zone differences.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is simple.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Informatica MDM's price could be lower.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated TIBCO, IBM, and Microsoft.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Informatica MDM eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
- "A great product enrichment tool."
- "Database access is highly restricted particularly if you're using the cloud version."
What is our primary use case?
We are customers of Informatica PIM and I'm a senior architect.
What is most valuable?
Informatica comes with a predefined data model which is the way in which you enrich your products. It acts not only as master data but also as a product enrichment tool. The product provides flexibility; you can go for an undefined number of attributes that define a product. You can plug it in with any e-commerce website. That's its value to us and why we need it.
What needs improvement?
Database access is highly restricted with PIM. If you're using the cloud version, you probably won't have database access or a view of it. If you're wanting a customized application, you can develop the out-of-the-box PIM solution with a little bit of customization here and there without even needing a database. That's a very big drawback. As a developer or as an architect, you need to have a data model. I know some people use it without database access and the issue is that they don't know what that data model is built on other than just seeing it through UI tabs. The one thing I'd really like to see is for the solution to be made scalable.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable, in terms of bugs they're very good. They keep evolving their toolset. I have encountered many bugs in Multidomain MDM, but to date not in P360.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability depends on your use case. If you're using it as an integrator, then it is definitely scalable. That said, it would require an altogether separate MDM solution. If you don't have MDM, then there are likely to be some limitations. We're in the process of installing now but in my previous company, we created the core set of attributes through MDM. From there it went worldwide through an e-commerce website. We have 50 to 60 people internally using it as a tool. If you're exposing your data through an e-commerce website, then it's accessible to all, although just for reading and not for updates.
How are customer service and support?
If you're working with Informatica, you need to interact with them on the out-of-the-box features. They are very efficient and quick in their response times.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've trained in Stibo which is a little bit better than PIM and I've used Oracle PDH and CDH. Those were basically a package MDM solution. If you're using SAP, I would suggest Oracle products. But there's been a very big evolution over the past decade when it comes to enterprise MDM tools. Most people working in companies are disbursed in different locations and using multiple toolsets, they can't be restricted to one technology. That's the reason that Informatica, Stibo, Riversand, and other technologies are very useful and very powerful. When comparing PDH to PIM or CDS to Multidomain, managing the Informatica toolset is easier in terms of effort required in comparison to managing Oracle MDM or Oracle CDH or PDH because they have their own set of limitations. The good thing is that they can be very easily coupled with an ERP solution. Here, you have to build real-time or multiple interfaces.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is relatively easy I would say. But if you need additional attributes, it gives you a repository manager feature where you can use XML, add your own attributes and then configure it. To my mind, the setup is simple to moderately complex.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Licensing costs are a little pricey. For my previous client, as a support contract partner, we were making less money than Informatica was charging them.
What other advice do I have?
Informatica 360 PIM was bought from Heiler and is a very good tool if you already have MDM in place and you simply want to use it as an enrichment tool. With Informatica, you perhaps need to go somewhere into the roots of Multidomain. P360, Multidomain, and C360 are all different things. Managing a thousand plus attributes into that data model is going to be very complex. If they could come up with a standard data model that Oracle offered customers like PCH or PDH, similar to what P360 has, that would be my preference. Also, my recommendation is to always utilize your team as an integrator rather than being a master data manager.
I rate the solution eight out of 10.
What is most valuable?
The improved interface (IDD), eliminating the need to run a full tokenization process during match & merge process allowing 24x7 access to on-line users, and its better interface in console.
How has it helped my organization?
In the previous version, over 5,000 users of our on-line customer maintenance application were unable to use the application for approximately 12 hours every weekend while the match & merge function was run. Since upgrading, the overall time to execute M&M has decreased and the on-line users are able to add, update & search for customer records 24x7.
What needs improvement?
We experienced several basic issues with the product that required daily meetings with Informatica product specialists. Several Emergency Bug Fixes (EBFs) were required to fix the issues. It was felt that the vendors internal testing should have caught many of these issues and not been found by a customer.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used it for six years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Deployment was very smooth due to extensive planning between the development and application support teams. A two week outage was planned and communicated. However the overall outage lasted only eight days. Running the Readiness scripts in production for several weeks before deployment, eliminated this step from the deployment process, and corrected data issues. Also, deployment activities ran faster in production environment than they did when performing upgrade steps in other environments (Dev, Val & POC).
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Several issues were encountered in production that required immediate remediation that were not found during the 10 week QA cycle. After four weeks that system is stable and the operations team is able to complete daily & weekly cycles without issue.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There were very few changes to the database, and the same number of customers were being processed. A HealthCheck by Informatica was performed before starting the process to assure that the existing infrastructure was adequate for the new version.
How are customer service and technical support?
Overall it's very good. Once a point person was assigned by Informatica, all the issues were consolidated into a single tracking spreadsheet that was reviewed daily. Tracking tickets were still submitted, but we did receive expert attention to resolve issues quickly.
Technical Support:Very good. Although, most technical support is off-shore, and there were issues with working time that prevented internal staff from interacting with off-shore experts.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No – just a long over due upgrade from 9.0.1 to 9.7.1.
How was the initial setup?
The upgrade process is straightforward, and well documented. This process was executed multiple times as different environments were being built. By the time the production environment needed to be upgraded, it was almost standard. A separate Proof-of-Concept (POC) environment was developed to allow the developers to “play” with the new version and test functionality.
What about the implementation team?
A combination of in-house and a vendor team. It was difficult to find anyone who had expertise with 9.7.1, so both teams learned during the project. The vendor team (Wipro) did have Informatica MDM experience in various version that allowed them to contribute to the design of the upgraded system.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have a global license which was outside of the cost of the upgrade project.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
No other options were evaluated.
What other advice do I have?
The upgrade is straightforward if you currently have Informatica implemented. Don’t wait too long to upgrade, we waited five years between upgrades, and will not do so again. If this is you first MDM implementation, spend as much time forming data governance program as you do on the technical piece. The major vendors in the MDM space (Informatica, IBM, SAP & Oracle) have similar functionality. Informatica has been slowly integrating their legacy ETL product into the former Siperian product to make a very robust product.
What is most valuable?
Overall product management, flexibility, intuitiveness and governance.
What needs improvement?
Workflow & UI
For how long have I used the solution?
2 Years
How are customer service and technical support?
4/5
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used IBM PIM before, I switched because of customer centricity, enriched out of box product data management features in Informatica PIM.
How was the initial setup?
Straightforward
What about the implementation team?
Vendor team
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Yes, STEP, Oracle PIM
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