Rob Karel is a principal analyst at Forrester Research. Rob serves information and knowledge management professionals. He is a leading expert in how companies manage data and integrate information across the enterprise. His current research focus includes master data management, data quality management, metadata management, data governance and data integration technologies, including ETL and EII.

MDM In 2012
January 6, 2012 What master data management was, will be … and won’t be

MDM, Data Governance Among Top EA Trends To Watch
December 13, 2011 Companies with good data governance practices are expected to be a minority over the next three years, though a significant...

Is Employee MDM Ready To Take On Customer And Product?
October 31, 2011 Unfortunately, most enterprises have not been able to successfully build the business case and effectively partner and...

How Complete Are Your BI And Data Management Strategies?
August 8, 2011 Data management and BI professionals often feel pressure from senior management to propose and start implementing master data...

Agile Business Intelligence Solution Centers Are More Than Just Competency Centers
July 25, 2011 Fill your business intelligence solution center organization with actual BI delivery roles, as, aside from the governance,...

Data Governance Star Wars: Give Yourself to the Bureaucracy
June 9, 2011 In order for data governance to succeed, organizations must define, implement and comply with strict cross-enterprise...

Stop Trying to Put a Monetary Value on Data – It’s the Wrong Path
March 30, 2011 The only value data/information has to offer is in the context of the business processes, decisions, customer experiences and...

MDM Remains a Top Technology Trend For 2011 and Beyond
December 20, 2010 Too often MDM efforts only focus on data stewardship and ignore the upstream and downstream implications that impact the...

Derek Jeter, Performance Management, And Yes ... Data Management
November 29, 2010 While I read about contract negotiations between the New York Yankees and Jeter with the intent of escaping the exciting world...

Deep-Dive Assessment of Data Quality Vendors
October 29, 2010 When looking to differentiate solutions, don’t forget to evaluate the nonfunctional requirements like vendor alignment...

Software AG Buys Data Foundations: Business Acumen Meets Data Competency
October 20, 2010 The synergies between BPM and MDM are incredibly strong, and Software AG is gambling that its differentiated "process-driven...

The Crossroads of Meaningless Clichés: The Key to Scoping MDM and Data Governance
September 24, 2010 The problem with clichés is that they don't solve problems or answer questions. So I asked myself which clichés I...

What’s Next On The MDM Horizon?
July 12, 2010 Many large organizations have finally “seen the light” and are trying to figure out the best way to treat their...

Is EMC Moving To Tackle Data Management Market?
July 8, 2010 I’m going to recommend to EMC that they acquire both Informatica and TIBCO and challenge IBM for world domination of the...

Data Governance Remains Immature: Increase Focus on Business Process to Build Momentum
July 1, 2010 Data governance is not – and should never have been – about the data

“What BI is Not” Forrester TweetJam Recap and Takeaways
May 21, 2010 A sampling of the takeaways from Forrester's business intelligence TweetJam

Social Media Will Play A Big Part In BI’s Future
May 11, 2010 How will social media impact traditional business intelligence? Here’s a snapshot of what several Forrester analysts think

TIBCO Jumps onto MDM M&A Train with Acquisition of Data Matching Vendor Netrics
March 26, 2010 TIBCO Software announced that they acquired Netrics, a small, private data matching vendor

Interested in How Well SAP is Addressing Your Data Management and BI Requirements?
March 15, 2010 A large volume of my clients over the years have expressed serious frustrations with SAP’s master data management...

800lb MDM Gorilla Obviously Not Looking for Weight-Loss Plan: IBM Acquires Initiate Systems
February 3, 2010 You wouldn’t know it following this week’s activity, but there are more than two MDM vendors in this ever-changing...

Introducing The MDM Market’s Newest 800lb Gorilla: Informatica Acquires Siperian!
January 28, 2010 Look out IBM, Oracle and SAP — you’re about to lose a bit of your dominance in the master data management market to...

Oracle Finally Takes Control Of Its Data Quality Destiny With Acquisition Of Silver Creek Systems For Product Lifecycle Support
January 7, 2010 Silver Creek is the only data quality vendor at this point that we feel has sufficiently addressed the unique and complex...

Informatica Evangelizes its Increased Business Relevance with Latest Release
November 17, 2009 Informatica 9 continues to evolve PowerCenter and PowerExchange data integration and access technologies into a much more...

Process-Centric Data Quality Services and MDM Among Top Technology Trends to Watch
October 26, 2009 The business expects high quality data, but hasn’t taken much accountability in delivering it

Process Data Management: Like Your Brain And Your Heart, BPM and MDM Can’t Survive Independently
September 14, 2009 It's an age old question: Which came first: the data or the process? Okay, not an age old question, but an interesting one...

HP and Informatica’s Expanded Relationship: Portent of Bigger Deals to Come?
September 10, 2009 This relationship long predates this announcement, but it could be the start of a relationship of considerable strategic...

Resuscitating Your Dying Metadata Strategy
August 24, 2009 Here’s a question to ponder: Why do so many metadata initiatives deliver well below expectations, or outright fail?

Oracle Targets Real-Time Data Integration With GoldenGate Acquisition
July 27, 2009 This acquisition will focus on two specific areas: high availability to support data replication and migration efforts and...

Whatever Happened To EII?
February 18, 2009 Some integration approaches developed into multibillion dollar standalone markets. But others, while valuable, haven't...