Microsoft Sticks Stratature For MDM Glue

If it’s data Microsoft  wants to master then the company’s latest buy will make it happen. The software giant said it will acquire partner Stratature and plans on using the company’s software as the glue of a master data-management offering that includes its business intelligence, SQL Server and Office SharePoint products.

Master data management (MDM) is the practice of managing reference data that is shared by several different IT systems and groups. MDM’s goal is to enable consistent data-sharing between, for example, enterprise resource planning, financial reporting and planning and business intelligence systems, often spread across sales, R&D and finance groups.

With its +EDM brand of MDM software, Stratature is considered one of the smaller leaders in the space, which also includes IBM  and startup Kalido. Like its business intelligence and data warehousing brethren, MDM is pegged as a multi-billion-dollar market.

To grab a sizeable piece of that pie, Microsoft said it will integrate the Stratature software into its Office System applications and servers and deliver MDM on top of SQL Server.

“Microsoft believes users need to get an accurate view of their business via authoritative data delivered in a manner that reflects the unique ways in which they manage their operations,” the company said in a statement.

Ventana Research CEO Mark Smith called the buy a “key step forward,” noting that Microsoft needed to fill this MDM gap and not expect that the database would fulfill all of the business and IT requirements.

“Now the challenge is to package the product under the Microsoft brand and make it available, then show integration and roadmap for use across Microsoft BI and even Business Solutions divisions while also convincing organizations that it can interoperate across an enterprise of products that are not all Microsoft,” Smith told internetnews.com via e-mail.

Microsoft said more details around the integration plans will be available later, but for now the company will withdraw the current Stratature products from market. However, Stratature will fulfill existing contracts and customer support agreements.

The software giant urged existing customers who want to expand their deployments to contact their Stratature representative to discuss additional purchases.

Financial terms of the deal were not made public. Stratature’s 16 employees will be retained as either full-time Microsoft or a transitional employees for a defined period of time.

MDM is another space where Microsoft will go toe-to-toe with rival-ally IBM, which has cobbled MDM products from purchases such as DWL.

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