The typical use case of Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is governance activities for data quality and data cataloging. I need to look at the request type from whom I am getting to provide the details.

The most helpful features in Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) are data cataloging and the data marketplace.

In terms of data quality management, Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) helps with data governance overall.

There are some improvements needed in Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC), especially from a user experience point of view over the last year. They are improving, and there is still scope for enhancement.

The observability concept in Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) needs improvement as the capabilities are not up to the mark compared to the industry.

In terms of cost effectiveness, Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is more than 20% costly compared to the industry.

Regarding AI features in Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC), there is always improvement and clarity present, but compared to the competitors, they are still lacking. The AI features are helpful, but when compared to its competitors, they need enhancement.

I have been working with Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) for five and a half years.

The deployment of Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is user-friendly, but if the software is available, it takes some time.

I have contacted the Informatica technical support team, and they have good technical support, but there is always room for improvements. My experience with Informatica technical support overall rates around three, which is above medium, but not extraordinary.

Neutral

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) takes about a couple of days to configure, depending on the services.

I am aware of its competitors, and I will provide the details once I know them more thoroughly.

I definitely would recommend the Informatica solution to other people.

I am satisfied with Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC), even if it might be lacking in some areas. The expectations will be somewhere, and the tool can support somewhere, with opportunities to improve, considering the features they are building and their strengths.

I would rate Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) at around seven.

I have used Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) for customer data management and analytical product master data management solutions. The first use case involved finding unique customer references with match and merge functionality. The second use case was creating a master data repository for products for use in the analytical layer.

The match and merge functionality is invaluable for discovering golden master data records. Additionally, the integrated data transport and master data creation capabilities are significant. The platform's ability to pull in and push out data from other platforms without the need for an additional integration tool enhances its appeal. The availability of data quality tools within the platform is another bonus. The presence data governance tools for meta data management adds to the benefits. 

There are various areas for improvement in IDMC. Enhancements on basic data management functionality and the UI front, such as multiple templates and improved grid views, would be beneficial. Bulk data management features could be improved from the UI perspective to get to the level of the on prem versions of Informatica MDM. 

The tool needs to mature but missing small but important features, like restricted dynamic attributes functionality, data inheritance rules in master hierachies, identifiers not being passed in jobs is a drawback.

I have been using IDMC for the last three years across two projects

Stability is crucial because IDMC holds business-critical data, and it needs to be available all the time for business users. 

I have rated the stability a ten out of ten due to a high level of satisfaction.

As a SaaS platform, IDMC is quite scalable and provides complete flexibility. Users can increase data capacity on demand based on licenses, which facilitates easy and fast scaling.

The customer support team is good at response and issue resolution. However, due to the tool's maturity limitations, solutions are not always simple and often require workarounds, indicating a need for further improvement.

Positive

The Informatica on Prem MDM product suite is very mature as a tool and still a very good option. 

I rated the initial setup of IDMC as a six out of ten. Many tools within IDMC are new, and those familiar with on-premises versions find the features limiting. This necessitates assistance from the Informatica support team and architects for ensuring quality of implementation. 

The pricing is high and is based on the number of master data entities managed within the platform including refrence data entities. It can range from a quarter million to a couple of million a year. IDMC is often described as the 'Ferrari of Master Data Solutions,' implying that while expensive, it is still the best as a business-critical platform and, therefore, justified.

As an integrated enterprise solution, IDMC is quite good, however, the platform needs to mature in the capabilities it currently provides. 

Overall, I rate Informatica IDMC a seven out of ten.

We use Informatica Cloud Data Integration to load data from files to TelSource or Oracle tables. We also apply business rules to transform the data before loading it into the respective targets.

Most of the features are good. The advanced features like task flow and conditional integration are particularly useful. There are multiple transformations we can use in Dashflow, which are beneficial. We don't use features like centralization and data marketing because they aren't relevant to our use case. Our primary focus is on task flow, which allows us to design our jobs and execute them conditionally.

Some features require an additional license, such as Elastic Mappings. Most of the features provided are through Elastic Mappings, not the data integration service which causes restrictions. For example, the recently enabled source partitioning isn't applicable to Salesforce, which we use as our target or source. We primarily seek features that enhance performance for Salesforce and ICS Integration, aiming to reduce job execution time.

We don't have the license for Elastic Mapping, so we can't use that feature. Most of the new features added by Informatica are through Elastic Mapping. It would be helpful to have features like multithreading or partitioning for Salesforce to enhance performance.

I have been using Informatica Cloud Data Integration for five years.

The product is stable.

I rate the solution’s stability a seven out of ten.

20-30 users are using this solution.

I rate the solution’s scalability a five out of ten.

Support is good.

Positive

The initial setup is very easy. When I first started using it, I installed a 30-day trial version. I personally explored it during that period, and it was good.

It takes 30-40 minutes depending on the jobs.

I rate the initial setup a ten out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.

The team is very user-friendly, meeting our expectations much like PowerPoint does.

It supports integration with most cloud sources, including AWS, and has various cloud connectors. So, It's a good choice for anyone.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

In the past, people used Informatica MDM because it was one of the leading tools at that point in time to work on an on-premises model. It was the leading tool in the market, offering vast customization options and matching and merging options that were better compared to other solutions. The way the data lineage or the customization options it gave, the tool was good. Now, the tool has a changed dynamic, and it is currently available on the cloud. Apart from Informatica MDM, there are other tools, as well as the market, that are completely on the cloud.

The feature of the product that has been most helpful in improving data quality revolves around Informatica DQ or IDQ, which is one of the tools Informatica offers. IDQ helps cater to the scoring of the data, clean up the data, and integrate it.

In terms of the room for improvement required in the product, I would say that the product is still in the maturing phase, specifically on the cloud. The product is not too user-friendly to do the configurations. There are a couple of areas in the product where I feel improvements can be made, but if I consider the algorithms used in the match process, the tool is very robust.

I have been using Informatica MDM for nine to ten years. My company is a partner of Informatica, and we also implement the tool.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

In terms of scalability, I would say that the product is currently more available in the cloud. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a five out of ten. The scalability on the cloud is good. On the cloud, by default, the tool becomes quite scalable.

Informatica provides premium products. The product is mainly meant for enterprise-level customers because the tool is available at the premium cost.

I have not used the technical support provided by the product. If you asked me about the support offered for the tool's on-premises model, I would say they were really good. We really liked Informatica's support. With the cloud, I'm not aware of the support.

If one is a difficult setup and ten is easy, I rate the product's initial setup phase as a five.

If you are talking about the product on the cloud, the initial configuration must be done. There is quite a lot of refresh which takes place every time we have to publish something, and then we have to wait for some time. It is not that you make a change, but you can see it immediately in the tool. The wait period is quite long. If you are a first timer, it takes time for that person to figure out the product. Once you get the hang of it, then it becomes easy.

An end-to-end implementation would take nine to ten months, or maybe a little more than that, depending upon the customer's desired features.

The tool does give a good ROI.

The product is not very pocket-friendly for small and medium-sized businesses, and it is understandable because of the kind of features the tool gives.

On a scale of one to ten, if one is a cheap solution and ten is an expensive one, I rate the tool's price as seven.

Informatica MDM is able to handle complex data integration scenarios with the help of IDCM, which offers the power of an ETL tool.

Speaking about the AI part, I feel the product is still in the maturing phase.

My first preference would be for Welkio, and only after that would I prefer Informatica MDM, so I would say that it won't be my first choice.

I rate the tool a seven out of ten.

What I like best about Informatica MDM is its structured, table-based approach. Unlike Reltio, where data is only visible through the UI and cloud-based, the solution allows access to normalized tables. This means I can directly query and see data in each table. For instance, I can easily get all customer details from the customer table. However, for more complex queries, like seeing all customer interactions with the organization, some SQL knowledge is needed to join different tables and retrieve the details.

The tool could be improved in terms of ease of use, particularly for those without technical expertise. Understanding and extracting data from the table-based structure requires some SQL knowledge and technical skills. Additionally, while Informatica MDM has moved towards a cloud-based MDM with a UI similar to Reltio, I haven't used it, so I can't comment on its effectiveness.

I have been working with the product for six months. 

I haven't had any issues with the tool's stability. 

I'm not entirely sure about scalability, but I've heard that adding custom features can be complicated. We have to go through several steps. First, we need to determine if we're adding a column to an existing Informatica MDM table or creating a new one. Then, we have to contact Informatica with our customization request. They do the customization. After that, we have to check if it's working correctly.

In our organization, we use Informatica MDM in a specific way. It's primarily based on tables; users don't directly log into it. The process works like this: data flows into the MDM tables as an inbound process. Once the master data merge has been completed, the output data flows out as an outbound process.

The tool's support team is good. The product is quite technical, and so is the support team. When we have questions, we reach out to them, and they provide answers. Their response time is also good—we don't have to wait long for replies.

Positive

I rate the overall product a seven out of ten. If you don't have the budget for Reltio, then you can go for Informatica MDM. 

The solution was part of building our data warehouses, where we needed a tool for bulk data migration that didn't require mappings when migrating from a source to a target.

The product's most valuable feature is the replication tasks. It allows the creation of identical tasks that can be applied across multiple tables, ranging from 100 to even 1,000 tables. 

The product interface could be improved to be more intuitive. It requires navigating through several steps to access mappings and pre-created metrics. Enhancing it to provide a more streamlined structure or dashboard would allow quicker access to maps and other essential features.

We used Informatica Cloud Data Integration for six months. 

The product was stable. I rate the stability a ten. 

We had 30 Informatica Cloud Data Integration users in our organization. I rate the scalability an eight. 

The solution didn't require much setup, and since it was browser-based, it was fairly easy to use. I rate the process a ten out of ten.

The product was pretty easy to use. The connections to other platforms worked fine. 

I recommend it to others and rate it a seven. 

We use Informatica Axon primarily to manage product attributes with different roles and responsibilities across various business units. This involves complex approval processes and workflows tailored to each business unit. We have four to five business units. 

Additionally, we perform data quality checks to make sure everything goes through proper authorization and adherence to compliance guidelines. 

Different teams, including our compliance group and business unit-specific groups, so there are some parallel workflows and nested workflows within Informatica Axon. The platform also enables report generation, email alerts, and other functionalities.

We have a small vendor team with expertise in Informatica, but the majority of the involvement (80%) is directly from the client, with only 20% vendor participation.

Informatica Axon has significantly improved our manual processes.

For example, if you needed to onboard a product or a particular customer, we were initially using just an Excel sheet. The exchange of Excel sheets happened via SharePoint or through emails, and then it needed approval. There are different stakeholders across regions, and we are a multi-channel company.

For example, we have teams in Brazil, Mexico, Taiwan, Japan, and the US, across different regions, as well as Canada and Asia Pacific. Each business unit has different roles and responsibilities. When managing a certain set of attributes, you have to properly follow the governance process. All the governance processes were in email, SharePoint, or document before we implemented Axon.

But now, we can create forms and define that governance process, including rules and responsibilities. Many things are automated, showing how the workflow cycle goes, where it goes, and who's working on what. From a data transparency standpoint, we know what is what, where it is coming from, and what the next action is. Some quality rules we implemented automatically control who is accessing the information.

The governance process was fully manual before, but Axon helped us configure those processes, giving us more visibility, transparency, and control over the data. We don't fully use it for every business unit yet, so we are going phase by phase. So far, we have implemented it for three business units, each with different rules, regulations, and compliance requirements. We were able to accommodate all these principles.

Everyone who uses the tool likes it so far, which is a success. As we move other business units, we'll be utilizing more of its capabilities. This major win reduced the time required for manual tasks, follow-ups, and errors. It has made the process quicker and less error-prone, which is a visible benefit from the tool.

Data Integrity Challenges:

We use various Informatica products, including those for integrations and data warehousing. So, maintaining data integrity within Informatica Axon itself is not a significant challenge.

The primary challenge lies in getting everyone on board with the governance process. We have not yet fully migrated all of our organization's internal processes and interactions to Axon. We are going module by module, which sometimes requires compromising on data elements shared across different streams that haven't yet been incorporated into the governance process because governance and quality come hand in hand.

This is a gap in our internal processes and not a shortcoming of the tool itself. Governance and quality are intertwined, and while Axon assists with governance, we need to establish data quality measures beforehand. We lack some data quality elements and are actively working on improving this by cleaning up, deduplicating, and standardizing data across the organization.

The most valuable features of Informatica Axon are the reports and statistics. It provides very good insights into pending tasks, completed tasks, and areas requiring follow-up or approval. There are various checkpoints. In one report, we can see the overall status of the system. 

Additionally, Informatica Axon has many out-of-the-box features when we want to configure stuff for workflows, surpassing those of other tools we evaluated, like Collibra. But Informatica is a very established tool that offers a lot of pre-configurations when we govern the workflows. So, these out-of-the-box features are much more robust, and reporting is much more robust compared to other tools.

Data Lineage Feature:

Data lineage is there. But not everyone is into it. We have a lot of legacy applications, and consolidation of the data into our master data management is also a parallel project going on. Right now, Informatica Axon has a fantastic lineage feature, but we do not fully use that capability in our team because there are a lot of prerequisites that we need to set before we can utilize the lineage.

There are very small components where we can see some lineage. For example, if you have product dimensions or dimension-related attributes, we can see how the data lineage is going through. But for other activities, our data is distributed across different platforms and involves about 43 to 50 legacy systems. First, we are in the process of consolidating them into one hub and then do some cleanup. That would be the biggest feature for us to start with this data lineage. Right now, we don't use that capability extensively.

The user interface could be more intuitive. Currently, it's not very user-friendly, and users need to be thoroughly trained to use the tool effectively.

Additionally, more integration features, like third-party plugins for address search and other functionalities, would be helpful for users across different geographies. While some integrations exist in other Informatica products, they are not available in Axon.

Search enhancements would also be beneficial.

I have been using Informatica Axon for a couple of years.

I would rate the stability a six out of ten because there are no critical issues stopping their jobs. It's almost stable for whatever we have done. Some issues come up, and we fix them, but overall, I'll rate it six out of ten.

In our current use cases, we don't see any big challenges with Informatica Axon's performance. But when the volumes increase or we gradually onboard more users, we want to check the performance. 

For the past couple of years, we have onboard one by one and haven't faced any performance problems. But, there are some clients and case studies where they faced performance problems when multiple processes were running simultaneously. This is something we keep in mind as we onboard other business units.

I would rate the scalability six out of ten for now because we need to explore more. Other business units should also come and see how scalable it is, but for now, it's six out of ten.

There are multiple units. We have around 50 to 60 business units, and currently, only three of them are using it. It is used everyday in our organisation. 

The customer service and support were with us. It's more about fitting our data structure to Axon rather than the product's capability. 

We had to do a lot of design work and make adjustments to incorporate everything. Informatica really helped with the initial setup, but it also depends on the contract. 

We only had normal support without an Informatica consultant onboarded due to budget issues. Everything was done through tickets and our own efforts. Maybe that's another reason we struggled.

Support helped around seven out of ten. But it's beyond their contract. Support can only do certain things. For services, you need to hire an Informatica consultant. Our team wasn't ready to hire one due to budget issues. So that's the reason we faced challenges. But as far as support is concerned, they were decent.

Neutral

We didn't use another solution. Everything was manual. Informatica Axon is the one we chose. There were some other bidding processes, but I was not involved in the selection process.

I would rate my experience with the initial setup a two out of ten, with one being difficult and ten being easy. 

Initially, we didn't have the expertise for the tool from the client's end. We had to depend on Informatica for that. There were some initial infrastructure issues. When we got the proposal and started implementing it, there were new findings that we had to fit according to our environment. 

Maybe it's because we weren't well-prepared for expectations. For example, if you want to set up and get started in a week or two, it took us two months for the initial setup and to migrate the data. We faced a lot of technical challenges.

Things didn't fit in properly, so we needed to make adjustments. But, again, it's our personal experience with our client. It might not be a common issue for others, but the initial setup was difficult, and we struggled a lot, so I would rate it as two out of ten.

But after that, it's all good. Once we set it up and started configuring things, everything was more in control, and we didn't face any problems. But the first-time setup was definitely a challenge.

It took us two months to deploy the solution. The most time-consuming part was the data structure and migration.

For us, we took two resources for the deployment process because only two were available at the time. But it depends on each project. We had two resources fully dedicated to this work.

One of them was a normal Informatica expert developer, and the other was a business analyst who was also a data modeler.

I would estimate a minimum guarantee of about 60% return on investment. We are yet to explore a lot of features, like data lineage and migration of business units. But if we migrate everything into it, we can expect a 50% to 60% return on investment, for sure.

For licensing, all I know is the number of users matters. It's not about the volume of data; it's more about the number of users. If more users are added, there's an additional cost. 

We only use out-of-the-box features and haven't asked for any customization, so we haven't incurred additional costs. However, when we migrate all 53 business units, there might be additional costs. As of now, we don't have any extra costs.

I would recommend using it because every tool and technology has its pros and cons. If it fits with your organization, especially if you already have the Informatica suite of products in your architecture, Informatica Axon will fit in very easily. Even if you are on a different stack, it might still work. 

One advantage of Informatica is that they have been in this industry for a long time. They have a strong background in handling data, which is a positive aspect of Informatica Axon. I would definitely recommend it if it meets your standards.

Overall, I would rate it a six out of ten; we have yet to utilize all the features. From the organization's standpoint, it has only helped certain business units so far. Additionally, the user intuitiveness is less, and there are some performance issues here and there. I'm not confident enough to give it a nine out of ten because we haven't fully explored the product yet. It meets expectations but does not exceed them, which is why I rate it a six.

Informatica Data Quality offers functionalities such as profiling and address standardization. It identifies discrepancies in data through profiling, providing statistical insights similar to other data quality tools. What sets IDQ apart is its integration with PowerCenter, Informatica's flagship data integration tool. IDQ includes a developer tool with a wide range of transformations like Cost, Standardizer, and Cleanser, which are essential for data quality management. It operates as a batch-based tool, distinguishing itself in the market. While IDQ focuses on these aspects, it doesn't directly relate to tools like TDM or MDM, which are separate solutions.

Whenever I open and close Informatica Data Quality, I get consistent results. However, since I moved away from Informatica in the last two to three years, I have also evaluated other products. There is an ETL tool by SAP, specifically Business Objects Data Services, which has some pros and cons. It can integrate more files.

We use parts and standardization for most of our testing. We purchase the US Postal Service address database, which is updated periodically. Many useful tools, such as Google Maps, can detect and mark new businesses or changes in business locations. Informatica captures and updates this information. Some periodic maintenance is involved, but setting it up is not overly complicated.

Informatica Data Quality has its data warehouse, primarily using Oracle and some SQL databases. You need a database to host the data. The cleansed version of the data is stored in the data warehouse. It integrates with PowerCenter and other Informatica tools. The integration details can be complex, but a regional setup is involved in this process.

Profiling smaller datasets, such as 10,000-50,000 records, worked fine. However, unexpected issues could arise with larger datasets, such as thousands of records or more, especially with tables containing many columns. Handling tables with fifty or more columns can be challenging, even in Excel. A mismatch in data types could cause the entire system to crash.

Continual enhancements are being made to address these issues, which can be unique to specific industries like finance and healthcare.

I have worked with Informatica Data Quality up to version 10.4, around 2020, about two or three years ago. During that time, there was a code bug at the driver level when connecting to hardware. When attempting to profile data, the system would crash. We had to collaborate with engineers from Informatica to fix the bug, which was eventually resolved in the 10.5.1 release.

Informatica Data Quality has its client tool. You can build your code on your laptop and then upload it to the database metadata. However, for some parts of the development, you might need to log into the server to complete the tasks.

Informatica Data Quality can build dashboards and integrate with reporting tools like Tableau and Power BI. It also supports integration with tools like Microsoft, Cognos Business Intelligence, and SAP Crystal Reports. This flexibility is a crucial feature of Informatica. As for SaaS, Informatica does offer SaaS options. Additionally, it can interface with statistical software like SAS, allowing users to build code in SAS and then import it into Informatica. This simplifies the process and eliminates the need for manual coding.

If you remove the PowerCenter tools, the next closest competitor would be IBM's InfoSphere DataStage. Additionally, there are free, not free, and less expensive community editions of various tools. For instance, Talend offers an open-source ETL tool, while Pentaho has a miniature business version of ETL. Microsoft itself provides ETL tools like SSIS and reporting tools. Data quality is not necessarily tied to any vendor—data is data, and various tools can manage anything that flows in.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

We use the solution for data cataloging and lineage.

The valuable feature is metadata management. If you want to trace sensitive data, you can auto-classify them. You can search for sensitive information through EDC. Using Discovery, you can identify if there is any type of data set.

EDC is only used for cataloging and meetings. Currently, not many different databases are integrated with it. The ETL logic should be visible within the tool. If EDC is integrated with Axon, you will see the data lineage and catalog because of EDC. If EDC is removed, you cannot see any lineage or catalog.

We need EDC on the application level. Currently, it is only at a system level. It can be shown as an application layer between policies or regulations. This kind of feature can be enabled.

The integration with other data management tools can be enhanced. For instance, there is no integration with tools like Collibra or Hubview.

I have been using Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog for seven years.

The solution is stable.

EDC needs many ports to run. Therefore, to improve performance, you need to increase the number of cores.

The initial setup is easy and takes two weeks to complete. One person is enough to deploy it.

EDC gives you a better understanding of architecture and the system used. You cannot use EDC completely unless you have access.

The product is expensive.

EDC is a standalone application, so it doesn’t really make much sense. It doesn’t give you a lot of features that way; it’s primarily for cataloging and classification. Nobody would buy EDC as a standalone application. When people are buying EDC, it’s always with Axon.

I recommend buying the solution altogether with Axon.

Overall, I rate the solution as seven out of ten.

We use the tool to implement customer, product, and entity masters. We also use TDM to generate synthetic data, but not in real-time scenarios.

It's a multi-domain master data management system. The solution is easier to use compared to the other solutions. The security is good. The governance model is good. All the elements that I expect are available in the product.

The user interface can be a bit more functionality-aligned.

I have been using the solution for the last 15 years.

I rate the stability a nine out of ten.

The product is scalable.

The support team does not provide much support.

Negative

The initial setup was okay. I rate the ease of setup a five out of ten. The tool can be deployed in a minimum of eight to ten months. The implementation requires at least a team of five members. Maintenance depends on the customer's requirements. If the customer's requirements keep changing, we need a team to maintain the tool. Otherwise, one or two Informatica developers are sufficient to maintain the product.

The price is comparable.

All the tools have similar capabilities. There is nothing superior in Informatica. I'm a software integrator. I work for an IT company. I'm not the consumer. I will recommend the product to others, but it depends on the customers’ needs.

If an organization needs a good customer master, product master, or partner master, Informatica MDM will be a good choice. The solution has been in the industry for quite a long time. It has all the elements I look for in a master data management system except for customer support. All other things are fine.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven and a half out of ten.