CluedIn – a modern MDM platform aimed at business users

CluedIn is a master data management vendor founded in 2015 and based in Copenhagen. It is a cloud-native product that is written to take advantage of Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. CluedIn is unusual (though not unique) in using a graph database called Neo4J as its base rather than a relational database. Graph databases are very good at dealing with complex relationships within data, which is well suited to master data management. The price paid for this flexibility is performance, but in the case of master data this is less of an issue than in many cases, since master data is typically modest in volume but high in complexity: you might have as many as 100 million customer records if you are a retailer, but not billions of records, and most master data around other domains like products or locations is much smaller in volume than this. In cases of high volume, the flexibility of the cloud means that more processing can be applied to the problem easily, albeit at a price. Graph databases are also fine at handling a variety of data types, such as documents or images, rather than just structured numerical data. CluedIn offers the normal range of functionality of a master data product, so handles record de-duplication, merge/matching, workflow etc. Data loads and data pipelines can be monitored via its “engine room” feature within the product. Data can be exported to a wide variety of targets.

The lack of a formal up-front schema means that master data can be added to the system with no formal data modelling, making it easier for business users to understand and use the product themselves, rather than relying on IT developers or consultants. One customer (Svevia) claimed to do their entire master data implementation with just business people and no IT staff at all. The business focus of the tool is enabled further by the use of an underlying large language model AI (Azure OpenAI) to allow business users to query the master data with questions such as “what are my annual revenues?” using a natural language interface. The vendor plans to deepen the use of this AI capability into other areas of the product. CluedIn has over a hundred corporate customers, and a good set of public case studies. One customer (Scandinavian Tobacco Group) improved its data quality from 42% to 85% in just 9 days using the technology.

Bottom line: CluedIn offers a differentiated master data management product whose unusual technology underpinnings make it easy to engage business users.