Business intelligence (BI) specialist Informatica has unveiled a metadata management system that creates data audit trails that could help firms comply with governance regulations such as Basel II, as well as data protection law.
The SuperGlue system, which is based on Informatica's data integration and BI software, integrates metadata - data about data - from enterprise applications such as customer relationship management (CRM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems into a single repository. The software tracks the origin of the data and any updates made to the information.
This cross-system integration can help IT managers to assess the impact of system and process changes. It can also pinpoint redundant data - for example, where information is replicated in multiple databases. Business managers are offered a personalised dashboard view of data, allowing them to audit complex information flows.
According to Informatica, the auditing feature could be useful for those companies struggling to comply with regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Basel II, which are designed to improve corporate governance and accountability.
But James Mullock, a partner at law firm Osborne Clarke, said there were more pressing reasons for UK companies to use such systems. "Basel II is a regulation aimed at the banking sector that won't come in until about 2007," he said. "The current data protection legislation is a more direct reason for UK firms to use technology in this way."
Under the Data Protection Act, individuals can demand to see all the information a company has stored on them within a certain timeframe. "The process of finding a copy of all this data to show to the individual could be very complicated," said Mullock. "Any technology that helps firms to track the data they hold, and understand where it came from, could be useful." Eric Woods, research director at analyst firm Ovum, said: "There is a recurring challenge of how to get a grasp of all the information in your organisation. Companies are interested in solutions that help them to manage the data, consolidate their assets and control content for cost reasons and risk management issues." Woods said SuperGlue might help to address such issues. "But it is an area that needs buy-in from [senior managers] as the benefits come from deploying the technology widely," he argued.
However, Woods added that technology alone would not ensure good corporate governance. "The need for visibility and responsibility will be addressed by more immediate tactics," he said.
SuperGlue will be available to European customers from 10 September, priced from about £95,000.
