erwin Data Intelligence by Quest Initial Setup

RD
Data Architect at NAMM California

The initial setup of the software was a combination of straightforward and complex. For me, it was complex, as I'd never seen it and there were a lot of components to their instructions. But we ended up doing it pretty much ourselves, with a few interactions with some of their technical people on the installs. The clouds were, obviously, easy, but the making sure the Data Modeler was there and dealing with the architectural software within our organization wasn't as easy. 

But erwin DI for Data Governance, itself, was pretty straightforward. Adding users required a little learning curve but no one taught me. It was trial and error more than anything. I'm sure we could have had great training from them, but they have good videos and good tools on the web. For us, there was probably less than a 5 percent interface with erwin for our installs, configuration setup, and even configuring the databases to house all the data.

Being that it's a cloud solution, in the beginning, the firewalls became an issue but we got those resolved right away. There really wasn't anything bad. We self-taught; we didn't have a whole lot of Professional Services on this. It's intuitive enough that we run our entire data strategy on it. With a group of three people, we support another 50 developers, systems analysts, and data analysts outside of my group.

We didn't really have an implementation strategy. We didn't know what we were doing three years ago. We just knew that we were tasked to create a data warehouse, and I'd never done one. We tried to do it the right way. If it was something that I'd been doing for 30 years, there would have been more of a strategy for how I would do it.

We had a consultant come in in 2016 and create what they called an IT map of applications and data strategy plan. We called it the Imap. They laid out the groundwork and the framework in which to build this whole thing. One of their areas was data governance. It just so happened that I was doing research and erwin's Data Governance tool came up in my research. I knew erwin's responsibility, so I put in a request. Around Christmas of 2016 it got approved. We didn't expect it because the year was out. That became the first thing we started with. From there, it just kept building with all the other modules. It just kept growing with us.

The advantage erwin had with us is that we were new at it. So even if there was something wrong, we wouldn't have known the difference. But I knew what was right in terms of what the data means to the company and how we run our business. For me, it just fit perfectly. It just kept falling into place. Each time we need to get more money for another license or a different module, I could integrate it pretty simply because it fit the narrative. Maybe that's the best way: the technology just simply fit, purely by accident. I'd love to tell you that I'm such a genius and that I planned this all out, but I didn't. It did help that erwin purchased some companies and ran right along with what we were trying to do.

Because of the erwin Data Governance software, and trying to figure out and follow their MO as far as key concepts, key terms, and attributes were concerned, we took 27 of the most important people in our organization from the president on down, and sat them in a room for three hours so they could define the term "member." Who was a "patient," a "member," or a "consultant," meant a lot. It changed the direction of the company. They didn't even know what data governance was three years ago. Now everybody talks about it.

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KK
Senior Director at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

The initial setup was straightforward. We only had to work with the Erwin team to get some of the Smart Data Connectors configured properly.

Its deployment was within three months. Installing, configuring, and getting it up to speed wasn't that much of a pain. Getting business users to use the tool and making sure that they are leveraging it for their day-to-day tasks is what takes more time. It is more of a change management exercise.

In terms of the implementation strategy, we worked with Erwin's team. In fact, I hired their professional services as well because I wanted to make sure we get up to speed pretty quickly. The installation, configuration, and some of the cleaning were done with Erwin's professional services team. After my team was up to speed, we retained some of the key data stewards. We included them as part of the planning, and they are now kind of driving the adoption and use of the tool across the company.

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TZ
Analyst at Roche

We have Data Intelligence deployed on-prem in our production environment, but we also have an environment for testing different versions of erwin. We are a validated project. Although Data Intelligence is deployed in a production environment, it's hard to mess things up because we are testing it at the end of the day, then rolling everything up. 

We have one person responsible for maintenance and implementation on the server side. They're also responsible for rolling out new features. We can implement this as JavaScript code. erwin gives us the option of creating scripts. To use Data Intelligence effectively, we need someone who knows JavaScript so that we can augment it. 

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Buyer's Guide
erwin Data Intelligence by Quest
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about erwin Data Intelligence by Quest. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
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Roy Pollack - PeerSpot reviewer
Advisor Application Architect at CPS Energy

Setting up Data Intelligence is complex. It required a few calls with support to figure out how to confiugre multiple components.

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KW
Senior Solution Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

I wasn't involved with the deployment. Data Intelligence doesn't require much maintenance aside from periodic upgrades and adjustments to the server where it is deployed. One person is enough to handle it. 

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TH
Architecture Sr. Manager, Data Design & Metadata Mgmt at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

We found the initial setup to be very straightforward. The user manuals are very clear for the users who are doing the work. And whenever there was a need for assistance with the implementation of the back-end database or the software, erwin was just a phone call away and has always been available to answer any questions or assist as needed. They're just fantastic partners.

It took us about a day when it was first set up, and it is just a matter of a couple hours, now, as we do upgrades to the software.

In terms of our implementation strategy, we have segregation of duties within our company. We have one team that is responsible for delivery, a separate team that is responsible for production support, another team that is responsible for the creation of the database behind the tool, and another team that is responsible for the installation of the software. It's the coordination of the different people who are supporting the tool that takes the most effort.

There are eight people maintaining the solution, because of the segregation of duties. We have a primary and a backup, within each of the four teams, who are doing the delivery or support.

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EH
Project Coordinator at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

I was a technical and business user. The team I worked on stood the erwin Data Intelligence suite up within the MAG (Microsoft Azure for Government) environment. We put it through the penetration test and hooked it up to the LDAP with all the security requirements.

Standing up a metadata governance platform is always going to be complex. It was complex for us because it was being used for the government and we had a lot of penetration tests and high-level cybersecurity requirements. That made it complex.

And maintaining the system is what our team did. Our contract included getting it stood up, integrated, configured, and then ensuring it kept running. It was only available from eight in the morning until seven at night, but that was our job. We bought erwin off the shelf. We weren't working with them on customized features.

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AS
Architect at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

It was through AWS. The package was very easy to install. 

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JC
Works at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees

The initial deployment was straightforward and took us a couple of weeks. 

This solution requires minimal maintenance. You have to put a little time into the upgrades, but in between upgrades, there is not too much maintenance.

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MT
Business Intelligence BA at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

We have set up this product multiple times. The first setup was very challenging, but that was before erwin inherited or bought this product from the original developer. When erwin took over, there were lots of improvements made. As it is now, the initial setup is not complex and is no longer an issue. However, when we first started in 2013, it was a different story.

When we first deployed, close to 10 years ago, we were new to the product and we had a lot of challenges. It is now fairly easy to do and moreover, erwin has good support if we run into any trouble. I don't recall exactly how long it took to initially deploy, but I would estimate a full day. Nowadays, given our experience and what we know, it would take less than half a day. Perhaps one or two hours would be sufficient.

The actual deployment of the tool itself has no value because it's not a transactional system. With a transactional system, for example, I can do things like point of sale. In the case of this product, BAs create the mappings. That said, once it's deployed, the BAs can begin working to create mappings. Immediately, we can perform data cataloging, and given the correct connections, for example to Oracle, we can begin to use the tool right away. In that sense, there is a good time-to-value and it requires minimal support to get everything running.

We have an enterprise version, so if a new department wants to use it then we don't need to install it again. It is deployed on a single system and we give access to other departments, as required. As far as installing the software on a new machine, we have a rough plan that we follow but it is not a formal one that is written down or optimized for efficiency.

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SA
Sr. Manager, Data Governance at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees

The initial setup seemed to be very straightforward. I don't do the installations, but the DBAs seem to find it pretty easy. They got the installation instructions from the erwin team, followed them, and the next day, it was up and running.

We're just following the same implementation strategy that we're doing with erwin DM. We didn't set up the lower tiers because I didn't see that we need lower tiers except for upgrades. We just do lower tiers when we do an upgrade and push to production, then we just drop the lower tier. Other than having to train people on how to use it, implementation has been pretty easy.

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EL
Delivery Director at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The initial setup is straightforward. Before deployment, we engaged in discussions with the data owner and the DBA team. Subsequently, we communicated with the business users, who constitute the general consumer base. We assisted them in defining the business terms through a workshop. 

The deployment took six months and required five people to complete.

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Ahmad AlRjoub - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Management Consultant at CompTechCo

The deployment is straightforward, and we deployed erwin with a three-person in-house team. It took us about six hours to complete the configuration because it takes time to connect the data sources, which must be configured separately. You need to define the data source, identify the server where each database is located, enter the server ID, input the connection string, etc. 

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MJ
Solution Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

The initial setup was not so simple, but it wasn't hard. If it would be between a one and five, with one being easy and five being hard, I would put it at a two. 

It was a new tool with new features. It had to be installed on-premise. Therefore, we struggled a bit with it. We were using it for quite a complex task, so we needed it to go through areas that would be potentially supported with the tool. The work associated with this initial setup to define that was not so easy, just to go through everything. 

Some companies have an initial packet that they show you everything in a very structured way. When we were implementing this, we really needed to discover what we needed rather than be given the documentation showing that this is here, this can contribute to your use case, and so on. We needed a lot of effort from our side. In comparison, I'm leading some other PoCs right now with other vendors in different areas. Those vendors contribute highly to me being capable to assess their tools, install and use them. 

The deployment took two days and was nothing special. It was just a simple Java application with a back-end database.

Migrating my team to use this tool properly, do some training, putting some capabilities so does people have some reason to use the tool, that took us around three months. Because we are using this for automation, the automation is an ongoing process lasting continuously for these two and a half years because we are adopting and changing to the new requirements. So, it's like continuous improvement and continuous delivery here.

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MN
Practice Director - Digital & Analytics Practice at HCL Technologies

It's really straightforward. There are user-friendly tools so that a business user can very quickly access the tools. It's easy to create terminologies and give definitions. Even for an IT person, you don't need to be an architect to really understand how data catalogs work or how mapping can be created between data elements. They are all UI-driven so it's very easy to deploy or to create an overall data ecosystem.

The time it takes to deploy depends. Product deployment may not take a lot of time, between a couple of days and a week. I have not done it for an enterprise, but I'm assuming that it wouldn't be too much of a task to deploy erwin in an organization.

The important aspect is to bring in the data literacy and increase use throughout the organization to start seeing the benefit. People may not move from their comfort zone so easily. That would be the part that can take time. And that is where a partner like us, one that can bring change management into the organization and hand-hold the organization to start using this, can help them understand the benefits. It is not that the CEO or CTO of the organization must understand the benefits and decide to go for it, but all the people—senior management, mid-management, and below—should buy into the idea. They only buy into the idea if they see the benefit from it, and for that, they need to start using the product. That is what takes time.

Our deployment plan is similar across organizations, but building the catalog and building the glossaries would depend on the organization. Some organizations have a very strong top-down push and the strategy can be applied in a top-down approach. But in some cases, we may still need to get the buy-in. In those cases we would have to start small, with a bottom-up approach, and slowly encourage people to use it and scale it to the enterprise. From a tool-implementation standpoint, it might be all the same, but scaling the tool across the organization may need different strategies.

In our organization, there are 400 to 500 people, specifically on the data management side, who work for multiple clients of ours. They are developers, leads, and architects, at different levels. The developers and the leads look at the deployment and actual business glossary and data catalog creation using the tool for metadata harvesting, forward engineering, and reverse engineering. The architects generally connect with the business and IT stakeholders to help them understand how to go about things. They create business glossaries and business processes on paper and those are used as the design for the data leads who then use the tool to create them.

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BM
Data Program Manager at a non-tech company with 201-500 employees

The initial setup was very straightforward. However, if we are talking about the opening of the service and setting up our metadata model, it was not straightforward at all.  

The initial deployment took less than two weeks.

Our implementation strategy is small in scope because we are still in the experimentation phase. We just provide a few users with access for people involved in the implementation. We just let them play with it. Now, we are just adding new use cases to the model.

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Buyer's Guide
erwin Data Intelligence by Quest
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about erwin Data Intelligence by Quest. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.