Taming the Raving Rabbids: The Ubisoft MDM JourneyGartner Master Data Management Summit, May 6, 2011
Les Fondy, Vice President Information Technology, Ubisoft
About UbisoftUnits sold life to date
Assassin’s Creed – 28M Tom Clancy Rainbow 6 – 23M Petz – 23M Tom Clancy Splinter Cell – 22M Prince of Persia – 17M Driver – 16M Just Dance – 12M Rayman Raving Rabbids – 10M The Settlers – 8M Brothers in Arms – 7M Far Cry – 7M Anno – 6M Shaun White Snowboarding – 4M Coach – 4M Red Steele – 2M Tom Clancy H.A.W.X – 2M Online & FB…
Since 1986 2nd largest in-house
development staff in the world 24 studios in 17 countries
Subsidiaries in 26 countries Distribution in 55 countries > 6,400 collaborators
worldwide > 5,350 dedicated to
production Sales FY 9-10 871M€ Ranked #3 Independent
publisher in Europe Ranked #3 Independent
publisher in the US
Part 1
MDM Vision & Objectives
An old cowboy said…“Y’all can lead horse to
water, but beforin you do. Remember what a wet
horse smells like.”
Because MDM sure ain’t easy!
Distributed Organization
Production Distribution Legal
2 zones: NCSA and EMEA for Ubisoft games and 3rd party products
Manages external IP and royalties
Key issues: Business teams in silos, multiple geographies, and
multiple languages Each function managed its own master data No single view and little formal governance
25 production studios worldwide
And, that’s not the way
we do it here.
Core Master Data Hierarchies
Project Product Contracts
Description of projects, owned by production
Unique ID Description (short
and long) Linked to budget Type Status
All Product dimensions based on complex data models for:
Franchise Brand Family SKU Link to Project
Contracts description with sales and legal attributes:
Type Licensor Legal Territories Link to Royalties Link to Product
What it was like
Data Volumes
Project Product Contracts
~ 20,000
Project: 5,646 Budget: 14,685
~ 35,000
Brands: 1,961 Installment: 4,098Product Dev: 13,808 IPC: 16,077
~ 2,500
Contracts: 1,285Amendments: 1,285
Organization / DataGovernance and Relationships
Production Distribution Legal
Project Product Contracts
Basic Business Objectives
Production Distribution Legal
Improve royalties reporting
Global
Establish communication and collaboration between functions Establish global governance for all business domains and all countriesShare common view/definition of core master dataEstablish and streamline Master Data integration with existing IT applications
Better project management
Improve game profitability
Improve sales reporting on all product dimension
Part 2
MDM Implementation
Centralized Hub
ERP NCSA
MDM
ERP EMEA
ERP Studios
DAMTime
reporting
Our Business Users required Proactive Data Governance capabilitiesto enable centralized authoring / sharing / collaboration / change management
MDM is the main point of entry for Projects / Products / Contracts
Master Data is synchronized with applications (some local updates are consolidated back to MDM)
…
Key Requirements for Business Users
#1 – “Make it simple.”
MDM is a way of work life for business users to create, view, update and approve master data
Used for complex authoring / hierarchy management Most users are self trained (too many users, territories) They appreciate the web-based architecture and interface Embedded workflow enables both stewardship and collaboration
Key Requirements for Business Users
#2 – “User friendly [No IT required.] Model-driven functionality”
MDM must make creation and collaboration of complex data models and rules
Enable and track the full product lifecycle Create complex attributes and hierarchies Invisible validation / quality rules
Key Requirements for Business Users
#3 – “Agile like implementation method”
MDM is a business process journey. Implementation is a consistently coordinated process of short cycle deliveries with the capabilty to turn on a dime.
Rapid prototyping results: What you model is the result. Efficient global workshops along with ease of use delivered quick-
wins Rapid end user adoption
Solution: EBX from Orchestra Networks
Standards-based Integration to Applications
One unified Web UI for: Data Modeling Validation / Quality rules Authoring Hierarchy Management Version control Role-based Security
EBX
Our Methodology
Part 3
MDM Benefits and ROI
Business EnhancementsOperational Capabilities, Efficiency & Time to Market
New attributes (HQ Category, Press and Retailer confidentiality…) Management of multiple items (Compilations, Bundles…) Management of accessories Management of consumer products Management of ratings Auto object creation saves time (Projects/Budgets/IPC)
Improved Reporting New Franchise level in the Product hierarchy EMEA, NCSA views plus Studio and Group vision Object linking provides significantly improved reporting ( Project – Product – Contract) History of Installment Names Easily enabled Business Objects universe creation
Business Enhancements
Finally able to implement Governance & Data Quality processes Updated workflow (creation/update/validation/notification) Enabled long needed data cleansing effort Role based security enabled multiple profiles to allow more participants to take part in the
Master Data creation and update The process created a new common nomenclature
Better IT integration One central application manages core data with timely updates to key applications
www.ubi.com
Merci beaucoup !Quelles questions
vous avez ?