dataspot.

dataspot. is a privately-owned consultancy company and a service and technology provider headquartered in Vienna, Austria. Founded in 2016, the company currently has more than 25 employees (plus 15 freelancers) and operates mainly in the DACH region. dataspot. started out as a data governance consultancy before developing its own data cataloging software for metadata management. Today, it provides a data governance solution and metadata management software, data excellence consulting and education services.

dataspot.’s software is strongly aligned with its data governance framework known as the Data Excellence Framework^©. The framework helps to develop data governance in a step-by-step approach that takes all relevant strategic and organizational factors into account. The software can either be used independently or in combination with the framework. dataspot. software provides metadata-based cataloging and advanced data governance functionality, such as data quality, around a business data model. dataspot. strongly believes that data governance must be business-driven to be successful. By combining its software and framework, dataspot. wants customers to build a proper data strategy, data culture and literacy for successful data governance.
dataspot. focuses more on business users than on technical users. Nevertheless, technical data models have also been integrated and technical users are supported. The vendor’s customer base is still small with no emphasis on any particular industry sector.
The 100 percent open-source-based solution is delivered on-premises or as a service, and the container-based architecture can be operated in Microsoft Azure, AWS or Google. The centrally stored metadata can be searched, used and analyzed via a user-friendly web-based user interface. Users can navigate metadata with different modules depending on what they are looking to achieve. The functions provided in the modules are aligned with the Data Excellence Framework^© and should guide the user through the data governance process in a self-explanatory way. The modules include the business data model, reference data model, KPI dictionary, data usage catalog, data quality catalog, models and organizational models.
To cover specific data governance requirements, the software is fully customizable and metadata storage is open for any changes. Moreover, concepts are in place to serve multiple business data models in parallel and to link them together (e.g., separate views for local entities). dataspot. relies on an open metadata model and standard interfaces to enable integration with the surrounding ecosystem and metadata exchange.
For data consumers, dataspot. provides data modeling with a business glossary, full-text search functionality, visual end-to-end data lineage (business and technical) with impact reports and basic collaboration.
Major enhancements in the current version include parameterizable workflows, workflows for information demand management, additional functionality for data warehouse automation, support of connected multiple glossaries, and further enhancements. Interesting topics such as change data capture capabilities for advanced metadata integration, customizable front ends, XML support and multi-language support for metadata content are currently on the roadmap.

User & Use Cases

As expected, 90 percent of the customers surveyed use dataspot. as a data governance solution. Its usage for master data management has increased by 6 percentage points since last year to 73 percent, while usage for data quality management has slightly decreased to 63 percent. It is obvious that dataspot. is focused on data governance use cases and not on supporting analytics users directly (e.g., with self-service analytics).
The share of data warehousing/BI (now 63 percent) and data preparation (now 60 percent) use cases has significantly increased. Essentially, dataspot. is a purely metadata-based tool for cataloging, monitoring and data quality monitoring. However, it has also recently added data warehouse automation capabilities, which support the generation of data warehouse models based on the curated metadata within dataspot..
The software is used in companies of all sizes, but mainly in medium-sized organizations. It scales from small to large scenarios with more than 1,000 users and is also suitable for use in a single division or in company-wide data scenarios.

Tasks

Use cases

n=30

Extend of usage

Extend of usage in the company

n=29

Number of Users

Total number of users per company

n=29

Number of Developers

Total number of developers per company

n=30

Company size

Company size (number of employees)

n=30

Summary of dataspot. highlights

User ratings for dataspot. in this year’s survey are all above average with 15 top ranks and 2 leading positions in the Data Governance Products peer group. The product achieves nine maximum ratings of 10/10 in the Time to Market, Recommendation, Product Satisfaction, Support Quality, Platform Reliability, Development Efficiency, Usability, Product Enhancement and Functionality KPIs. dataspot. continues to pursue its strategy and has a clear focus on data governance. Many important enhancements have been implemented in the current version, including an extended range of data warehouse automation options, which seems to be valued by customers.

Customer Satisfaction