Semarchy is a leader in the data integration and master data management markets that enables organizations to rapidly generate business value from their data. And its unified platform enables organizations of any size to quickly discover, govern, manage, integrate, and report critical information scattered across applications. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Semarchy chief growth officer Brett Hansen to learn more about the company.
Brett Hansen’s Background
Before joining Semarchy, Hansen was the CMO at Logi Analytics, which insightsoftware acquired in 2021. And Hansen said:
“I had previously spent 11 years at Dell as an executive leading software production and go-to-market strategy for their Dell Client Group. And, prior to that, I served in various marketing and channel leadership positions with IBM. Long story short, I have several years of experience in marketing leadership roles working for data-savvy organizations.”
“As Semarchy’s chief growth officer (CGO), I’m responsible for go-to-market operations, including marketing, business development, alliances and partnerships. I guide marketing strategy from its conceptualization stage to execution and then back again as we measure our success.”
“Maybe unsurprisingly, the job varies significantly on a daily basis. Many days, I spend several hours discussing product features and improvements with our clients; on other days, I’m head down updating our product marketing roadmap.”
Favorite Memory
What has been Hansen’s favorite memory working for the company so far? Hansen reflected:
“I always enjoy attending our annual customer events because I get to immerse myself in our clients’ worlds. The diversity of organizations and projects on display makes these events truly special. Attendees range from the world’s largest organizations to mid-market companies with unique needs in nearly every industry. Yet, despite their diversity, attendees share a significant commonality: master data management (MDM) solutions have played a massive role in their data transformation. I love participating in open dialogue as clients discuss the challenges they’ve faced and how Semarchy has helped address them.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Hansen explained:
“Semarchy is a leader in MDM and data integration. The platform enables organizations to rapidly generate business value from their data by quickly discovering, governing, managing, enriching, integrating and reporting critical information scattered across applications. Semarchy empowers organizations to:
1.) Discover — Onboard, understand and document existing data sources through extensive data profiling, preparation and lineage information.
2.) Govern — Establish enterprise data policies, glossaries and governance workflows, then stick to those workflows far more seamlessly.
3.) Enrich — Automate data quality with native plugins and AI/machine learning (ML) integrations.
4.) Manage — Collaboratively access, manage, organize, validate and publish data, eliminating silos.
5.) Integrate — Move data across systems easily while reducing integration costs.
6.) Report — Enable 100% trusted insights for analytical and operational reporting.
Challenges Faced
After asking Hansen about challenges faced and whether the economy has affected the company, he acknowledged:
“Macroeconomic conditions have delayed project adoption for many organizations. The challenge here is that MDM isn’t a widely understood discipline for non-data professionals. Executives feel the impact of low-quality data on a daily basis, yet they don’t readily understand the importance of generating sanitized, high-quality master data.”
“But we’ve adopted a business-first mentality to MDM projects. Semarchy allows clients to rapidly scale a data solution that fits their specific business requirements. Furthermore, we’re working with data leaders to educate other executives — this information campaign includes educating organizations on the importance of MDM, ROI calculators and customized demos that showcase business impact.”
Evolution Of Semarchy’s Technology
How has Semarchy’s technology evolved since launching? Hansen noted:
“Absolutely, and these changes reflect our customers’ evolving needs. I’ll focus on three primary areas.
1.) Expansion of capabilities beyond MDM — Organizations need a holistic, integrated strategy to capitalize on their data. In 2021, Semarchy expanded to provide data integration capabilities; in early 2024, we will expand to provide data intelligence. Unlike most platform vendors, Semarchy will deliver a true platform with a common architecture, UX and UI. As part of this expansion, we will extend our deployment methods to include vendor-delivered SaaS.
2.) Development of workflows that streamline tasks — Workflow engines will extend Semarchy’s value by automating processes in support of specific business processes.
3.) Targeted investment in augmented capabilities — We acknowledge that the allure of AI is compelling. Semarchy has provided customers with AI access while also adopting a pragmatic approach to building in-product capabilities. Master data is intended to be the source of ultimate truth, so accuracy is critical.
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Hansen cited:
“In 2020, Semachy was acquired by Boston-based PSG Capital. The acquisition provided an infusion of capital to expand product and GTM activities. Next, Semarchy moved its headquarters from Lyon, France, to Phoenix, Arizona, to better align with our increased focus on the fast-growing North American MDM market. In 2021, we expanded into the Asia Pacific market, fielding a Regional Director and opening an office in Gurgaon, India. ”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Hansen about the company’s success stories, he highlighted:
“Several of our clients have participated in compelling case studies:
Chipotle Mexican Grill approached the Semarchy team seeking an improved data organization and utilization strategy. Chipotle needed to understand the highly distinct tax, regulatory and management requirements for its 2,500+ restaurants. After mastering data related to its massive global footprint, Chipotle used Semarchy’s unified data platform to better track its global products and menus. Since implementation, Chipotle has eliminated operational data redundancy costs, increased brand awareness through customer loyalty programs, reduced regulatory compliance risks and built the foundation to support exponential international growth.
The National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) services millions of students and alumni each year, and its services help institutions meet their growing compliance, administrative, student access, accountability, and analytical needs. Before working with Semarchy, NSC maintained a vast database of learner information — including sensitive records — in an aging legacy system. Semarchy’s unified data platform allowed NSC to update these records without disrupting daily operations or customer service, all at the beginning of the pandemic. Since implementation, NSC has reduced thousands of comparison notes in the legacy system; improved customer service with a 99.99% uptime commitment; and reduced financial, credit and legal risks while proactively managing privacy, fraud detection and data encryption within a single platform.
Several other success stories are available on our website, with representative clients from several verticals, including financial services, services, manufacturing, healthcare and retail. I’d like to thank all our participating customers for sharing their experiences with Semarchy.”
Revenue
After asking Hansen about the company’s revenue milestones, he revealed:
“Semarchy continues to significantly outpace the market. We increased our H1 2023 sales by 40% compared to H1 2022, acquiring 28 new customers in the financial services, manufacturing and retail industries. Semarchy specifically achieved 75% growth in the Americas and Asia Pacific (APAC) regions and expanded our relationship with 21 legacy customers.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Hansen assessed:
“The data market is large and dynamic. With our expanded portfolio, Semarchy is pursuing a global market opportunity of nearly $18 billion in 2023. ”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Hansen affirmed:
“There are several MDMs on the market. However, Semarchy’s platform offers superior time-to-value, and our team has an unparalleled dedication to customer success.”
“Semarchy customers deploy an MDM solution within a quarter, and 63% leverage multiple use cases, representing the platform’s seamless scalability. Our ROI is also industry-leading. On average, Semarchy provides an 80% reduction in development time and a 60% reduction in maintenance costs for clients.”
“Furthermore, Semarchy is the only MDM provider to be a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant and a customer choice in the Gartner Voice of Customers, with 100% of customers recommending our solutions in the last 12 months.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Hansen concluded:
“Semarchy’s focus will remain on enabling our customers to master their data to achieve greater business outcomes. In challenging market conditions, we will increase our efforts to support data professionals through their entire process — from scoping and securing resources to design and, ultimately, successful implementation and expansion.”
“We understand that customers are seeking to de-risk their data journey through the utilization of data platforms that extend across various data functions. In 2024, Semarchy will be expanding our capabilities through a single, unified platform to meet our customers’ expanded requirements.”
