REDWOOD CITY, Calif., May 15, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Informatica Corporation (Nasdaq:INFA), the leading independent provider of data integration software and services, today announced the availability of a new study by Forrester Research, Inc., an independent research company, on the financial impact of standardizing on a common data integration platform and leveraging an Integration Competency Center (ICC). According to the Informatica-commissioned study, a composite organization based on in-depth customer interviews conducted by Forrester conservatively realized more than $5.5 million in IT and business benefits over a five year period, with an 18-month breakeven point and a three-year, and 110% percent return-on-investment.

The study, entitled The Total Economic Impact(tm) of the Informatica Platform and Integration Competency Centers, is based on Forrester Research, Inc.'s Total Economic Impact (TEI) methodology, which measures costs and cost reduction while weighing the enabling value of technology in increasing the effectiveness of overall business performance in a tight economy and beyond.

"The financial analysis provided in this study illustrates the potential way an organization can evaluate the value proposition of the Informatica data integration platform," said Jon Erickson, Forrester Consulting. "Based on information collected in interviews with current Informatica customers, Forrester found that organizations can realize benefits in the form of improved operational efficiency, greater scalability and flexibility within data integration projects as well as improved data availability and visibility. In addition, forming and operating an Integration Competency Center further reduces the costs and risks of designing, deploying and supporting data integration projects across the enterprise."

Ensuring Operational Efficiencies

According to the study, organizations may experience substantial and tangible benefits, including operational efficiencies, from the deployment of a common data integration platform, represented by the Informatica platform, particularly in concert with establishing an ICC approach to data integration across the enterprise. Projected benefits, calculated for the study's composite organization, may include:

• Improved developer productivity - Estimated productivity increases ranged from 20 percent in Year 1 to a 50 percent improvement in Year 5, as a result of a single enterprise solution. Advantages include a shared services environment and centralized governance around data integration, reduced reliance on hand coding, and the ability to optimize developer resources across projects.
• Lower cost of delivery through increased reuse - The study projects a 40 percent reduction in cost by Year 5 due to reuse of data transformations and mappings across projects. Interviewed organizations with offshore outsourcing particularly benefited from the ability of third-parties to reuse existing data assets to lower costs and speed project delivery.
• Improved data availability across applications and projects - Centralized governance through a standardized platform provided project teams with more ready access to distributed data. The resulting lower costs can range from an estimated 20 percent savings in Year 1, increasing to 35 percent in Year 5.
• Reduced ongoing administration cost - Interviewed organizations benefited from the economies of scale created from the ability to consolidate administrative resources. As an organization centralizes these administrative functions, it can reduce the annual cost burden by 10% in the first year, increasing to 30% by Year 5.
• Reduced data errors and inaccuracies - Organizations can improve the quality of data integration development and transformation mappings, decrease overall development costs, and reduce support costs through leveraging the metadata management, data lineage and impact analysis capabilities of the Informatica platform. Data reconciliation costs can be reduced by 5 percent in Year 1, increasing to 35 percent by Year 5.
• Improved data visibility and accuracy for reporting - Interviewed organizations identified the ability of end users to gain greater visibility of data in less time through a centralized approach to data integration, supporting improved risk management, compliance and decision making. From customer interviews, platform standardization increases data visibility across projects, allowing faster audits and estimated cost improvements of 20 percent in Year 1, growing to 24 percent in Year 5.
• Faster time-to-market for new applications & capabilities - Time-to-market increases and associated costs savings are driven by the ability to leverage a more standardized platform. Compared to operating in a non-standardized environment, this can yield an annual estimated 20 percent savings.

"Forrester's sophisticated and inclusive TEI methodology helps quantify the immense economic value and rapid ROI that customers are deriving today from their Informatica and Integration Competency Center investments," said James Markarian, general manager, Data Integration, Informatica. "As the study states, effective enterprise data integration requires the right technology, people and processes. The Informatica Data Integration Platform is the unified, comprehensive data integration solution of choice in the market as evidenced by our thousands of customers and further validated by the Forrester TEI report."

About Forrester

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq:FORR) is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 19 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, consumer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 25 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.

About Informatica

Informatica Corporation (Nasdaq:INFA) is the leading independent provider of enterprise data integration software and services. With Informatica, organizations can gain greater business value by integrating all their information assets from across the enterprise. More than 3,600 companies worldwide rely on Informatica to reduce the cost and expedite the time to address data integration needs of varying complexity and scale. For more information, please visit www.informatica.com.

Note: Informatica is a registered trademark of Informatica Corporation in the United States and in jurisdictions throughout the world. All other company and product names may be trade names or trademarks of their respective owners.