2007 Wilshire Award for Metadata Best Practices

BMO FINANCIAL GROUP ANNOUNCED AS WINNER!

Winning Submission Available for Download Here

Co-Sponsored by TDAN.com

PRESS RELEASE
For interview requests, or other editorial inquiries, contact:
Tony Shaw, President, Wilshire Conferences, Inc.
310-477-4475 ext 102, tony(at)wilshireconferences.com

BMO FINANCIAL GROUP Honored with
2007 WILSHIRE AWARD for Metadata Best Practices

LOS ANGELES—January 18, 2007—Wilshire Conferences, Inc. and The Data Administration Newsletter (TDAN.com) have announced the winner of the 2007 Wilshire Award for Metadata Best Practices. From among a pool of exceptionally accomplished nominees, the panel of eight judges has chosen the BMO Financial Group (BMO) as this year’s recipient for its implementation of an outstanding, multi-faceted metadata initiative.

Candidates are evaluated on numerous best-practice criteria including (though not limited to) the following:

• Overall business impact/benefits
• Return on objective
• Measurable return on investment
• Scale of the solution
• Number and breadth of applications served by the solution
• Length of time the solution has been in place
• Innovative problem solving
• How well the submission addresses the questions asked above

As metadata solutions become more prevalent, each year the Wilshire Award becomes more competitive and raises the bar for the winner. Simply implementing a functioning metadata solution is no longer sufficient to be positioned as a frontrunner. An organization must be able to demonstrate success over at least a year, and provide measurable results. According to Karen Lopez of InfoAdvisors, a member of the panel of industry judges, “It was difficult choosing a winner, as all applicants had very successful metadata programs in place.”

Doug Stacey of Allstate, a judge and previous winner of the award, echoes this sentiment. “This year brought a great group of entries and a corresponding difficult decision to pick a winner.”

Ron Klein, BMO’s Metadata Lead, was thrilled with the news. “We are delighted to have been selected this year. We have been fortunate in growing a team that has superb business and technical skills, has been supported by savvy business experts and has been sponsored by a great executive leadership team. BMO’s strategy to support the Information Management Corporate Policy through solid Metadata Management is key for governance, compliance requirements, and major business initiatives since all increasingly depend upon the availability of quality information.”

Michael Nelson, VP Information Management of BMO Financial Group added his strong support and congratulations to his team. “This is just excellent news. Our investment in metadata will continue as it is an integral part of our overall strategy.”

So what was it that set BMO apart from its competitors? According to Stacey, BMO “...rose to the top with great executive support, a well thought out architecture, and a scope of implementation that was impressive.”

Robert Seiner, Chairman of the judging panel and President of co-sponsor TDAN.com, added that other factors helped BMO rise to the top of the nominated organization: “The judging among the top 3 finalists was very close on all criteria, but what ultimately swayed the judges to select BMO was the long-term commitment to their metadata program and the buy-in they’ve managed to achieve from throughout the organization. And, they were able to provide measurable evidence of their results.”

Wilshire Conferences, Inc. and The Data Administration Newsletter, LLC also congratulates 2007 award finalists Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and the U.S. Department of Interior. Their nominations were of a high quality and made the judging very competitive.

Nominees of the award undergo a comprehensive and rigorous 3-month submission and judging process. This begins with the submission of an application detailing the organization’s metadata program; and nominees must provide substantiated evidence of solution planning, objectives, measurement strategies, and outcomes. The evaluation includes two rounds of judging as well as an intensive, in-person, question and answer session with the submitting organization’s metadata leads.

About the Wilshire Award
The Wilshire Award is an annual award to a nominated organization which, in the opinion of the judges, best demonstrates business benefits and technical excellence in the implementation of metadata-based IT solutions. The award was inaugurated in 2002 and is given to corporate practitioners (not to vendor companies). The judges of the 2007 award were the following:

• Robert S. Seiner, KIK Consulting & TDAN.com (Panel Chairman)
• Peter Aiken, Data Blueprint & Virginia Commonwealth University
• Karen Lopez, InfoAdvisors & ITBoards.com
• David Loshin, Knowledge Integrity, Inc.
• Bonnie O’Neil, Project Performance Corporation
• Doug Stacey, Allstate Insurance (Past Winner)
• R. Todd Stephens, BellSouth (Past Winner)
• Brian Winters, Intel Corporation (Past Winner)

Other key contributors included:

• Tony Shaw, Wilshire Conferences, Inc.
• Davida Berger, DebTech International

   Questions may be directed to Tony Shaw of Wilshire Conferences at 310-477-4475 ext 102 or at    tony (at) wilshireconferences.com