Seven years ago: Adobe, Microsoft, and SAP announced the Open Data Initiative.
The three publishers vowed to develop common data formats to promote interoperability of their respective CRMs (Customer Experience Platform, Dynamics 365, and C/4HANA) around an Azure data lake.
From a Trio to a Duo
The Open Data Initiative (ODI) did not start from scratch. It built on Microsoft’s work to create a binding between its products through a Common Data Model (CDM). In other words, a set of schemas representing concepts (account, contact, lead, opportunity, product…) and tied to standardized metadata.
The web page Microsoft had dedicated to the Open Data Initiative no longer exists. The link now points to documentation on integration between its products and those of Adobe. At the bottom there is a link to a page related to the CDM… within the Power Platform.
Same story at Adobe. The original URL points to a page about the “partnership” with Microsoft. It touches on data unification, but not CDM or ODI.
SAP launched its own CDM
At SAP as well, the original page no longer exists. What remains is a trace dated March 2020. A few weeks before the German publisher launched HANA Data Lake (the cloud version of SAP IQ), then billed as an alternative to the data lakes of hyperscalers.
Until the end of 2020, SAP continued to mention – very sporadically – ODI in its public communications. For example to note its contribution to the CDM in order to manage composite keys. There are also a few threads in community forums, among other things to facilitate CDM exploration into Azure from the SAP ODP (Operational Data Provisioning) framework.
Since then, SAP has launched its own CDM. It published a version this year, but the project is not open to external contributions. It should be noted that it targets exclusively the SAP ecosystem, particularly for integrating solutions in Build Work Zone (a low-code tool for developing workspaces).
Contributions to the Open-Source Project Have Dwindled
Adobe, for a time, regularly highlighted the CDM integration in its products. It also touted ODI’s benefits for certain customers. For instance, Unilever, to consolidate back-end and front-end data for a campaign on recycled packaging.
In the fall of 2020, with the launch of C3 AI CRM (Dynamics 365 built on top of the C3.ai platform with Adobe Experience Platform as an option), we were still told that the service used the CDM.
On Microsoft’s GitHub, the last closed ticket in the public CDM repository dates to January 2025. The model is officially described as “being extended to operational and analytical data.”
