Blazent

Blazent was an IT service and data management company founded in 2004 by Michael Ludwig, Dan Hasmonek, and Dennis Drogseth. The company emerged from the founders' extensive experience in enterprise management, recognizing a critical need for data quality within large IT organizations. Michael Ludwig, who served as CTO, brought a deep background in enterprise management software, having previously worked at companies like Concord Communications and Cabletron Systems. This foundation in network and systems management directly informed Blazent's approach to solving data integrity problems.

The company's core offering was its Data Intelligence Platform, designed to automate the process of data verification, correction, and enhancement for IT service management (ITSM) and other IT systems. Blazent's proprietary 5-Step Data Evolution Process provided a systematic method for ensuring that the data used for critical IT and business decisions was accurate and reliable. This was particularly crucial for large enterprises managing complex IT estates and significant outsourcing contracts. The platform operated by integrating with various data sources within an organization, identifying inconsistencies and inaccuracies, and applying rules to cleanse and enrich the data, thereby improving the quality of the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). Its business model centered on providing this platform as a service to large enterprises and managed service providers, helping them gain trustworthy insights from their IT data.

Blazent targeted large, complex organizations as its primary clientele, including prominent names such as Zurich, Lennox, Motorola, Intuit, Visa, Pacific Life, and IBM. It also played a significant role in managing substantial global outsourcing contracts with partners like CSC and ISG, underscoring its relevance in high-stakes IT operations. In 2016, after over a decade of operation, Blazent was acquired by Upland Software, an Austin-based provider of cloud-based enterprise work management software. The acquisition integrated Blazent's IT data quality capabilities into Upland's broader suite of project and IT financial management solutions, continuing the legacy of addressing data intelligence challenges for large-scale enterprises under a new corporate umbrella.

Keywords: IT data intelligence, data quality management, IT service management, ITSM, data verification, enterprise software, configuration management database, CMDB, data governance, Upland Software