Case Study: Building a Collibra data marketplace for a global life sciences company

When the HR division of a global life sciences company set out to improve internal data access, they chose to build a Collibra-based data marketplace. The goal was to enable data producers to share their assets more broadly and securely, and make it easier for employees to find and request access to relevant data. With support from Murdio’s Experts for Hire service, the client established a process that could scale beyond HR. This case study outlines how Murdio’s close collaboration with the client helped shape a functional, future-proof marketplace for data discovery and access provisioning.

The challenge 

The client, a large, siloed organization already using Collibra – wanted to create a data marketplace for its HR function (called PX, short for People Experience). PX owned a significant amount of data and had many potential internal consumers. However, no standardized mechanism existed for exposing this data, and the process of gaining access was inconsistent and uncoordinated. Initially, the initiative was intended to serve PX only, but interest quickly spread to other departments, prompting the need for a more flexible and reusable solution.

The project was not commissioned directly by Collibra’s internal owner but came through an intermediary group, C&D, which was already collaborating with the client. This created a complex stakeholder landscape, with PX acting as the project sponsor, C&D managing execution, and the Collibra owner who had initially declined to build the data marketplace in-house, retaining strong influence over technical decisions.

The solution 

Murdio deployed a two-person team to the project: a Solution Architect and a Workflow Developer. Their task was to help design the data marketplace structure, build Collibra configurations, and deliver an access request process that could eventually integrate with downstream provisioning systems.

Key capabilities delivered together with the client’s team:

1. Business-aligned metamodel design: Murdio supported the client in creating a Collibra configuration for representing data products and their attributes. This included defining asset types, relationships, and attribute sets tailored to PX’s needs.
2. Access request workflow: A multi-step process was built to handle user requests for data access. It included:
   – A request form where users provide purpose, scope, and justification.
   – A configurable approval flow involving multiple stakeholders.
   – An integration-ready access provisioning step, allowing for automation in external systems.
3. Stakeholder collaboration and diagrams: The Solution Architect translated business requirements into diagrams that mapped out the data product metamodel and request process. These were iteratively reviewed with PX stakeholders and refined before development.
4. Workflow implementation: Based on the validated process design, the developer implemented the Request Access workflow directly in Collibra. This included backend logic and hooks for potential integrations with provisioning systems. Apart from Request Access we have also created Revoke Access and Resubmit processes. 

Outcomes 

The data marketplace solution has been fully developed and is ready for deployment to the production environment. While the release itself will be carried out by the client at a later stage, Murdio completed the delivery by providing comprehensive documentation, deployment guidance, and a full knowledge transfer.

Once released, the solution will allow employees to browse available data products through a user-friendly interface and request access via a structured, guided workflow, marking a significant step toward data democratization across the organization.

It is designed to bring transparency, consistency, and efficiency to data access. All data products will be described in a standardized way and made available through a unified experience, regardless of the original data owner.

Other departments have already expressed interest in adopting the same approach. By making relatively small changes, the Collibra data marketplace solution built for PX can also be used in other divisions.