A critical piece in managing your business data is the so-called “golden record.” That would be, according to TechTarget, “a single, well-defined version of all the data entities” in your business ecosystem.
Another name for the golden record is “single source of truth.” That source is where everyone in your organization can go to get a consistent answer or set of facts to run the business.
Shakespeare said it best in the Merchant of Venice: “All that glisters (glitters) is not gold.” So all that data you collect from everywhere, all the time, has to be purified, synched, and molded into a single controlling record for each of your business categories—in other words, mastered.
In this post, we will describe how data mastering:
In support of the preceding, key points in this post will:
The purpose of master data management is contained in its definition. MDM is a technology-enabled discipline where the business and its IT resources work together to ensure:
To enable that technology, master data management:
There are many facets of MDM, which is why many businesses struggle to implement a strategy successfully. The system has to be flexible to start small and expand as you have more resources, money, etc. Generally, implementing MDM is an iterative process that systematically infuses more and more trust in the master data. It is essential to review and measure your MDM strategy as your business evolves, so it is also a never-ending process.
With master data management, the master data is typically collected and updated at an organizational level. This eliminates the need for individual departments to collect & maintain that data.
MDM also streamlines the addition of new systems that contain master data. For example, if you purchase a company that maintains similar master data, you can more easily integrate that data into the existing applications, reporting, and analytical systems.
Where individual departments maintain their data silos, MDM resolves duplication of data. The outcome is consistent results in terms of reporting and cross-functional processes.
Company-wide decision processes depend on consistent and up-to-date data. MDM helps executives, senior management, and other employees make informed and fact-based decisions.
What does it cost your company when it makes a wrong business decision? Unfortunately, business graveyards are littered with examples of bad business decisions that cost billions or ended in bankruptcy or dissolution. Bad data costs U.S. companies an estimated $3.1 trillion per year, according to IBM. The costs of faulty data are many: inaccurate insights, wasteful investments, lost productivity, and ineffective marketing campaigns.
Mastering data reduces setup and preparation when implementing new applications and systems. MDM eliminates the manual process of validating master data for each new application by connecting to the master data directly. This means the information is uniform and streamlines the process of adding additional systems/applications.
Data compliance and governance are vital aspects of successful MDM. MDM is part of the complex solution to data compliance and governance. It does that by working in sync with the data governance policy the business has put into place by managing the data's integrity, security, and consistency.
One use case for MDM would be when a business stores customer information in multiple systems. For example, customer records may have different attribute values like names/phones/addresses/titles.
The rules that define automation are set up in advance and, as previously mentioned, used only once by all the organization’s applications and systems. The first step would be to apply business rules to match and merge customer data to a single ID per customer.
MDM is a way to automate the matching and merging of data. Trying to do all that manually would be daunting, if not impossible.
MDM is achieved with a set of tools that will:
Tools available can handle all aspects of MDM or offer more of an a la carte option. To choose the right tool for your business, you should work with a partner who understands your business's particular needs and how you use your data to provide best-practice insights into data management.
There are different tools, such as on-premise MDM, MDM in the cloud, and MDM as a service. Each of these master data management tools has different implications for licensing, how data moves into the system and other factors that need to be evaluated to choose the right one for your business. The compatibility of the MDM toolset with your existing infrastructure will be a consideration when selecting the best MDM tool.
Do you want more information on how to integrate your data? Take the first step by downloading the eBook, "The Executive's Guide to Building a Data Strategy That Leads to Business Growth & Innovation."