A set of practices and tools used to maintain a consistent set of trusted records with standard attributes and terms for key business entities, such as customer, product, and locations.
Added Perspectives
MDM arose in the 1990s as a set of practices and tools to create a commonly trusted, consistent, accurate and controlled “master” data set. A master data framework defines permissible values to describe business activities related to products, customers, employees, etc. With master data, enterprises have an authoritative point of reference for the data that drives decisions.
It’s about time that master data management (MDM) enjoyed a ‘new age’. The creation and use of master data for business purposes has always been a very good idea. The goal has been to make sense of all data that touches the organization: clean it up, add context, enrich it, and put it to work strategically as well as operationally.
Master data is very much a valuable business asset that has a growing role in many areas that should matter to organizations: strong brand presence, multichannel customer interactions, right-fit content and information, and highly variable buying journeys. To more deftly keep pace with business needs, master data management has been evolving to better mirror how businesses use data for numerous purposes. In this sense, MDM plays a significant part in the evolution of modern data integration. The recognition of the now more overt relationship between business and data management is a defining aspect of modern data integration and MDM alike. While it is tempting for organizations to think of MDM as a technical or IT function, MDM is far more about business objectives and the problems to be solved to achieve them.