MASTER DATA MANAGEMENT

Master data management (MDM) is the effort made by an organisation to create one single master reference source for all critical business data, leading to fewer errors and less redundancy in business processes. 

 

MDM solutions comprise a broad range of data cleansing, transformation, and integration practices. As data sources are added to the system, MDM initiates processes to identify, collect, transform, and repair data. Once the data meets the quality thresholds, schemas and taxonomies are created to help maintain a high-quality master reference. Councils using MDM enjoy peace of mind that data throughout the enterprise is accurate, up-to-date, and consistent.

 

By providing one point of reference for critical information, MDM eliminates costly redundancies that occur when Councils rely upon multiple, conflicting sources of information. For example, MDM can make sure that when customer contact information changes, the Council will not attempt to contact citizens using both the old and new information. Having multiple sources of information is a widespread problem, especially in large organisations, and the associated costs can be very high. 

 

MDM should be of particular interest to all authorities especially highly data distributed organisations, and those that have merger activity. Merging two or more authorities creates wide-reaching data integration challenges that MDM is designed to mitigate. Thus, MDM can accelerate the time-to-value from a merger.