All you need to know about Master Data Management
(MDM): what it is, the challenges and benefits,
and the best approach

In today's world, companies are collecting and using more data than ever before. Over the years, data has proven valuable, becoming the standard for informed decisions and strategic growth. Handling this essential information properly is crucial, especially with increasingly complex regulations around data usage. However, managing data is far from easy.

Data professionals encounter difficulties regarding master data, which refers to the (digital) information that facilitates reliable business operations. To effectively handle all data streams and gain control over this information, enterprises opt for Master Data Management (MDM).

Our specialists have compiled their knowledge of Master Data Management. This article covers what Master Data Management is, explains the most common challenges, outlines the benefits, and provides practical tips for successful implementation.

What is Master Data Management (MDM)?

According to research firm Gartner, MDM is: “a technology-enabled discipline in which business and IT work together to ensure the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship, semantic consistency, and accountability of the enterprise’s official shared master data assets.” In simple terms, MDM involves methods, processes, and technologies businesses use to maintain accurate and up-to-date data. This creates a 'single source of truth'.

MDM helps organizations become more efficient, make more accurate decisions, improve data quality, and comply with laws and regulations. It’s particularly useful when it comes to recognizing data and customers in all business processes, ensuring that a customer's identity is always accurate and reliable.

Why is Master Data Management essential for businesses?

To make well-informed decisions, it's crucial to have a reliable and firm foundation of data. While traditional data management usually focuses on particular types of data, MDM concentrates on all the essential data relevant to the functioning of an organization. This approach ensures better consistency and improved data quality.

Better consistency

Efficient data management is essential for any successful business. With MDM, companies can maintain centralized and uniform data, ensuring consistency and a clear overview of all business-related data flows.

Improved data quality

Having consistent, accurate, and updated data positively impacts the quality of business information. Improving data quality reduces errors and helps draw correct conclusions, contributing to the overall performance of an organization.

The most common MDM challenges

A Master Data Management (MDM) system offers solutions to a variety of common challenges, such as:

Challenge 1: Data storage dispersed across multiple locations

It's common for people to store their data in multiple sources and systems. This can lead to inconsistencies and make establishing a dependable version of business data difficult.

MDM solves this issue by managing all data in the same way and in the same location from a central repository.

Challenge 2: Integration with existing systems

Organizations deal with multiple sources and systems with different data structures and formats. This makes it challenging to ensure uniformity in their operations. Moreover, existing systems often have data quality issues that can worsen with a careless MDM implementation.

With MDM tools, organizations can integrate existing systems smoothly, minimizing the impact on their operational systems while preserving data coherence.

Challenge 3: Internal resistance

Assigning responsibilities for internal data with new methods and systems can be difficult because stakeholders often want to see results before embracing a new way of working.

MDM brings about changes while also promoting a structured approach. It may take some time for stakeholders to recognize and appreciate the benefits, but they will eventually see the positive impact it can have.

Challenge 4: misconceptions

Many organizations face difficulties starting MDM projects due to misconceptions about the project's scope, complexity, and costs.

It’s essential to address this challenge gradually by setting realistic goals and slowly expanding the project scope. By focusing on achievable steps, organizations can ensure a seamless integration of MDM.

The five benefits of Master Data Management

Master Data Management provides several advantages that are more significant than any challenges it may pose. There are five main benefits of Master Data Management, which are:

1. Unified and reliable data: having a unified and reliable version of business data is crucial for accurate analyses and reporting, as it reduces inconsistencies and errors.
2. High-quality business data: the importance of high-quality business data cannot be overstated. MDM standardizes, deduplicates, validates, and cleans data, resulting in accurate and reliable data for various purposes.
3. Complying with laws and risk management: organizations prioritize complying with laws and regulations and reducing risks. MDM carefully manages sensitive information to ensure strong compliance.
4. Improved operational processes: a well-functioning MDM process eliminates struggles with outdated data, making daily tasks easier and providing more time for other tasks.
5. Future-proofing: a flexible MDM process enables organizations to adapt to business needs, providing a solid foundation for growth and a sustainable data infrastructure.

Practical approach to Master Data Management

A successful MDM journey begins by selecting an MDM approach. Various approaches logically progress:

Style 1: Registry or Consolidation

These basic methods of data management are ideal for the initial phase. These styles consolidate data from various sources, match them, and create a golden record.

Data are delivered periodically in batches, such as monthly, making these styles less focused on real-time data. However, they provide quick insights into overlaps and data quality, allowing for improvements.

Style 2: Coexistence

Once the foundation of the MDM system is established and there is a need for continuous synchronization of source systems, the Coexistence style can be implemented. In this approach, source systems maintain their data and provide real-time information to the MDM system. Matching occurs, creating new golden records and updating existing ones.

The main benefit of this style is that every change in the golden record is reflected in the linked source systems. This simplifies the processing of changes from other sources.

Style 3: Centralized Data

Centralized Data is a style of Master Data Management where all master data is stored and managed in a central location. When using this method, all connected systems must use this data, and any changes are only applied to the master data, creating a Master-Slave relationship.

In a Master-Slave relationship, one source (the Master) takes the lead, and all other sources (the Slaves) must conform. This means that for Master Data Management, crucial data should be managed in one place, with all other systems and sources respecting and synchronizing this data.

Master Data Management in a nutshell

Managing business data is a challenge for many organizations. Master Data Management (MDM) combines methods, processes, and technologies that ensure consistent business data and a trustworthy 'single source of truth.' This leads to more efficient operations, accurate decision-making, and improved data quality.

MDM provides five key benefits: working from one reliable version of business data, ensuring higher data quality through standardization and validation, promoting compliance with laws and regulations, improving operational processes, and creating a future-proof data infrastructure. However, there are challenges such as scattered data storage, integration with existing systems, internal resistance, and misconceptions about MDM's usefulness, necessity, or complexity.

A structured approach with realistic goals and achievable steps can help overcome these challenges. MDM styles like Registry or Consolidation, Coexistence, and Centralized Data offer flexibility, with the choice depending on specific organizational needs. A well-planned MDM implementation can lead to immediate success.