Master Data Management – Benefits And Barriers

Many Enterprises dream about mastering master data and content assets to provide "a single version of the truth". The main point is to be able to identify product, customer, employee, location or similar assets and trust it to be consistent, complete and correct. Master Data Management (MDM) is the common name for these initiatives and a successful approach can yield e.g.:

• Increased business decisions and control
• Better consolidation and reuse
• Improved quality and compliance
• Speed up collaboration and processes
• Setting a foundation for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Some enterprises have started their journey towards MDM. The IT organization is frequently the one that first recognize the needs and defines the requirements. Unfortunately, this also means that the MDM approach is technology centric and habitually concern what MDM solutions to use, not what the solutions should be used for. The usual barriers to success are e.g.

• No directing data and content management strategy
• Absence of a guiding data and content architecture
• Data and content governance mechanisms are missing
• Limited home grown solutions or the use of immature MDM vendor solutions

It is important for the IT organization to understand and promote the awareness of MDM benefits and barriers. The IT people also need to team up and align with the business people and their strategies and improvements initiatives. The best approach for long-term success is to initiate an MDM program that gradually addresses the multifaceted challenges of MDM.