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The process of keeping data up to date between disparate systems is called "Data Integration" or DI.
But, as organizations bring more and more systems online, their business data gets duplicated and the problem of keeping all of the systems up to date becomes problematic.
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- CRM
- Accounting
- Distribution
- Customer Service
- Warehouse Management
- Sales
As information about the delivery service's their customers change, the difficulty of propagating the change keeping all the systems up to date becomes exponentially more difficult as more systems are brought onlinethe number of systems increases:
<insert spider-web looking diagram>
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Master data management (MDM) solves this problem by creating a separate system that defines neutral data formats for all systems inside the organization. YOUnite MDM can centrally save the latest change of a record or it can be merely notified make note of when a change occurs (federated). in one of the organization's systems without actually storing the data; this is called federated master data management.
So in the example of our delivery service, the latest changes of a customer's record can be retrieved; this the latest record is called a the Master Data Record. No longer is there a doubt if the user or application has the latest data.
Additionally, MDM provides better control over data access or governance over data integrationDI. MDM can manage who can see what so in the federated example, perhaps the Warehouse Management system only has access to data stored in the Distribution and CRM systems. but the Accounting System has access to all systems. When the Warehouse Division looks up the master data record for its customer the Acme Company it may get a different result than Accounting Division since the Accounting group Division has access or "scope" to the Acme Company's information on all systems.
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