A Definition of Master Data Management (MDM)
Master data management (MDM) is an approach to reducing data redundancy by maintaining a definitive "record of truth," or Master Data, for critical data in order to supply a single source as a reference. Ideally, MDM organizes data sharing among multiple applications or departments.
...
With small organizations, there usually isn't an issue keeping it can be straight-forward to keep just a few systems up to date. The process of keeping data up to date between disparate systems is called Data Integration (DI). As organizations bring more and As an organization brings more systems online, their business data typically often gets increasingly duplicated and the problem of keeping all of the systems up to date becomes problematic. The process of keeping data up to date between disparate systems is called Data Integration (DI).
For example, imagine a delivery service that stores information about its customers in several systems:
...
If all systems need to be updated, then each system needs to know how to transform the data to be consumed by each of the other systems. This requires programming many transformations. In an extreme case, the example above could take five transformations for each of the six systems, totaling requiring 30 transformation modules or adaptors.
Note: An adaptor is software located within a system that connects to, and shares data through, the YOUnite Data Hub. The adaptor focuses on Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) functions, ensuring any system "outbound data" meets defined format requirements and then before it gets transformed into an "inbound data" format that another system requires.
...
The easiest and most common change handling is via batch updates. However, latency between batch updates may cause business process issues.
- How is DI handled?
The onus of transferring Transferring data between systems can become be a daunting task. While some Some applications have built-in adaptors to handle transformations, but these generally handle only a subset of the required data. Where the built-in adaptors fall short or don't exist, the an organization may end up spending spend resources developing "one-off" adaptors to meet the an ongoing transformation need.
- How does the an organization manage access to the data?
...
| Anchor | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
...
MDM solves the problem of keeping interrelated systems up to date by creating a separate system where data domains (or domains) are defined for all systems inside the organization. The domains provide neutral data formats or schemas for all systems, facilitating data sharing. The latest ( most recent ) version of a given record is called the Data Record.
...
- Be stored in the MDM data store or,
- Remain in the organization's systems and, through adaptors, shares share data with other systems via the YOUnite Data Hub. This is called federated MDM. With federated MDM, YOUnite's data store does not store the data.
...
In the federated model, data records can be stored in the YOUnite data store or in one or more systems connected to YOUnite. Many systems may hold similar data but generally the organization as a whole decides which system(s) hold the the data records. Note that with YOUnite's federated model, different groups inside of an organization can designate which system holds the master data.
YOUnite's governance model can manage who can access the data. In the federated example, governance can be set so that:
| For the Warehouse Management |
|---|
...
| System... | For the Accounting System... |
|---|---|
| data access is restricted to data stored in the Distribution and CRM systems |
...
| data access is allowed to all the other systems |
...
| data record lookups return only information that is appropriate for the division's needs | data record lookups return information from all systems, which may include Credit Card proessing, for example |
Implementing MDM involves aprocess of determining where the data records are stored (mdm data store or federatedwhether it's the MDM Data Store or Federated MDM) and managing who (a person or a system) has read, write, update, and delete privileges to those systems.
...
Data records are the latest, most recent version of a record. They are stored in many systems connected to YOUnite, including the YOUnite data storeData Store. Master data is a process performed by the an organization's data governance to establish which of these systems will be considered to contain the "record of truth" for a given data domain. It's not always necessary or appropriate for systems to access the organization's master data, as many data access requests are for data records that may or may not contain master data. However, one feature of YOUnite is the ability to propagate changes from a system that contains data records to others in the YOUnite eco-system on a permission-appropriate basis (i.e. governance).
...