Master data management (MDM) has become a priority for large organizations across industries. Whether it’s navigating complex multi-tier supply chains in manufacturing and retail, consolidation in financial services, ever-changing product and service bundles in telecom, better risk and portfolio management in energy, or unified and differentiated customer service across the board, organizations are faced with new challenges that demand a new way of accessing and responding to information.

Master Data Management (MDM) focuses on managing corporate data that is distributed to and referenced by various and disparate systems as well as through data access methods. Many companies are subscribing to a more holistic approach for ensuring that this data is cleansed to a consistent standard and made available to operational and post-operational applications. This requires proactively managing the master data through a comprehensive program to ensure a single version of master data is shared by the application suite through a well- orchestrated synchronization or subscription plan.

Some modern business requirements increasing the focus on master data include vendor management, supplier self-service, promotion management, customer management, churn management and regulatory compliance. Many projects require master data. In fact, the bulk of many projects is mastering master data. The impact on development timelines can be dramatically reduced if this important aspect of these projects can become an organizational service. Master Data Management (MDM) and Customer Data Integration (CDI) – the form of MDM associated with the Customer dimension - facilitate the orchestration of master data through the application suites.

MDM enables organizations to ensure that enterprise master data (assets, people, locations) across multiple systems and departments is accurate and consistent and share that information securely with trading partners. It ensures that the necessary processes, policies, and procedures are put in place so that the benefits gained are not lost as new data is introduced or existing information is updated. Finally, it allows organizations to manage the complex hierarchies and relationships within their data such as the relationships between two products, a client and an account, a customer and a vendor, a part and a product, and so on.

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