Master Data Management, MDM
MDM (Master Data Management) is a set of processes and tools used for the implementation of continuous management of enterprise basic data (including reference data).
Often, the term of management reference data is used as a synonym for the term of master data management. However, in fact, it more closely matches the term of reference data management. Reference data refers to those that rarely change (classifiers, reference books, etc.).
Master data of the company contains the most important information (about customers, products, services, personnel, warehouses, vehicles, etc.). It is relatively rarely changed and is not transactional.
Transactional data reflects actions performed on master data objects (for example, about selling goods B to customer A from warehouse C). It changes very often.
The most important feature of basic data is that the company accumulates knowledge about its activities exactly there. However, it is updated by different units at different times. Changes are made by different people, and often in different information systems. As a result, each system stores only some information about the same entity. In each system, it is assigned its own identifier. Because of this, errors accumulate in master data, and a lot of duplicate entries appear.
The purpose of creating master data management systems is to improve their quality by working with personnel in one specialized system and using uniform methodological and regulatory documents. An important task of MDM systems is to ensure the unity of classification, coding, and naming of homogeneous objects (material and technical resources, contractors, services, etc.) in all information systems of the enterprise. Such unity removes many problems arising due to inconsistencies and incompatibility of data generated in different systems, reduces the complexity of corporate reporting, and eliminates duplication.
Product MDM, which is part of the IT-Enterprise system, allows you to combine, unify and synchronize all the basic data stored in different information systems and create a unified digital environment in the enterprise.