by Angela Guess
Philip Russom recently shared his insights on the next generation of master data management. Russom begins, “I’m currently researching a TDWI Best Practices Report that will redefine master data management (MDM) by describing what its next generation should look like. As part of the research, I’ve been interviewing users on the phone about their MDM programs. The news so far is a mix of good and bad. I hate saying it, but half of the organizations I’ve talked with are mired in early lifecycle stages of their MDM programs, unable to get over certain humps and mature into the next generation. On the flip side, the other half is well into the next generation; so I know it can be done.”
He continues, “Allow me to list desirable capabilities of MDM’s next generation, and briefly say why these need to replace similar early phase capabilities. The following list (with a great deal more detail) will probably appear in my Next Generation MDM report that TDWI will publish April 2, 2012. After all, the list defines MDM’s next generation. And my goal is to establish a set of rules (or requirements) that can guide users into the next generation.”
The first item on the list is multi domain MDM: “Many MDM solutions address only the customer data domain, and they need to move on to other domains, like products, financials, and locations. Single-data-domain MDM is a barrier to having common, consensus-based entity definitions and standard reference data that would allow you to correlate information across multiple domains. (See my blog The State of Multi-Data-Domain MDM.)”
photo credit: LeonMMelissa
