Learn Master Data Management to Meet Business Goals Successfully
One of the most crucial aspects to an organisation is master data management. Master data refers to the critical information elements that are used to identify and describe the core entities of an organization, such as its customers, products, and employees. This data is typically shared across multiple business systems and is considered to be a single source of information for that organization.
Examples of Master Data
Examples of master data include customer names and addresses, product codes and descriptions, and employee ID numbers and job titles. The quality and accuracy of master data is important for ensuring the integrity and consistency of information throughout an organization.
A Guide to Master Data Management
Managing master data like any other management task requires a clear-cut strategy. Listed below is a guide to manage data in the most effective and efficient way possible:
- Identify the critical data elements that are important for your organization. These elements will form the basis of your data.
- Define clear and consistent rules for how the data should be captured, stored, and maintained. This refers to how names may be stored and numbers may be represented. That ensures records are not punched in incorrectly.
- Establish an authority structure for master data management. This should include roles and responsibilities for data standards, owners, data users.
- Implement data quality controls to ensure that the data is accurate and complete. This may include data validation, data cleansing, and data standardization.
- Establish a process for managing data changes. This should include a change request process, an approval process, and a process for updating the data in all systems.
- Implement a data security and access control strategy to protect the data from unauthorized access and ensure compliance with data privacy regulations.
- Monitoring and evaluating master data is critical in the longer run. So ensure to do it religiously.
- Use master data management (MDM) software or services, which can help automate the process of managing master data, improve data quality and enable better data governance.
- Provide training for data stewards, data owners, and data users to ensure that they understand the importance of master data and know how to work with it correctly.
- Keep your data management strategies in check to align with any changes in your business goals.
It’s important to note that data management requires equal parts technical and human intervention. It’s also crucial to communicate the importance of master data to all stakeholders in the organization and to continuously monitor the data for any changes.
The Best Master Data Management Software Systems
Just like other softwres, Dun & Bradstreet helps you with master data management by providing the fundamental components (entity management, hierarchies, and linkage) that are geared toward achieving your company’s objectives. When you use Dun & Bradstreet’s pre-mastered commercial material, you get a single, distinct image of your company’s universe with de-duplicated records, supplementary company information, and connected enterprises linked in corporate families.
