The 10 Myths and Realities of MDM

Adopting master data management in an organization is only half the battle. The rest comes from clarifying misconceptions and definitions of your MDM venture, according to a new report from Gartner.

The analyst business outlined a list of consistent myths and problems surrounding MDM implementation in its new report, “The 10 Myths and Realities of Master Data Management.” Underlying the list of myths is the lack of clarity with MDM adoption across an enterprise, said Andrew White, Gartner research vice president.

“MDM is the latest attempt to solve the old problem of inconsistent versions of important data at the [center] of an organization,” White said in a news release. “As with any new initiative, there is a lot of hype and confusion, and with hype and confusion comes misunderstanding.”

Two of the myths identified included: “MDM is about implementing a technology” and “MDM is a project.” The analyst company stated that organizations should see MDM as a way business processes work to clarify the first myth, and to understand the subsequent projects with MDM initiatives regarding the second.

Enterprise data warehouses and enterprise resource planning shouldn’t prevent MDM use, the report noted. Gartner analysts found that successful MDM overlaps and links warehouses, analytics, data stores and ERP.

Gartner noted in other separate instances of misconceptions that organizations often see MDM as too complex or just reserved for corporations. Whenever organizations need to view or share multiple data sources, MDM may be in order, even if it’s taken on one case at a time, the report concluded.

Other realities listed by Gartner include: establishing data governance and data quality alongside MDM; the application of contextual metadata; the support of MDM by business departments; and the need for proper vendor selection.

For the full report, click here.

This story has been reprinted with permission from Information Management.

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