Overheard – Master data management (MDM)

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and many enterprises have few or no resources devoted to measuring or monitoring how users use the information that enables and drives the business.” Michael Dortch, Building an MDM project plan for manufacturing

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is master data management (MDM).

Whether a company uses a data discovery and mapping tool or begins by surveying users to ask them ‘manually’ about their information access and use patterns and behaviors, knowledge about current data is the first step towards truly effective MDM.

It doesn’t have to be as elaborate as a true, interconnected real-time data map, but the closer an enterprise can get to that goal as a start, the firmer the foundation of that enterprise’s MDM strategy will be.