Master Data Management in Practice: Achieving True Customer MDM

Creating Collaborative Partnerships

One thing to know up front is that for all the recognized end-state benefits and expectations associated with implementing effective MDM practices, achieving this can be a slow and deliberate process that needs to build on itself and will require some out-of-the-box thinking.

Can Your Current IT and Business Model Effectively Support MDM?

Data management initiatives, just like many other IT and business initiatives, have historically been subject to the imbalance between expectation and delivery—or what we all can relate to as an oversold but under-delivered project. Too often, we see that after the expectations are set and the go forward decisions have been made, there seems to be that reoccurring dynamic where the project becomes short on the expected resources and timely deliverables needed to achieve the end-state solution. We then start to see compromising that results in cutting or back logging of key pieces of the project, often causing ill will to emerge between the business and IT involved roles. While this scenario can occur across many types of business initiatives, delay or failure to deliver key aspects of a Master Data Management initiative can be particularly impacting because of the pervasive nature of master data across the business model.

This reoccurring dynamic is rooted in the inherent nature and ebb and flow associated with a traditionally stiff model between IT and the business. That said, we also recognize that this model ...