Master Data Management in Practice: Achieving True Customer MDM

Part I: Planning Your Customer MDM Initiative

This segment addresses the aspects of defining the underlying scope, approach, architecture, and objectives necessary for planning a Customer MDM initiative. We review the various types of MDM initiatives and how each has a somewhat different objective and carries distinct levels of complexity, risk, and impact. Implementing a successful Customer MDM initiative starts with choosing the right approach that will drive the proper fitting of the MDM practices to an enterprise architecture and business model. This section closely examines the planning and decisions needed regarding the MDM objectives in general, the concept and dynamic of data ownership, why cultural change may be needed for your MDM initiative to succeed, and what type of products, tools, and vendor services need to be considered for priming your MDM engine.