What Is Master Data Management And Why Is It Important?
DATAVERSITY, Wednesday, August 30,2023
Master Data Management (MDM) is an important method for developing and maintaining the uniformity and accuracy of the organization's shared 'master data.' Master Data Management allows businesses to improve the accuracy and uniformity of their important data assets, such as customer data, product data, asset data, and location data.
Master data can be described as an organization's core data. This core data is based on information that rarely changes and is essential for running a business's operations. The ever-increasing amounts of data businesses collect and store about their products, inventory, data assets, and customers must be managed in order to remain accurate. Inaccurate data, and especially inaccurate master data, makes it more difficult to make intelligent decisions about the business.
During the 1950s and '60s, back when electronic computers were not yet commonplace, organizations did have master data containing what was - and still is - called 'contact information.' It was normally copied by hand into the organization's master file from a salesman's address book, and vice versa. These master files often existed in the form of Rolodexes and address books.