The Data Driven Blog
By Tom Redman
Let’s Put "Management" First in MDM
Virtually everyone, or so it seems to me, recognizes that Master Data Management mustn’t be just a technology initiative. I often look at companies through what I call "the data and information lens" and through that lens this is an important insight. It is akin to the first step in any good change program, "Recognize that you have a problem."
But recognizing you have a problem is not enough. You have to do something about it and I find (without naming names) the vast majority of prescriptions for the business:
- Vague (i.e., secure senior leadership),
- Undergunned and ill-positioned (i.e., stewardship), or
- Just plan wrong (i.e., business ownership of data).
So I offer the following three first "management" steps for MDM. One, the business must connect, in no uncertain terms, its business strategy with data. In doing so it must recognize that "all data are not created equal" and articulate which data are most important and why. The most important data are almost always those needed to execute strategies that distance the organization from its competitors, drive revenue, and/or help satisfy customers. All data programs must first address these data.
Two, the business must initiate the data quality program. By now it is well-known that the only way to make sustainable improvements to data is to focus on the processes that create these data, measure them, identify the root causes of error, and eliminate them. Almost all of these processes are the province of the business, not IT. Part of the job, of course, is to hold managers accountable for the quality of data they create. And it goes without saying that data quality efforts must be sharply focused on the most important data.
Three, the business must implement a "data standards process" to define, communicate, support, and evolve the common data definitions so critical to MDM. If is, of course, unwise to delegate sifting through the nuances in the ways various departments think about ‘customer,’ ‘product,’ and ‘transaction,’ and finding common ground to IT. And "locking people in a room" until they hammer out a common definition is only part of the task. For a common definition, left unsupported, will simply not take root.
These efforts make good sense for most organizations, whether they are contemplating MDM or not. But they are essential for MDM. And, in particular, organizations should give serious thought to the technology portions of an MDM initiative only after the business is making solid headway.
Data Driven Blog
Featured Blogger Tom Redman
Tom Redman, "the Data Doc" is President of Navesink Consulting Group in Little Silver, NJ. He was the first to extend quality principles to data and information. Tom’s fourth book, Data Driven: Profiting from Your Most Important Business Asset will be published by Harvard Business School Press later this year.
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