What is Master Data Management (MDM)

Definition

Master Data Management (MDM) is the discipline of creating and maintaining a single, authoritative version of an organisation's core business entities, such as customers, products, and suppliers, by reconciling records from many systems into trusted golden records.

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Produces a single golden record for each key entity used across all systems
Resolves conflicting versions of the same customer or product into one trusted value
Reduces costly errors caused by duplicate or inconsistent master data
Enables reliable cross-system reporting by standardising shared reference entities

Real World Example

A consumer-goods company uses MDM to unify thousands of duplicate supplier records scattered across ERP and procurement systems into single golden records, cutting duplicate payments and improving spend analysis.

FAQs

What kind of data does MDM manage?

It manages core master entities such as customers, products, suppliers, and locations that are shared across many systems.

How does MDM create a golden record?

It matches and merges records from multiple sources using rules and survivorship logic to produce one authoritative version of each entity.

How does MDM differ from data governance?

Governance sets policies for all data, while MDM is a focused practice for mastering specific shared reference entities.