Computer Business Review: Cognizant’s Head of Enterprise Application Services for Continental Europe Outlines the Key to Implementing a Successful MDM Strategy

“MDM (Master Data Management) presents a hugely strategic opportunity for any business willing to take the plunge; they just need to go about it in the right way,” writes Tony Smith. “To ensure an MDM project is successful, businesses need to determine and prioritize the scope of each program. When it comes to budget allocation and ROI estimation, it is essential to evaluate the organization’s information management vision; looking at data governance and data quality will help to establish how much information management is required. Defining the strategy and roadmap of each MDM project is the perfect way to manage its scope and determine what an organization hopes to achieve, as well as how its requirements are prioritized.”

Smith adds, “The next step is to divide the requirements into logical categories, such as data acquisition, data distribution, data management, authentication and control, these steps help map the requirements with the relevant MDM architecture and data quality needs. Finally, any organization looking to implement a successful MDM strategy should produce a detailed plan outlining activities, deliverables and milestones for each phase of the MDM initiative. It is also advisable to account for the level of dependency among stakeholders, and indicate a governance approach for the project.”

According to Smith, when carried out in the right way, MDM projects achieve many benefits ranging from business agility and improved business performance to increased revenue and lower IT costs. “In addition,” he writes, “MDM helps to improve data usability and compliance with legislation such as FATCA and SEPA as well as providing visibility into customer behavior. Finally, it eliminates data inconsistency and improves data sharing, which is of immeasurable benefit to all businesses.” Smith notes, “We are consistently finding that businesses view MDM programs as critical and are implementing projects in an increasingly sophisticated way. MDM is no longer seen as an IT project but as a way to release the data goldmine in their enterprise.”

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