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Demand for information is increasing at such a fast pace that IT organizations are struggling to deliver timely responses to the information requests of businesses. Because of the unfortunate state of most companies' information architecture, these requests take months, not days, to satisfy. This has driven business and operational management to become more involved with understanding and driving new investments to overcome these shortfalls. This has caused many organizations to re-examine their existing approaches for managing data and ensuring the foundation of information management is well managed.

Many organizations just consider standardization and consolidation of data integration and BI systems without considering the required investment for managing the foundation and interoperability of data in the enterprise. We have found leading organizations focusing and investing into data management that can be leveraged with existing investments to ensure high quality data for their business. Master Data Management (MDM) is the practice and technology of providing business and IT with the capability to define and link master data that includes definition, reference and metadata in a secure and high quality manner. As global organizations take on this approach, business users must work to ensure the business and technical aspects of the data will deliver the value needed.

Ventana Research is now seeing a significant focus on the data. Organizations are ensuring their data warehouse and information management investments include management of the data outside of the data integration, database and BI tools. Many organizations have or are simply picking a best-of-breed tool for data integration, data warehousing and business intelligence, which might not necessarily bring full business value sought by the CIO and business management. IT organizations should consider best practices that balance investments and include Master Data Management as part of their existing and future information architectures. The first step is to evaluate individual technologies in the context of the entire information architecture and not as separate technologies.

Assessment

To bring high quality and more relevant information to business, IT and business management must create a parallel strategy to improve the data management and information architecture of an organization. New advancements in information management, like Master Data Management, can provide a focal point for data quality. It allows you to link information from source operational systems to business intelligence and performance management systems. Ventana Research strongly advises you to focus on master data to ensure a strong foundation for your information management initiatives. In addition, it is important to ensure that your investment in Master Data Management will operate in a heterogeneous environment, allowing you to leverage your existing ERP, DW and BI investments.