Meta Data management the less talked about cousin of Master Data Management?
Meta data management, so what does this mean? We all know that “meta data” means data about data. However how many fully fledged, Master data management project starts off with a Meta data definition project. A true “strategic” level adoption of Master data management requires having a fully fledged meta-data management solution integrated seamlessly with a master data management solution. I happened to work in an enterprise data warehouse solution for an insurance major in US, where the primary stakeholder and project sponsor realized the need to arrive at a consensus on the various KPI’s used across insurance LOB's (be it Buyer protection plan, Property and Casualty - Mortgage based insurance, Life and Health insurance etc.). A brave initiative, leading to humble beginning of an Data governance initiative, very critical, in a fully fledged enterprise level MDM initiative.
Now the downside, let me quote another example, this time for a retailer, where Meta data management figured in the overall IT strategic road map, however failed to be implemented due to the need for prioritization of the core systems revamp and enablement of an MDM project. The project still adopts capturing of business rules and meta-data in spread sheets etc.
Many thought leaders in the MDM space talks about automated knowledge discovery using tools which can shorten the “time to market” for deployment of an MDM initiative. Typically 70% or more of the time and effort involved in completing most data integration projects is consumed by defining and implementing the business rules by which data will be mapped, transformed, integrated, and cleansed. Any organization aiming to shorten the time to market for an MDM implementation would look out for implementation of a Meta data management solution as the key starting point for the Master data management solution.
The truth thus arise that Meta data management and Master data management needs to happen together and recently I happened to get an opportunity to work on evaluation of an Analytical MDM, the Oracle Life Sciences Hub. You can read more about this from my blog in UKOCN (http://www.ukocn.com/blogs/jairajak/analytical-master-data-management-driven-through-meta-data).
The Meta data captured from internal subject matter experts is leveraged to set up an Analytical MDM which can seamlessly create data mart of the fly. The master data management extensively leverages the meta-data defined for “information management”. I now realize that Master data management and Meta Data management now need to be implemented in an organization, though the stage of implementation of one over other may be delayed or implemented together based on priority, budget and precedence envisioned in the overall IT objectives.
