Gartner says getting to grips with master data won't be easy

Deep knowledge of business processes required

Master data management (MDM) - the latest three-letter acronym to bedevil IT leaders - will entail overcoming formidable technical, organisational and political hurdles before companies can realise its benefits, according to industry analyst group Gartner.

MDM promises to "solve the old problem of inconsistent versions of important data at the centre of an organisation", said Andrew White, research vice-president at Gartner.

The analyst firm defines MDM as "a technology-enabled discipline that ensures the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship and semantic consistency of an enterprise's official, shared master data assets".

Once an accurate master data set is established, organisations can impose consistency, simplification, uniformity of process, analysis and communication across the business.

MDM adoption can make business more agile, improve business performance, increase revenue and lower IT and business costs, said Gartner.

But it involves a deep understanding of business processes, is more than a data warehouse or ERP suite, and is intrinsically tied to data governance and data quality initiatives, warned the analyst firm.

Gartner has published a report on MDM and plans a seminar on the subject early next month in London.