This is Part 3 of our mini series 'Master Data Management — What It Is and Why You Need It'

Terminology:

• Single Source of Truth (SSOT): A data storage principle to always source a particular piece of information from one place.
• Golden Record: A data record that captures all the necessary information we need without redundancies.

The ultimate goal of MDM is to have an SSOT so that your data is in one place, and a golden record so that each time you access it, you know that's the latest and most accurate version of your organization's data.

There are many ways to achieve an SSOT and a golden record, but we've found the following to be the best approach.

As important as master data management (MDM) is to your organization, we admit it's not the most approachable topic — it's full of complexities and in some cases, jargon that is used simply to make us IT types feel a bit smart.

At its core though, MDM is fundamental to any organization that wants to run smoothly today and plan for tomorrow by organizing all of its data neatly and uniformly in one place.

We're here to help de-mystify MDM for you — so here's a quick overview of what MDM is, why it should be important to you, and the ultimate goal of getting it right.