Using External Data in MDM Systems

Let me start by saying that this is not an article about big data.  While the source of big data is external to your organization, it is a topic of its own.  Many of the concepts and approaches discussed will definitely apply to your big data initiatives, but that won’t be the focus of this article.
External data is information that is sourced from outside of your organization.  This could be information you purchase from a marketing or service organization, a government agency, the post office, or a business partner.  There are many potential sources of external information.
External data can be used for various purposes in your MDM implementation.  You can use external data to:

• Enrich your MDM data with new information you are unable to collect on your own
• Validate information you have captured in your own systems
• Update information you have captured to improve the quality of the data
• Use it as reference data to provide additional information without fully integrating it into your MDM system
• Use it as a source of test data for environments where data privacy prevents usage without masking but valid data is required

There are many approaches that can be used to integrate external data with your MDM implementation.  Your external data can be used to update your MDM data as is the case with enrichment and data quality initiatives.  Your external data can be stored outside of your MDM implementation which is used for reference implementations and data quality initiatives.  How you decide to integrate your external data can also have licensing implications either for your data provider or your MDM licensing.  Integration choices, depending on the source, may also offer real time integration services versus taking the information base in-house.
When integrating information from external sources, you may face the issue of which source to trust over another.  Typically, purchased sources from outside provide a high quality of information, while data provided by a business partner may have issues of its own.  If you haven’t yet addressed trusted sources for your MDM single version of truth, external data sources may highlight this need.
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