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Making the Case for Master Data Management

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Master data management (MDM) is not a new concept for capital markets participants, but it can be an effective approach to data management when financial institutions face rising costs of ingesting, holding and using data, or when they restructure. Its benefits include streamlining workflows, reducing input error, lowering costs and unlocking the full value of data.

The challenges and opportunities of MDM are set out in a recent white paper – The Business Case for Master Data Management Transition Within Financial Institutions – published by A-Team Group and sponsored by Semarchy, provider of a unified data platform supporting MDM, applications data management, collaborative data governance, and data integration solutions.

The paper notes the role of MDM in ensuring the creation of a “single source of truth” of information for banks and financial institutions that not only means the data remains intact, but also makes it available and useable across the enterprise.

Considering why financial institutions need MDM it touches on: cash flow, MDM helps firms more efficiently monetise their data; compliance, assurance that all financial data conforms to compliance mandates; consolidation, combining data streams improves management of customer, partner, product and asset data; and clean data, presented as a single source of truth can underpin clear action.

On a wider scale, MDM can help firms meet expanding demand for access to high-quality data, and respond quickly to changing business demands while ensuring the integrity of the data will remain intact.

Moving on from the discussion of why a transition to MDM may be needed, the paper sets out a five step journey to success. Briefly, you can read more here, the steps comprise: identifying opportunities for MDM; creating a business case; building a governance plan; reviewing of current and future state architecture; and deploying, testing and reviewing the new setup.

In conclusion, the white paper acknowledges that there will be challenges in transitioning to MDM, but there will also be proven benefits of better operational effectiveness, greater efficiencies, reduced costs, and additional revenue generation.

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