MDM Lifecycle

An effective MDM implementation involves more than just creating and running the required applications. Once the applications are in place, the MDM Suite continues to cleanse and deduplicate data and makes the updated information available to external sources. The Sun MDM Suite organizes the MDM lifecycle into three phases: Creation, Synchronization, and Syndication.

• Creation - This phase begins with analyzing the structure of the reference data and then designing and building the master index application based on that analysis. Once the master index application is configured, the data quality tools can be generated in order to profile, cleanse, match, and load the legacy data from external systems that are part of the MDM system. This phase is iterative; the results of the profiling and match analysis steps provide you with key information to fine-tune the query, blocking, standardization, and match logic for the application. This phase also includes creating the components that will integrate the flow of data between the MDM applications and external systems. When this step is complete, the master index application is running and its operations can be exposed as web services.

• Synchronization - The MDM application can propagate any reference data updates to external systems that are configured to accept such information. There are a number of methods to make this information available to external systems, including web services, Java clients, JMS Topics, business processes, and so on. Once MDM services are implemented as either passive or active services, the project can be configured to actively deliver MDM services to external systems. Synchronization keeps data in all systems current, and is an ongoing process.

• Syndication - Once the MDM application is running, you can create and manage virtual views on the reference data, defining who in your organization can see what information and how that information is presented. All access to information is available as services implemented by the MDM Suite in different views. For example, your accounting department might need a different set of data than the sale department requires. Syndication removes the complexity of obtaining information from multiple sources and provides a single point of access.

In addition to the above three phases of the MDM lifecycle, the Sun MDM Suite applies three operational layers to control and monitor each phase: Governance, Federation, and Analytics.

• Governance - This layer provides policy enforcement, reporting, and compliance to all phases of the MDM lifecycle. The standardization and matching operations form the basis of a compliance strategy, ensuring that the reference data has been strictly verified. During runtime, the MDM application controls, executes, and audits the notifications and repair of incomplete information, revealing problems at their sources. The MDM application can also govern access to master data, and you can govern the use of MDM services at a business level rather than governing technical services.

• Federation - This layer provides provisioning, authentication, and authorization to all phases of the MDM lifecycle. You can allow trusted business partners to view certain portions of your reference data using secure standards. This is done in secure and compliant manner with federated identity and access management.

• Analytics - The Sun MDM Suite offers reporting, alerts, and analysis tools at all three phases to provide information about business data, including sources of quality issues, histories of deduplication, audit logs, searches, and statistics about the number and types of master data errors encountered. This is particularly important in the Creation phase, where identifying problems early can help ensure that quality issues are addressed.