MDM Experts Jill Dyche and Evan Levy Introduce a Five-Stage Taxonomy That Organizations Can Use to Design and Build the Level of MDM That's Best for Them

SHERMAN OAKS, Calif.--Baseline Consulting, one of the industry's leading management and technology consulting firms specializing in data integration and business analytics, announced today the availability of a new white paper by company founders, best-selling authors and master data management (MDM) experts Jill Dyche and Evan Levy. The paper lays out an easy-to understand, five-stage taxonomy that organizations can use to design and build the level of MDM that best suits them.

The white paper, entitled “The Baseline on MDM: Five Levels of Maturity for Master Data Management,” details the five stages of progression to reach an MDM goal — from no master data to enterprise-wide data convergence. The taxonomy distinguishes discrete capabilities that help organization’s understand their “as is” environment and progress towards their “to be” objectives for master data. It offers a structured and deliberate pathway forward.

The whole premise of master data is that there are like copies of data across the company’s various systems and organizational silos that need to be reconciled. Master data management in its most mature form links data from disparate environments without disrupting the applications themselves.

“We thought it was time to extend the MDM conversation beyond the 'master data on a single platform' dialog and truly show what it takes to evolve a bona-fide MDM program in an operational, closed-loop way,” said Dyche. “This white paper details why MDM is so rich and complex, and how MDM capabilities map — or don't map — to a company's current data integration capabilities.”

“We’ve seen companies launch MDM initiatives and attempt to accomplish too much, too fast,” Levy added. “They often over-invest and over-extend themselves, or they deliver isolated capabilities like data stewardship or data correction processes, and then realize they still haven’t fulfilled MDM requirements. For these companies, ‘Five Levels of Maturity’ provides a roadmap and order for building MDM capabilities to reach the optimal solution.”

According to Dyche, “We're finding the question, ‘How is MDM different than what we're currently doing?’ is top-of-mind with our clients and prospects, and we wrote the paper to lay out a set of categories that hitherto haven't been articulated fully. The bottom line is there's no such thing as ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to MDM.”

Baseline’s Levy to Speak at November MDM Events

On November 6, Levy will present a keynote address, “Build the Bulletproof MDM Program” at the TechTarget and SearchDataManagement Seminar in San Francisco, CA. In the address, Levy will focus on the critical components of a MDM program, processes for meeting the business and technology requirements of an organization, what metrics should be put into place to gauge whether the project is succeeding or failing, and determining the skills and experience organizations will need to jump start an MDM program.

On November 16 at the CDI-MDM Summit in New York City, Levy will present “Building the Agile MDM Team.” In this presentation, Levy will describe why deploying customer master data solutions via CDI and MDM technologies requires a different implementation framework — and a different collection of skills. He will introduce the concept of the MDM development habitat, explain the discrete functions of the MDM development team, and describe how an MDM program should be managed for long-term success.

“Another key message delivered in this paper is that MDM is operational, and is thus ‘broader’ than any single platform such as the CRM system, the data warehouse or the proprietary-yet-mission-critical billing system,” Levy said. “MDM as a way of de-facto data and rule sharing — via a ‘data as a service’ approach — is becoming not only crucial, but a bona-fide best practice.”

Availability

The white paper, “The Baseline on MDM: Five Levels of Maturity for Master Data Management,” is available for download free of charge at www.baseline-consulting.com/BaselineMDM.

About the Authors

Jill Dyche is an internationally recognized lecturer and writer on the business value of technology. Dyche provides expertise in the areas of data management, CRM, master data management, and data governance. She is the author of e-Data (Addison Wesley) and The CRM Handbook (Addison Wesley), the best-seller on the topic. Jill’s latest book, Customer Data Integration: Reaching a Single Version of the Truth (Wiley) was co-authored by Levy.

In addition to his executive management responsibilities at Baseline, Evan Levy is actively involved in guiding projects and delivering solutions to Baseline’s Fortune 1000 family of clients. He also advises vendors and venture capital firms on new and emerging product strategies and is considered an industry leader on the topic of data integration and management.

About Baseline Consulting

Baseline Consulting, an acknowledged leader in the data integration and business analytics industry, helps large and mid-sized businesses enhance the value of enterprise data, improve business results, and achieve self-sufficiency in managing and using data as a corporate asset. Over 50 percent of Baseline’s clients are Fortune 500 companies. Baseline offers business consulting and technical implementation services in four practice areas: Business Analytics, Data Warehousing, Data Management and Data Integration. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Baseline’s only business is mastering data. For more information, please contact us at 818-906-7638 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .