Master Data Management (MDM) is the process by which a corporation’s master supplier/customer data data is cleansed, standardized, de-duplicated, and consolidated. The benefits of MDM are many, including: prevention of duplicate records, duplicate payments, duplicate mailings, and increased accuracy in reporting because of increased data integrity. Although a tedious process, the effects will benefit your bottom line through cost savings. But don’t get caught spending $500,000 – $1.5 M on a sophisticated software system that will require consultants, configuration, and unending COST. Automated Auditors, LLC is experienced in Master Data Management (MDM), and offers this process as a cyclical service for a much more reasonable price.
MDM consolidates customer databases, mailing databases, supplier files, vendor master files, all of which span almost every industry. In the below example, you can see the different spellings of the name and address of the customers. Master Data Management ties these related records together in a “family”. A unique “family ID” is assigned to each group of related, or duplicate, records. Clients may want to eliminate inactive records, or keep them grouped together — it depends upon your specific goals during MDM.
| Customer Name | Address | Phone | Family ID After MDM | |
| Mary Wilkerson | 1234-A Lilac Ave. | mwilkerson@fakemail.com | 555-632-0101 | 1 |
| Mary Smith-Wilkerson | 1234 Lilac Avenue, Apt A | m_wilkerson@yazoo.com | 555-532-0101 | 1 |
| Charles Wilson | 1715 Center Street #1 | c_wilson@fakemail.com | 555-712-1234 | 2 |
| Charlie Wilson | 1715 Center St. Unit 1 | charlie.wilson@yazoo.com | 555-712-1234 | 2 |
Because the goal of MDM may differ for each client, we firmly believe that Master Data Management should be offered as a service. For Accounts Payable departments, the controller may want to inactivate duplicate vendors, keeping only the current vendor number in the Vendor Master File. Other organizations may want to keep all records, and consolidate them under one umbrella for certain purposes such as annual reporting. Clients may have a need to organize under mailing/business address, tax id, or any number of hierarchical structures. This is more commonly seen for national corporations such as CVS or Walgreens. Each CVS has a unique physical address, but they share a common business/mailing address of 1 CVS Drive in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Master Data Management, offered as a service, allows you to control exactly how you want to group data together. Suppose in the CVS example, you want to have a general “Parent ID” that identifies the parent company at the same mailing address, even if the physical locations differ. MDM could group your data accordingly, even with typos and non-standard data:
| Vendor Number | Vendor Name | Vendor Mailing Address | Vendor Physical Address | Parent ID after MDM | Vendor ID after MDM |
| 1 | CVS #1234 | 1 CVS Dr | 1234 Lilac Ave | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | CVS 1234 | One CVS Dr | 1234 Lilac Ave | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | CVS 5678 | 1 cvs drive | 6723 N Bangor St | 1 | 2 |
| 4 | C V S 5678 | 1 C.V.S. Dr | 6723 Bangor St | 1 | 2 |
| 5 | CVS 9222 | 1 CVS Dr | 101 State St #1 | 1 | 3 |
| 6 | CVS 9222 | 1 CVS Drive | 101 State St Ste 1 | 1 | 3 |
Our process is flexible: we can handle large amounts of data, incorporate a multitude of disparate files, control the tightness of the matches, group on hierarchical structures, and deliver a quality product. Once the process is developed, we can repeat it as needed, for a fraction of the original build cost.
Our process is straight-forward:
- Import Data into our proprietary software
- Conduct Data Cleansing and Standardization (Street ==> St., Avenue ==> Ave, noise words removed)
- Conduct Data Matching on all fields available (Name, Address, Email, Phone Number…)
- Apply Entity Resolution Engine and assign a unique “Family ID” to each group of related entities
- Provide raw file back to client, with the “Family ID” added
- Provide a final report to the client
