Enterprise data management (EDM) is the ability of an organization to precisely define, easily integrate and effectively retrieve data for both internal applications and external communication. EDM focuses on the creation of accurate, consistent, and transparent content. EDM emphasizes data precision, granularity, and meaning and is concerned with how the content is integrated into business applications as well as how it is passed along from one

business process A business process, business method or business function is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks by people or equipment in which a specific sequence produces a service or product (serves a particular business goal) for a parti ...

to another. EDM arose to address circumstances where users within organizations independently source, model, manage and store data. Uncoordinated approaches by various segments of the organization can result in data conflicts and quality inconsistencies, lowering the trustworthiness of the data as it is used for operations and reporting. The goal of EDM is trust and confidence in data assets. Its components are:

Strategy and governance

EDM requires a strategic approach to choosing the right processes, technologies, and resources (i.e. data owners, governance, stewardship,

data analyst Data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making. Data analysis has multiple facets and approaches, enc ...

s, and

data architect A data architect is a practitioner of data architecture, a data management discipline concerned with designing, creating, deploying and managing an organization's data architecture. Data architects define how the data will be stored, consumed, inte ...

s). EDM is a challenge for organizations because it requires alignment among multiple stakeholders (including IT, operations, finance, strategy, and

end-user In product development, an end user (sometimes end-user) is a person who ultimately uses or is intended to ultimately use a product. The end user stands in contrast to users who support or maintain the product, such as sysops, system administrat ...

s) and relates to an area (creation and use of common data) that has not traditionally had a clear “owner.” The governance challenge can be a big obstacle to the implementation of an effective EDM because of the difficulties associated with providing a

business case A business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. It is often presented in a well-structured written document, but may also come in the form of a short verbal agreement or presentation. The logic of the business case is that, ...

on the benefits of data management. The core of the challenge is due to the fact that data quality has no intrinsic value. It is an enabler of other processes and the true benefits of effective data management are systematic and intertwined with other processes. This makes it hard to quantify all the downstream implications or upstream improvements. The difficulties associated with quantification of EDM benefits translate into challenges with the positioning of EDM as an organizational priority. Achieving organizational alignment on the importance of data management (as well as managing data as an ongoing area of focus) is the domain of

governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, social norm, norms, power (social and political), power or language of an organized society over a social system (family, tribe, formal organization, formal or informal organization, a ...

. In recent years the establishment of an EDM and the EDM governance practice has become commonplace despite these difficulties.

Program implementation

Implementation of an EDM program encompasses many processes – all of which need to be coordinated throughout the organization and managed while maintaining operational continuity. Below are some of the major components of EDM implementation that should be given consideration:

Stakeholder requirements

EDM requires alignment among multiple stakeholders (at the right level of authority) who all need to understand and support the EDM objectives. EDM begins with a thorough understanding of the requirements of the end users and the organization as a whole. Managing stakeholder requirements is a critical, and ongoing, process based in an understanding of

workflow A workflow consists of an orchestrated and repeatable pattern of activity, enabled by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information. It can be depicted as a sequence of ...

, data dependencies and the tolerance of the organization for operational disruption. Many organizations use formal processes such as

service level agreement A service-level agreement (SLA) is a commitment between a service provider and a customer. Particular aspects of the service – quality, availability, responsibilities – are agreed between the service provider and the service user. ...

s to specify requirements and establish EDM program objectives.

Policies and procedures

Effective EDM usually includes the creation, documentation and enforcement of operating policies and procedures associated with

change management Change management (sometimes abbreviated as CM) is a collective term for all approaches to prepare, support, and help individuals, teams, and organizations in making organizational change. It includes methods that redirect or redefine the use of ...

, (i.e.

data model A data model is an abstract model that organizes elements of data and standardizes how they relate to one another and to the properties of real-world entities. For instance, a data model may specify that the data element representing a car be co ...

, business

glossary A glossary (from grc, γλῶσσα, ''glossa''; language, speech, wording) also known as a vocabulary or clavis, is an alphabetical list of Term (language), terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms. Tradi ...

, master data shared domains,

data cleansing Data cleansing or data cleaning is the process of detecting and correcting (or removing) corrupt or inaccurate records from a record set, table, or database and refers to identifying incomplete, incorrect, inaccurate or irrelevant parts of the dat ...

and normalization), data stewardship, security constraints and dependency rules. In many cases, these policies and procedures are documented for the first time as part of the EDM initiative.

Data definitions and tagging

One of the core challenges associated with EDM is the ability to compare data that is obtained from multiple internal and external sources. In many circumstances, these sources use inconsistent terms and definitions to describe the data content itself – making it hard to compare data, hard to automate business processes, hard to feed complex applications and hard to exchange data. This frequently results in a difficult process of

data mapping In computing and data management, data mapping is the process of creating data element mappings between two distinct data models. Data mapping is used as a first step for a wide variety of data integration tasks, including: * Data transformatio ...

and cross-referencing. Normalization of all the terms and definitions at the data attribute level is referred to as the

metadata Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...

component of EDM and is an essential prerequisite for effective data management.

Platform requirements

Even though EDM is fundamentally a data content challenge, there is a core technology dimension that must be addressed. Organizations need to have a functional storage platform, a comprehensive data model and a robust messaging infrastructure. They must be able to integrate data into applications and deal with the challenges of the existing (i.e. legacy) technology infrastructure. Building the platform or partnering with an established technology provider on how the data gets stored and integrated into business applications is an essential component of the EDM process. Enterprise data management as an essential business requirement has emerged as a priority for many organizations. The objective is confidence and trust in data as the glue that holds business strategy together.

References

{{Reflist ;General * Enterprise Data Management Council http://www.edmcouncil.org
Issues in Enterprise Data Management: A Survey Report, 12/06

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