Data management glossary

Core data management concepts

What is master data management?

Master data management (MDM) is a business-led program that keeps an organization’s shared data, its master data, consistent, accurate, accessible and governed. It brings together people, processes and technology.

What is master data?

Master data is the core data a business runs on: data about key business entities, such as customers, products, suppliers and locations, that gives context to every transaction and operation.

What is reference data?

Reference data is the set of permissible values used to classify and organize data across an organization, such as country codes, currencies, cost centers and financial hierarchies. Whether externally mandated or internally authored, it must be unambiguous.

What is metadata management?

Metadata management is the business discipline of managing data about data. It gives meaning to an organization’s information assets so that people can find them, understand them and govern them.