Right now there is a good discussion going on in the Multi-Domain MDM Group on LinkedIn. A member asks:
“I’d like to hear back from anyone who has implemented party master data in either a single, unified schema or separate, individual schemas (Vendor, Customer, etc.).
What were the pros and cons of your approach? Would you do it the same way if you had it to do again?”
This is a classic consideration at the heart of multi-domain MDM. As I see it, and what I advise my clients to do, is to have a common party (or business partner) structure for identification, names, addresses and contact data. This should be supported by data quality capabilities strongly build on external reference data (third party data). Besides this common structure, there should be specific structures for customer, vendor/supplier and other party roles.
This subject was also recently examined here on the blog in the post Multi-Side MDM.
What is your opinion and experience with this question? Please have your say either here on the blog or in the LinkedIn Multi-Domain MDM Group.
Liliendahl on Data Quality 