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Introduction to MDM xliii

management, etc. This warehouse is managed, from a logical
point of view, in manner which is unified for all of the
information system, even though its technical architecture
can be distributed;

– MDM is based on a model that describes reference
and master data and details its meaning, relationship and
validation rules to apply to updates. This model is shared
across the entire company; it is valid for the whole scope of
the information system and for the entirety of transactions.
It is not a technical model. It is a semantic data model of
knowledge that describes the reference and master data with
precision. To obtain this model, it is necessary to adopt a
semantic modeling approach;
– MDM is a software package. It must be able to take
into account any semantic data model in order to
automatically make available all data governance functions.
This tool is used by business teams in charge of the
management of reference and master data, or teams
interested in data querying. This business orientation places
the functions of this tool beyond technical data
administration, profiting a real reference and master data
governance. Business users assume operational
responsibilities themselves, including data entry, managing
rights, creating versions of data, having autonomous access
to the audit trail, etc. IT experts still need to be involved but
at the discretion of business users who decide the delegation
levels of data governance that they wish to share.

I.2. Beyond MDM

The implementation of a reference and master data
repository is the first stage in the transformation of IT.
However, the assets of the information system are not
limited to these data. It is necessary to pursue the same
strategy of transparency improvement by profiting from two
other repositories. The first of these acts on business rules