Peer to Peer Magazine

P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | W I N T E R 2 0 1 8 31 Under this model, at a minimum per integration process, you'll be doing one or both of the following: Changing the connection information for the source system or verifying the application page is the same for a manual process Redoing the process altogether because the data source has changed • Different data model in the database for automated processes • Different application page or manual export process if done manually Having a master data database in the middle of a major data source like a finance-accounting system and downstream systems that need data from it can vastly improve delivery timelines of a move or upgrade project. What is a master data database and is this the only benefit? Master Data Database and its Benefits You may be familiar with terms such as master data, data warehouse, data lake, or master data management. What's the difference? For the purpose of this article, a master data database and data lake are the same. A data lake can be described as: A central repository of as much key data\ information as you can gather The data often can follow the data layout of the system\application from which it comes How does that differ from a data warehouse? With a data warehouse, often you are concerned with very specific reporting requirements and you are attempting to get data in a state to meet that need. This can be a lengthy process, including time spent upfront defining those reporting requirements, building a data model that fits the requirements, and building more complicated data loading\moving processes to fit that model. This is especially true if as a firm you've never seen all your key data together and how it relates in a data lake. 1 2 1 2 With a data lake, you spend your upfront time picking your key data and not as much time thinking about what you'll do with it. You then set up more simple data loading\moving processes that many times copy the data as is. You spend very little time "modeling" the data for a specific need. Master data management is more of a strate than a technical topic. It can be a long-term strate which defines processes for maintaining information, names source systems for different data types, and helps everybody see the benefit of buying into such a strate. A master data database can be a great early step in such a strate as it allows people to see most of a firm's key data in one place and how it relates. So what are the benefits of building a master data database and why do it sooner rather than later? Benefits include (in no particular order of importance): • Innovation: Having a big portion of your key information in one place helps you visualize what you can do with it. • User experience and performance of your key systems: In the legal industry, many third-party software systems want data from your key systems. Pointing those third-party applications to your master data database takes that load off your key systems. With a data lake, you spend your upfront time picking your key data and not as much time thinking about what you'll do with it.

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