Strategic Business Requirements for Master Data Management Systems

Master Data Management (MDM) is of increasing importance because it is seen as a promising approach in companies to respond to a number of strategic business requirements, such as complying with an increasing number of regulations, supporting internal and external business process integration, and establishing a “360-degree-view on the customer”. As a result, software vendors such as IBM, Oracle, SAP, and TIBCO are offering MDM application systems. However, the user community feels a significant mismatch between their own strategic requirements and the functionality currently offered by the software products. As the Information Systems (IS) research community has remained silent so far regarding this research problem, the research presented in this paper makes intensive use of knowledge from the practitioners’ community in order to design a framework for strategic business requirements to be met by MDM systems. As an outcome of a design-oriented research process, the framework is an artifact which advances the scientific body of knowledge while at the same time providing benefit for practitioners. The framework includes seven design principles which are translated into 23 requirements. The requirements form a baseline for internal and external communication in companies and for the design of concrete MDM systems.