REFERENCE DATA MANAGEMENT

CLASSIFY YOUR DATA AND INCREASE CONTEXT

Reference Data Management helps you classify data like geographies, legal entities, chart of accounts, industry codes, postal codes etc. This classified data can then be used as a reference for people and systems.

When you have data in many systems and applications you may be facing inconsistancy in data that generally should be the same. Centralizing this data as a reference for your organisation’s people and systems will improve consistency and data quality. This data is called reference data.

REFERENCE DATA

Reference data is often called a subset of master data. It refers to the data that defines the set of permissable values to be used by other data fields. An example is location or postcode. Classifying once how location data needs to be recorded provides a table of reference data for your people and systems to use. You will find that reference data is often a simple structure of code and value that hardly ever changes over time.

“After a thorough selection process for a Reference Data Management solution, we arrived at Systemation. With the Reference Data Management solution and the implementation expertise of Systemation, we have developed a robust solution with which de Volksbank can manage its reference data in accordance with the requirements of various regulators.”

Erwin Oppelaar – Senior Architect, de Volksbank

REFERENCE DATA MANAGEMENT

Reference data management is both the process and technology to manage reference data classifications and hierarchies across systems and business lines.

PROCESS

For Reference Data Management to be effective in your organization you will first have to think about a process around it. That means you will have to set policies, frameworks, and define standards to govern and manage your reference data.

TECHNOLOGY

Reference Data Management as a technology will typically be part of your Master Data Management solution. Such a asolution should provide you with the capability to implement and govern the policies and standards that you defined.

In addition the technology should make it possible for you to manage the mapping of your reference data between different representations and accross different data domains.

Ofcourse you will benefit from other capabilities in your Master Data Management solution such as integration, workflow and security.

BENEFITS OF REFERENCE DATA MANAGEMENT

  • Reduced IT costs:

    Storing and updating reference data in just one place decreases overhead. It also allows for agile updating, reducing time needed for data integration projects.

  • Reduced risks:

    Reference data management will increase the quality of internal reporting. This will minimize the risk of making incorrect business decisons and improve regulatory compliance.

  • Improved business use:

    Because the data is better organized directly by the business reporting will be better, accurate and trustworthy. Better use of reporting will increase the value of data.