Skip to content

Master Data Management (MDM)

Overview

Master Data Management (MDM) ensures that key enterprise entities—such as customers, vehicles, products, dealers, and suppliers—are accurately defined, uniquely identified, and consistently maintained across Nissan North America (NNA).

MDM is essential for trusted analytics, operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, and seamless integration across systems.

Currently, NNA leverages Ataccama for MDM, which has shown duplicate management challenges and performance issues. Potential future migration to Salesforce / MarketForce is under consideration to improve scalability and operational efficiency.

Purpose

  • Provide a single source of truth for critical business entities.
  • Ensure data consistency, accuracy, and uniqueness across systems.
  • Reduce operational inefficiencies caused by duplicate, incomplete, or inconsistent records.
  • Enable analytics, reporting, and AI/ML initiatives with trusted data.
  • Establish clear ownership, stewardship, and governance practices for master data.

Core MDM Domains

Domain Description Current Challenges Owner / Steward
Customer Individual or corporate customer records Duplicates, incomplete contact info, cross-system inconsistencies Customer Data Owner / Steward
Vehicle Vehicle identifiers (VIN, model, trim) Duplicate VINs, inconsistent vehicle attributes across systems Vehicle Data Owner / Steward
Dealer Authorized dealer entities Duplicate dealer codes, inconsistent regional assignment Dealer Domain Owner / Steward
Product Vehicle or parts product master Inconsistent naming conventions, missing attributes Product Domain Owner / Steward
Supplier Vendor and supplier records Duplicate vendor IDs, inconsistent compliance info Supplier Data Owner / Steward

MDM Processes

  1. Data Ingestion & Integration
  2. Collect data from ERP, CRM, operational systems, and external sources.

  3. Apply standardization rules and validation during ingestion.

  4. Deduplication & Matching

  5. Identify duplicates using matching algorithms (fuzzy, deterministic).

  6. Merge or reconcile duplicate records while preserving historical data.

  7. Data Validation & Enrichment

  8. Validate data against business rules, reference tables, and external sources.

  9. Enrich master records with additional attributes as needed.

  10. Governance & Stewardship

  11. Assign owners and stewards for each domain.
  12. Establish clear approval workflows for new or updated records.

  13. Monitor compliance with data quality and classification standards.

  14. Change Management

  15. Track updates to master data, maintaining audit trails and provenance.

  16. Implement impact analysis to understand downstream effects.

  17. Monitoring & Reporting

  18. Track duplicates, completeness, accuracy, and consistency metrics.
  19. Provide dashboards for stewards, owners, and governance councils.

Current Challenges & Lessons from Ataccama

Challenge Description Mitigation Approach
Duplicate Records Multiple entries for the same customer, vehicle, or dealer Enhanced matching rules, manual review, improved cleansing workflows
Performance Issues Slow response times for large datasets Consider indexing, partitioning, or migrating to a more scalable platform
Integration Gaps Inconsistent data updates from source systems Implement real-time synchronization and robust ETL pipelines
Adoption & Stewardship Limited engagement from business users Strengthen training, clearly define roles, and incentivize compliance

Potential Salesforce / MarketForce Migration Considerations

  • Pros:
  • Cloud-native scalability and performance improvements
  • Better integration with CRM, marketing, and analytics platforms

  • Out-of-the-box deduplication and validation tools

  • Cons / Risks:

  • Migration complexity, data mapping, and reconciliation challenges
  • Potential disruption to existing business processes

  • Training and adoption required for new system and workflows

  • Governance Recommendations:

  • Pilot migration with a single domain (e.g., Customer) before full rollout
  • Maintain cross-platform reconciliation until cutover is validated
  • Update policies, roles, and stewardship processes to reflect new platform capabilities

Roles & Responsibilities

Role Responsibility
Data Owner Approves master data definitions, policies, and workflow changes
Data Steward Monitors duplicates, completeness, and compliance; executes merging and reconciliation
IT / Data Engineering Implements MDM platform, ETL processes, integrations, and performance tuning
Governance Council Oversees MDM policies, monitors KPIs, and approves escalations

Visual Representation

flowchart TD
    A[Source Systems] --> B[MDM Platform Ataccama / Salesforce]
    B --> C[Deduplication & Validation]
    C --> D[Master Data Repository]
    D --> E[Operational Systems & Analytics]
    D --> F[Data Quality & Governance Dashboard]