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Question: I've worked on a few BI projects with different clients where dealing with unharmonized, outdated or inaccurate financial master data was a major issue (charts of accounts, KPIs and other accounting/consolidation/reporting master data). However, when I read about master data management (MDM), these financial master data never seem to be in the focus of MDM systems or projects. They usually talk about customer and/or supply chain master data. I've been wondering why that might be. Do you as experts have an idea why financial master data is not on the screen when MDM is discussed? Thank you for your insight in advance!

Majid Abai's Response: I agree with your point. Financials should be considered as a master data and it is. Today, we hear a lot about customer and supplier data integration and management, but the truth is that a lot of companies are also doing ERP consolidation which will ultimately have the same result. Most companies should have finance, product/service, supplier, customer, employee and partner as part of their master data plan.

Majid Abai is executive vice president and director of Information Management and SOA practices at Crescent Enterprise Solutions, a systems integration organization with 12 offices and 300 consultants across the United States. During the past 24 years, he has focused on providing enterprise IT and information strategies as well as implementation of major business systems to Fortune 2000 organizations and government offices. A number of his clients have been listed as the Top Information Management Organizations by Baseline Magazine.

Abai coauthored Data Strategy, a book published by Addison-Wesley, to provide a comprehensive road map in building a sound data strategy for organizations. He has developed and teaches classes at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Majid is a member of the Ask the Experts panel in DM Review magazine and a regular contributor to CIOupdate.com. He is continuously invited to consult and lecture on various information management and enterprise architecture subjects globally. You can reach him at majid.abai@crescententerprise.net.