Master Data Management (MDM), Product Information Management (PIM) and Digital Asset Management (DAM) are some interrelated disciplines that again is interrelated with other disciplines in the data management space.

The core disciplines are:

• MDM has some sub disciplines, most notable:
  • Multidomain MDM which is when the MDM effort encompasses not only a single master data domain as for example customer, supplier, employee (all being party master data) or product master data but all master data domains relevant for a given organization.
  • Multienterprise MDM which is an emerging discipline where the scope of sharing master data goes from doing that within a given organization to embracing the business ecosystem(s) where the organization operates.
• PIM can be seen as an extension to product master data management which takes care of the product information in marketing and sales scenarios. In addition:
  • PIM has some overlapping acronyms as PCM, PDM, PLM and PxM as discussed in the post Product Something Management.
  • Product Data Syndication is the multienterprise (business ecosystem wide) scenario related to PIM, where product information is shared between trading partners (or between disconnected entities belonging to the same organization).
• DAM is most commonly related to PIM and the requirement for handling digital assets as images, textual documents, videos and more related to products, but the digital assets can also relate to other master data entities.

Reference Data Management (RDM) is closely related to these disciplines as told in the post RDM: A Small but Important Extension to MDM.

Data Governance can be seen as an overarching discipline for data management and should also go hand in hand with MDM, PIM and DAM. A core result from MDM, PIM and DAM activities is to provide sustainable data quality so that data cleansing and data matching does not have to be done over and again.

MDM and RDM underpins data reporting activities, Test Data Management (TDM) and data security and MDM, PIM and DAM is an essential aspect of data architecture, data modelling and data integration.

If you are considering solutions for MDM, PIM and DAM, our list features some of the best solutions from the most forward-looking vendors on the market. Check it out here.