When working with Data Quality Management (DQM) within Master Data Management (MDM) there are three kinds of data to consider:

1st-party data is the data that is born and managed internally within the enterprise. This data has traditionally been in focus of data quality methodologies and tools with the aim of ensuring that data is fit for the purpose of use and correctly reflects the real-world entity that the data is describing.  

3rd-party data is data sourced from external providers who offers a set of data that can be utilized by many enterprises. Examples a location directories, business directories as the Dun & Bradtstreet Worldbase and public national directories and product data pools as for example the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN).

Enriching 1st-party data with 3rd-party is a mean to ensure namely better data completeness, better data consistency, and better data uniqueness.

2nd-party data is data sourced directly from a business partner. Examples are supplier self-registration, customer self-registration and inbound product data syndication. Exchange of this data is also called interenterprise data sharing.

The advantage of using 2nd-party in a data quality perspective is that you are closer to the source, which all things equal will mean that data better and more accurately reflects the real-world entity that the data is describing.

In addition to that, you will also, compared to 3rd-party data, have the opportunity to operate with data that exactly fits your operating model and make you unique compared to your competitors.

Finally, 2nd-party data obtained through interenterprise data sharing, will reduce the costs of capturing data compared to 1st-party data, where else the ever-increasing demand for more elaborate high-quality data in the age of digital transformation will overwhelm your organization.    

The Balancing Act

Getting the most optimal data quality with the least effort is about balancing the use of internal and external data, where you can exploit interenterprise data sharing via interenterprise MDM through combining 2nd-party and 3rd-party data in the way that makes most sense for your organization.

Interenterprise MDM is an emerging discipline in the data management world and one of the topics you can find on the Resource List at this site.