But that is the equivalent of stepping into a minefield. Any successful MDM programme requires three components: technology, processes and people. These three components make MDM-in-a-box a poisoned chalice. Near which IT departments worth their salt will not go, because it touches every data point in the business.

Fragmented, outdated and incorrect data can have a severe impact on the business. Data is typically stored in isolated and often broken silos. Greater data complexity and fragmentation is added through the requirements of the different lines of business and, to an even greater degree, by merger and acquisition activities. Business processes traverse the silos, but break down when the silos are not synchronised on the same data elements, and when certain data elements are only available in some of the silos.

MDM may well close the loop in enterprise data management, but without reliable, clean data no amount of process will deliver the business value sought through an MDM initiative. Data quality and effective data integration are critical elements of MDM and yet are often trivialised or overlooked.

Many companies either have no data quality and data integration standards, or are using hard-coded routines to manage constantly changing business rules and the data generated by them.

An effective MDM programme that is likely to touch every data point in the business is dependent on having the right data delivered to the right place at the right time.

If you do not have the full mix of people, processes and technology, then you will not achieve the return on investment (ROI) that business demands of IT today. Having the correct custodians who can bring the right business knowledge to bear on the programme is as critical as having the correct technology components to build the system.

Master data management is essentially a business issue, and should be driven by people who understand business, the organisation, and who use technology as an aid.

If you do not do that you stand a very real chance of joining the IDC statistic of US companies losing $616m annually due to poor-quality data. Data problems like that manifest in different ways: for example, more than one brochure is produced for a new product, multiple pamphlets are sent to the same customer or the company retains too much inventory.

It really is a problem for companies to ensure that internal and external data users access current information where and how they need it. A successful MDM programme gives them that quality data view, and, more importantly, a process to monitor the quality over time.