You have customer records in Salesforce, billing records in Stripe, and support tickets in Zendesk.
Marketing asks 'how many active customers do we have?' Sales says 2,400. Finance says 2,100. Support says 2,650.
Everyone's right according to their system. And everyone's wrong.
There should be exactly one answer. That requires a single source of truth.
CRITICAL - Without master data, every system invents its own truth. Chaos follows.
Master Data Management (MDM) establishes a single, authoritative source for your core business entities. When you say 'customer 47', every system in your organization references the same record with the same attributes. No more three versions of the same customer in three systems.
It's not just about storage. It's about governance. Who can create a new customer record? Who can update an address? What happens when two systems disagree? MDM answers these questions with rules, not arguments.
MDM doesn't eliminate copies of data - it establishes which copy is the "golden record" that all other systems must sync to.
Master Data Management solves a universal problem: how do you maintain one authoritative definition of an entity when multiple systems need their own copy?
Designate one system as the master for each entity type. All other systems read from it and sync changes back through controlled channels. The master has final say on conflicts.
Three systems have different values for the same customer. Use survivorship rules to decide what goes into the golden record.
The single source of truth
Acme Corporation
support@acme.com
(555) 123-4567 x100
123 Main St, Ste 400, New York, NY
One record to rule them all
When duplicates are found across systems, MDM merges them into a single "golden record" using survivorship rules. Which system has the most accurate email? Which has the latest address? Rules determine what makes it into the master.
Keep systems in harmony
The master record syncs out to all consuming systems. Changes in downstream systems route back through controlled channels. If Salesforce updates an address, that change goes to the MDM hub, which then propagates it everywhere else.
Humans in the loop
Not everything can be automated. Data stewards review uncertain matches, approve merges, and handle exceptions. When the system finds 'J. Smith' and 'John Smith' with different phone numbers, a human decides if they're the same person.
Marketing says 2,400. Sales says 2,100. Finance says 2,650. They're all counting different things in different systems. This flow creates one authoritative answer: 2,247 unique customers with $4.2M total lifetime value.
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You declare Salesforce the 'master' for customers, but let people create customers directly in Stripe and Zendesk anyway. Now you have three sources of truth again, just with extra steps.
Instead: Enforce that new entities can only be created in the master. Downstream systems must reference, not duplicate.
You build the technical sync, but never establish who owns the data. When conflicts arise, there's no process. Updates get stuck in limbo. Different departments make conflicting changes.
Instead: Define data owners and stewards before building the pipes. Technology without governance is just faster chaos.
You attempt to create golden records for customers, products, vendors, locations, and employees simultaneously. The project takes two years. By the time you ship, requirements have changed.
Instead: Start with one entity type - usually customers. Get it right, prove value, then expand.
You've learned how to establish single sources of truth for your core entities. The natural next step is understanding how to map relationships between these mastered entities.