Leveraging Metadata for Efficient Data Management
American express plays a major role in helping merchants to buy and sell their goods and services. It provides advanced payment services to its client’s travel and expense management solutions for all sizes of businesses.
American express processes millions of transactions due to the high number of members around the world. It also assists small enterprise owners in purchasing and controlling their finances. American express also operates one of the largest travel networks for consumers and businesses.
Metadata is organized information that describes, explains and locates data, and even makes data retrieval easier (Smiraglia, 2005). The data could be information about a company’s physical data, technical and business processes. One of the importances of metadata is to ensure consistency in definitions. Metadata constitutes data that helps in differentiating terms such as a client, and a customer.
Meta data also helps in ensuring the clarity of relationships. Meta data is essential in ensuring consistency when identifying the relationships between entities stored in a database. Meta data also ensures the clarity of data lineage.
Metadata maintains the storage of information in the correct formats, location and steward. It is important for a large company such as American express to have a reliable system of data storage. With its large number of users, it is important that the company implements a data storage system that will help in effective data storage, retrieval and manipulation.
With slightly over 104 million active card users, 63,500 employees and assets worth $153 dollars, the company needs to have an effective and efficient data storage system. American express has embraced the use of advanced technology, whereby, consumers pay for products online, a process that enhances speed and convenience.
Develop a high-level plan that describes the steps you would use to create enterprise-level metadata
The first step that will be taken to ensure easier creation of metadata is to gather enough information before beginning the project. It is important to consider getting reliable data storage resources that can accommodate all data, which is likely to multiply and consume large disk space.
It is also important to understand the data with regard to aspects of its intended purpose, its validity, resources used to create it, what it represents and how it will be presented (Smiraglia, 2005).
The second step in creating the metadata is to review other examples of metadata that have been successful. This is conducted by examining how well other companies store their data and utilize the metadata system. This factor helps in determining the most appropriate strategy for the company (Smiraglia, 2005). The next step will involve selecting the most appropriate and easily available resources.
The resources to be used should have a user friendly interface to enhance easy usability of the system. This will be important in reducing the time taken to enter values in their respective fields. It will be advisable to first use data resources that are easily available while entering the data, so as to enhance accuracy. The final step after entering the data is to parse the records.
The parsing process reviews all the values and structures of the record with an aim of ensuring accuracy. This is done by identifying all existing errors in the metadata. It is important to run the parsing process over and over again until no errors are identified.
Develop examples of metadata specific to the context of your chosen organization that would demonstrate how the metadata stack would be useful within context of a particular implementation
The implementation of metadata will play a major role in the data storage and management of American express. American express needs to store huge amounts of data related to the clients’ details as well as all other transactions. All the information about the registered consumers and clients is stored in the company’s database.
When a new client signs up to be a card holder, he or she provides all his or her basic information, which is then stored in the database. All the transaction information that is carried out using the active cards is stored in the company’s database. This data requires to be organized in a consistent way. If the metadata is implemented, it will help in differentiating between terminologies which are close to having the same meaning.
The metadata will also play the role of identifying the relationships between the data stored in the database. This will identify the relationship between entities entered using different words, but that have the same meaning. If the metadata is implemented at American express, it will allow room for manipulating the data while making changes, deleting the data or correctly formatting the data (Caplan, 2003).
Another benefit that the American express will have from the implementation of metadata and proper information management is that it will have additional and quicker time to advertise new products in the market.
Additionally, there will be smooth product data integration in case of changes in the company because data all data will be presented together (Caplan, 2003). Additionally, the company will have a clear view of its performance; hence, it will be able to easily monitor changes in the market.
Analyze the role of ETL tools in the overall master data management project
Master data management is the process of creating and managing data. Here, the organization must have a master copy that is referred to as the master data (Loshin, 2010). The master data mostly comprises of information about clients, employees and products.
The importance of master data management is because it offers one copy of data that is accurate and clearly defined. In the absence of a master data, there is a possibility of having other copies of data that are not consistent with each other (Gordon, 2003). To ensure the privacy of data stored, the organization should hire reliable personnel to handle it.
Some of the tools required for the implementation of master data management include ETL tools, data quality tools, data profiling tools, database, web server, messaging server, test management server and the work flow tool (Loshin, 2010).
The ETL tool is used in the data integration section of the master data management implementation to alternate, standardize and transfer data to the master data management hub. Most of the master data management vendors have the ETL tool integrated into the application while others have the ETL tool presented as a separate application (Gordon, 2003).
Outline factors that would play a role in the selection of appropriate tools that would contribute to the success of a master data management project within the context of your chosen organization
As stated before, there are various tools that are integrated in the creation of master data management projects. Different master data management vendors utilize different types of tools. There are a number of factors that organizations are required to consider while making a choice on the master data management integration tool to use.
One of the factors companies need to consider includes the factors that will be affected by the implementation of that tool. In the case of American express, ETL is the best choice of integration tool because all the data is loaded in to one hub where it can only be accessed by authorized personnel. This is important in ensuring data security and privacy (Gordon, 2003).
Another factor that companies should consider in choosing a master data management integration tool is the size of the company. The integration tools preferred for small companies may differ from those chosen for large companies.
Large multinational companies such as American express will go for the high standing MDM vendors in the market since they have a wider experience in handling data management challenges (Loshin, 2010). Companies should also consider their background and past experiences so as to determine their performance in the market. For smaller sized companies, the choice of the vendor may depend on their suitability.
Higher standing MDM vendors are likely to charge higher prices as compared to the lower vendors in the market. It is important for the company to assess the vendor’s prices in the market to determine whether they can afford the services (Dubov, 2007).
Larger multinational organizations such as American express are not likely to consider the prices in the market, as they focus more on the quality of the services being provided (Loshin, 2010).
Another factor that should be considered is the probability of change in the management of the company. The management determines how data is managed, and how the attributes are added. In the case of change in management, the tools to be used should have the ability to store the history of data (Dubov, 2007).
The final factor that should be considered when choosing the MDM vendor is the availability of a data backup system. A large multinational company such as American express must have a reliable data backup.
References
Caplan, P. (2003). Metadata Fundamentals: For All Librarians: Chicago: American Library Association.
Dubov, L. (2007). Master Data Management and Customer Data Integration for a Global Enterprise: New York: Morgan Kaufmann.
Gordon, K. (2003). Principles of Data Management: Facilitating Information Sharing: London: The Chartered Institute.
Loshin, D. (2010). Master Data Management. Massachusetts: Morgan Kaufmann.
Smiraglia, P. (2005). Metadata: A Cataloger’s Primer. London: Routledge.