Eighty-three percent of organizations contacted suffer from problems caused by poor master data, according to “Master Data Management: Consensus-Driven Data Definitions for Cross-Application Consistency,” a report issued by The Data Warehousing Institute.

TDWI, a worldwide provider of research and training for data warehousing and business intelligence professionals, based its report on a survey of 741 business and information technology professionals.

TDWI found that the top three master data problems—inaccurate reporting, arguments over which data are appropriate and bad decisions based on incorrect definitions—are related to data warehousing and business intelligence.

“The vast majority of users attest that master data management problems are real, numerous and severe,” said Philip Russom, author of the report and senior manager of research and services at TDWI.

Thirty-three percent of the survey participants said that their enterprise was designing, implementing or had deployed a master data management solution.

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