Governing reference data for trusted reporting

Whitepaper

What are reference data and why are they important?

Reference data are attributes that describe or define other data. Reference data are reusable data elements that may be shared across multiple applications. For example, a list of countries and country codes may be used for multiple purposes including ‘Country of Origin’, ‘Country of Residence’ and ‘Country Issuing Passport’. 

Quality reference data is important as it is typically used to categorise and classify data for reporting purposes. If reference data is not managed centrally then ambiguities may arise, particularly when data is consolidated from multiple applications for reporting purposes

This whitepaper defines and describes reference data, discusses some of the common challenges, and presents capabilities for delivering trusted reference data to both internal and external stakeholders.