In the world of data, there is nothing more than customer data, product data and company infrastucture data. Customer name, address and contact information are some examples of customer data. Product pricing, color, size and weight are typical product data. When a product is marketed to a customer, more data are created: marketing campaign, prospect, segmentation, etc. For past or existing customers, their account details, billing data and service tickets belong to the intersection of product and customer. Corporate infrastructure data are general ledger, help desk, human resource data-- data required to keep the business running. If we consider these three circles the complete map of data, then each subject area owns its own place on this map. Every company’s map is unique because the placement of subject areas is different from company to company.

Adopting the Corporate Information Factory concept, we classify all data into the three categories. By determining the placement of all ongoing or upcoming projects and their data in the simple framework, a solid foundation of operational data can be built. This framework is able to visually represent the concentration and the usage of data subjects and elements. This approach help organizations prioritize the data architecture and guide the development of data sources over time. From there, our architectural guidelines will lead the environment to a fully integrated data architecture. Just like a federation of the political system, there will be a clear distinction between “federal level” governance and “local level” autonomy, coexisting in harmony!