BI Conference Update: Master Data Services(MDS) for SQL Server 2008 R2

Wednesday, June 9, 2010 by Socius

By Cindy Derosier – Socius Business Intelligence Consultant

During one of the sessions here at the BI Conference I learned about a new feature to SQL Server 2008 R2 called Master Data Services(MDS). It is a way for business users to do several things with the data that are not always captured in the ERP or CRM systems.

MDS captures supplemental data that is not captured when entering data into the ERP system allowing the business user to create special groupings or even change a product or customer from one group to another with drag and drop functionality.  MDS also has a web based interface that is easy to use and can be secured using SQL Server security. 

Another benefit to MDS is the versioning capabilities that will allow users to manage and save snapshots of hierarchies. This allows users to view data in a cube with the dimensions in a before-and-after view.  The auditing capability allows users to track who changed items and when they were changed. When used in conjunction with fuzzy logic, MDS will enable you to find duplicate data and match and map the duplicates for clean up.

MDS is an exciting new feature in the R2 release of SQL Server 2008; I look forward to learning more about this topic today at the BI conference…

Socius’ Business Intelligence Solutions team is in New Orleans attending the Microsoft BI Conference 2010 and Tech Ed.  Get a live stream of their activities at the conference by following @SociusBIguru on Twitter!