Defining enterprise information management (EIM) vs. other data management initiatives

EIM is not different. EIM is comprised of MDM, data governance, data warehousing and other interdependent data management initiatives or EIM functional components. EIM components include data governance/stewardship, information architecture, information quality management, master and reference data management, data warehousing/business intelligence, structured data management, unstructured data management, metadata management and information security.

In order for the business benefits of an EIM initiative to be fully realized, organizations must understand the...

interdependency of the framework components. The components will typically fail if treated as independent (siloed) projects as opposed to a larger enterprise program initiative. Foundational framework components (data governance/stewardship, information architecture, metadata management) should typically be the first focus, depending on a corporation's EIM maturity level, while still keeping a strategic EIM perspective.