The Golden Nominal customer master data record is the converged and unified customer master data record. Golden nominal records are a key concept within Customer Master Data Management (CMDM) and are defined as the single source of truth.
This single record represents a data point that captures all the necessary information your organization needs to know about a customer.
When combining customer records from disparate sources, you will often find duplication of customer master records. These records may not all be the same, they may have incomplete data attributes, spelling mistakes, or partial information. Over time some records may also diverge in terms of precision and content yet there may be a common linkage that informs you that two different records are referring to the same person.
If you can identify these different records and their relationship then blending their attributes to a new or a selected record, makes that target record the golden nominal.
Two choices are available in golden nominal creation: Survivorship or Derivation.
The main difference between survivorship and derivation in the context of creating a golden nominal record lies in how the single, unique record is obtained.
Survivorship
Survivorship involves selecting the most comprehensive record from a set of duplicate records that represent the same entity (The Customer). This is done by applying a set of rules that compare the values of certain attributes across the duplicate records and choosing the “surviving” record that has the most complete information in the cluster.
The approach for selecting the golden record using survivorship is:
- Manual review and selection
- Explicitly prioritizing the record or data sources
- Applying the rules at the attribute level, that compare the attributes (e.g., choosing the record with the most complete name, then the one with a verified phone number, etc.)
Derivation
Derivation, on the other hand, refers to creating a single, unique reference record by combining information from multiple sources, even if there are no exact duplicate records.
In this case, a golden nominal record is derived by gathering the most accurate and up-to-date information about an individual from various systems and touchpoints within an organization. The goal is to have one true view of the customer where all relevant details are stored in a single place.
Derivation is often used in the public sector to achieve a single view of citizen information, where data is collected across multiple government agencies and systems.