Master Foo Defines Enterprise Data

Master Foo once said to a visiting CIO from a Fortune 500 company:
"Tell me. If a PC is destroyed in your company when nobody is around
to save it, does the event make a noise at boardroom level?"

The CIO thought for a moment and replied : "That would depend on
whether or not the PC held important enterprise data."

Master Foo, who seemingly anticipated this exact response, was quick
with his follow up question: "Indeed so. Tell me, how does your
organization define enterprise data?"

The CIO, who recently had presided over the installation of an
enterprise-wide database management system, could not believe his
luck. The question from Master Foo provided a great opening to hold
forth on the wonderful new enterprise data management system he was so
proud of.

"My definition", he began, "is that enterprise data is data that is
critical to a business function. In any large organization, it is not
unusual for information to be duplicated in multiple places. The
critical distinguishing feature of enterprise data is that it is the
definitive, authoritative source of a particular piece of business
information. Copies of enterprise data can be destroyed without any
significant adverse affects but it is vital for an organization to
centrally maintain definitive, authoritative versions of each piece of
mission critical data. This is what we do with our enterprise data
management system. We do not mind if PCs have copies of enterprise
data as long as the definitive version is managed centrally."

"Interesting", said Master Foo.

At this point, the CIO became slightly nervous. Master Foo often
pre-fixes a pointed observation with the word "Interesting".

"Tell me,", Master Foo asked with just the glimmer of enjoyment
appearing around his eyes, "what form does your enterprise data
management system take?"

With a little trepidation, the CIO replied : "We keep all our data in
a top of the range database management system. All our applications
are web based so users only need to have a web browser. All the data
and all the applications are held centrally."

The CIO was getting into his stride. He began to feel as if his fears
were unfounded. Perhaps this conversation with Master Foo was going
swimmingly after all? "I would go so far to say", he continued, "that
any of our employees could hurl their PC off the top of this mountain
with minimal impact on any of our business processes because we have
centralized all the enterprise data." He stopped, beaming slightly,
searching Master Foo's face for a positive reaction.

"Interesting", said Master Foo again.

"Oh dear", thought the CIO. Here it comes...

"How many of your employees use spreadsheets?", master Foo asked.

"Nearly all of the business users use spreadsheets.", the CIO replied.

"Are all the spreadsheets managed centrally too?"

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