Bernie Madoff's Client List vs. MDM: Lessons Learned
While Bernard L. Madoff awaits sentencing from the comforts of his prison cell, the rest of world (financial and legal authorities) is untangling the web of investor connections, "feeder funds" and victims' transactional data that grew out of his now-infamous Ponzi scheme.
Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC's database of customer data (containing information on account owners, their addresses, and the relationships of the names and addresses to Madoff) and its spiraling connections is, in fact, not unlike what you'd find in many companies today: siloed databases chock full of customer, partner and supplier information that typically has consistency and data-cleanliness problems.
This nearly universal business problem ultimately leads many a company to investigate and launch master data management (MDM) programs.
MDM has always had the classic tech-industry buzz worthiness surrounding it: it's a three-letter acronym; not everyone knows exactly what it stands for; and there's confusion over whether it's a technology or an enterprise strategy aided by technology.
MDM has come along with a memorable catchphrase -- MDM: Helping companies get to "one version of the truth."
Do You Know Who You Do Business With?
Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the topic, MDM conversations have been known to induce spontaneous yawns and blank stares across board rooms and IT departments when the topic comes up for discussion. (Read how Nationwide was able to pull off a massive MDM transformation, despite numerous obstacles.)
With all this in mind, a new MDM vendor named DataQualityFirst seized on the Madoff scandal to offer a real-world example of how complex data management can be for businesses today and how a software solution can help understand and better manage the mess.
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MDM
In the case of Madoff and the list, since nothing Madoff says can be believed, can all the names on the list be believed as being genuine accounts? Of course, I understand that some of the accounts were closed out years ago, but the names are still around (just like I still get mail 10 years later addressed to the previous owner of my home).But, my point is, just because we see something in print, does not make it real. Over the years he lied and deceived. It would be no surprise to me that some of the names in there were created to mislead. Example: having the name of a close associate who knew all about the Ponzi, but since their name is there as a Madoff investor (i.e. loser), then that person could not have known about the Ponzi scheme.
The information that is disseminated can only be as good as the source it comes from. In the case of the Madoff list, nothing can be assumed.
Ruth Madoff
Attention Shifting to Ruth Madoff : http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/5501#more-5501