Critical data elements

Critical data elements are key elements of party information that are used as criteria for processing searching suspects, matching suspects, suspect categorization adjustment, actions to be taken on suspects found, and decisions around data survivorship.

Suspected duplicate processing is driven by changes to critical data. For example, if a person's address changes, you need to determine whether, with this new address, the person is now a better match with another person in the system who already has that address.

By default, the MDM Classic Matching Engine has the following pieces of data defined as critical data elements:

Person critical data elements

• Last name
• Given name one
• Date of birth
• Address
• Social Security Number
• Gender

Organization critical data elements

• Name
• Address
• Tax Identification Number

The set of critical data elements can be customized to match your business requirements. The set of critical data elements that you select as best uniquely identifying a Person or Organization according to the nature of the information that is stored in your various business systems is the key to determining how successful your suspected duplicate processing strategy will be. This fact underscores the importance of data profiling and standardization.