Master data management projects are no small undertaking, and there's a lot at stake. So, I suspect consultant Ralph Kimball will be speaking to a full virtual house during the free Web seminar he's giving on the topic of starting and managing MDM/EDW projects.

Kimball, who founded the Kimball Group, is an expert in data warehousing and business intelligence. The virtual event is scheduled for Thursday, at 1:30 p.m., ET. It will run for a whopping 75 minutes, although that time does include a discussion by the event's sponsors, Informatica and MicroStrategy.

But if you're looking at MDM or EDW, Kimball's talk might be worth sitting through the vendor's pitch. The event is titled “An Action Plan to Align Your Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) and Master Data Management (MDM) Projects,” and the promo promises Kimball will be discussing the key elements for creating such an action plan, including:

• Where to start.
• How you fit the data pieces together.
• What registry styles you should consider.
• What works and what doesn't.
• How to manage an MDM or EDW project.

From the write-up, it appears the discussion will be relevant to both operational and analytical MDM.

One thing did puzzle me a bit about the presentation. The registration pages notes that the sponsors “will discuss approaches and considerations for building MDM solutions while leveraging your existing EDW and BI infrastructure.”

But way back in 2008, Philip Howard of Bloor Research noted that MDM usurped EDW. To be precise, here's how he put it:

“...when MDM is implemented then that becomes the system of record instead of the EDW. Even if that is held within the warehouse the system of record is still logically within the MDM system and not the EDW. So, what is the implication of this for the EDW? Put simply: you don't need one.”

Of course, that was two years ago, so maybe the understanding of how EDW/MDM work together has evolved. If you plan to attend, you might read Howard's take on the matter.

While I'm on the subject of integration and free stuff, here's a new resource for those interested in integration competency centers: The Integration Consortium last week launched a free group for ICC enthusiasts. Even if you're not an “enthusiast,” you might want to join anyway, because group members have free access to all of the ICC-related content on the Consortium's site.

Executive Director Leanne MacDonald says members of the group can also download a free copy of "An Integration Competency Center - An Implementation Methodology" – a 144-page book - until Nov. 9.