Enterprise Metadata Management (EMM)

Enterprise metadata management (EMM) is the process of managing metadata, which gives additional information and context to other information and data assets of an organization. Metadata is information that describes the various facets of information assets, which improves its usability and enables easier management throughout its lifecycle. For example, in a given document, the metadata is the additional information that describes it such as the original author, the creation date, the modified date or notes that describe what the document is for.

Enterprise metadata management provides control and visibility needed to manage the change that often accompanies a complex enterprise data environment. EMM and the various software created for it provide management for data integration and allow users to view the links and roles of metadata.

EMM ensures that metadata is available in an effective way, making data more valuable. A common way of doing this is to aggregate and link metadata from a wide range of data sources so that it can be managed through a central hub.

Benefits of EMM include:

• Governs, integrates and manages data more easily through the understanding of the true meaning of information, from its actual content down to its metadata


• Reduces risks and manages change by avoiding errors and increasing regulatory compliance, eventually providing a holistic view of enterprise data across the organization


• Increases productivity by understanding the impact of specific data changes and enabling collaboration between technical and business stakeholders


• Facilitates better data flow between different systems


• Enables better governance of enterprise data assets


• Improves information access through context