193 Copyright © 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 10 Quality Management of Corporate Data Assets Boris Otto University of St. Gallen, Switzerland INTRODUCTION Motivation Companies tend to refer to their corporate data (e.g. customer, supplier, and material master data) as a “true asset” for business. However, in the majority of cases, corporate data are not treated as such. This is particularly surprising consider- ing the impact high-quality corporate data has on business: • Telecommunication companies use mul- tiple sales channels for their products and services, e.g. the Internet, resellers, and shops. Despite this variety of sources of customer data, the company has to ensure availability of consistent, accurate, com- plete, and timely customer data (e. g. ad- dresses, contracts, bills etc.) when a call center agent receives an inbound call. ABSTRACT Corporate data assets such as customer, material, and supplier master data are critical when it comes to fulilling business requirements such as compliance to regulations, integrated customer management and global business process integration. Surprisingly, companies do not treat corporate data as an as- set, but rather focus on reactive quality management measures only. As a response to that, the chapter reports on the design of a reference model for Corporate Data Quality Management (CDQM). Following the principles of Design Science Research (DSR), the design process involved professionals of fourteen corporations headquartered in Germany and Switzerland. The reference model consists of six design areas which altogether comprise ifteen goals and 43 related practices. It supports practitioners during the establishment and optimization of their CDQM initiatives. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61692-889-6.ch010