Definitie:
Master data, or reference data, is information that is key to the operation of business and is the primary focus of the Information Technology.


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Note added at 13 mins (2008-11-20 19:19:52 GMT)
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O alta varianta ar fi: date statice.
"Master data is data that lasts (static data) from one transaction to another in a business. If you are a customer of an online bookseller, name, address, email, and any other data used each time you buy a book is customer's master data. The list of the specific books that you are buying is transactional data—data that is specific to that order or transaction."
http://hubpages.com/hub/SAP_BW_Glossary

500000 master data
This is where we create, modify, more than 500 000 data every year, data that concerns our customers, our suppliers, our products, and our prices

Principala diferență dintre datele de bază și datele privind tranzacțiile este aceea datele de bază sunt datele care reprezintă persoane, locuri sau lucruri care sunt legate de o organizație, în timp ce datele despre tranzacții sunt datele utilizate de datele de bază.