Solving from the Top of the Transformation Chain

* Identifying. After matching, each new and unique entity should be assigned a permanent ID. IDs that embed information (e.g., the first three digits of the ID carry information about location) generally require significant effort to maintain - in most cases, more effort than the resulting benefit because the same data can simply be a field in the database. At this stage, all known names (legal name, doing-business-as names, nicknames, etc.) and addresses should be tied to the single ID. One of the most serious problems that any entity information system can suffer from is multiple instances of the same entity, each with a separate ID. In other words, the key to successful identification is the matching process. * Linking. Once an entity has been uniquely identified, your business end users will need a clear picture of the relationships between entities. For example, how does a unique ID link tax IDs? What are the parent, child and sibling relationships between entities? What are all the transaction types that a given customer has with your company? This is almost always the most difficult step in the transformation process, and it is completely dependent on the quality of your sourcing, matching and identifying links in the transformation chain.