Structuring the Taxonomy 

Repositories often start with legacy data that must be imported from multiple external sources. This data usually includes a variety of distinct formats and schemas, incompatible categorizations, and structural deficiencies that reflect shortcomings of the source application.

For optimal use within the MDM system, the raw data is normalized, cleansed, and restructured within MDM itself after the initial import. This is done using the collection of features in Taxonomy mode described in the following chapters, features that simplify an otherwise complex and amorphous process by breaking it down into a sequence of simple, discrete steps. They not only permit but actually encourage unlimited editing and restructuring of the initial category hierarchy, as well as other schema and data manipulation, on a fully populated MDM repository.

These same functions may also be used for updating and maintaining the repository as new product categories come and go, or as their associated attributes need to be fine-tuned. The MDM system excels at making these critical and usually complex tasks easy to accomplish.