Patent ID: 8515921

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving a first set of data from a primary data repository; recording original instances of data from the first set of data; logically deleting redundant instances of the original instances of data; linking deleted instances of data to a recorded original instance of data; recording rationalization rules including a source of the rationalization rules; automatically rationalizing the first set of data by applying the rationalization rules that map one or more non-preferred data instances to a preferred data instance, where, during the automatic rationalization, a first non-preferred data instance and a first rule used to rationalize the first non-preferred data instance are linked to the first preferred data instance; storing automatically rationalized data in a rationalized data repository; providing any non-preferred data instances that have not been automatically rationalized into a preferred data instance to an interface for manual rationalization; receiving manually rationalized data that has been manually rationalized and storing the manually rationalized data in the rationalized data repository; and extracting additional rationalization rules based on the manual rationalization for use in subsequent automatic rationalization operations by: capturing a preferred data instance that is mapped to a given non-preferred data instance during manual mapping; saving the mapping of the captured data instance to the given non-preferred data instance as an additional rationalization rule to be used in automatic rationalization of subsequently received non-preferred data instances corresponding to the given non-preferred data instance; recording rationalization rules extracted during manual rationalization and sources of the extracted rules; receiving a second set of data from the primary data repository; and automatically rationalizing the second set of data by applying the rationalization rules and the additional rules to the second set of data, where, during the manual rationalization, a second non-preferred data instance and a second rule used to rationalize the second non-preferred data instance are linked to a second preferred data instance.