A data warehouse incorporates processing for creating, managing, and otherwise maintaining master data. The data warehouse may communicate with a master data manager to obtain services for handling master data. A surrogate master data identifier may be defined by the data warehouse to reference the master data, thereby decoupling any modifications of the master data identifier that may be made by the master data manager. The data warehouse may export the master data to an application system, and conversely import master data from an application system.