A system prevents the creation of duplicate records and identifies, groups, and
consolidates duplicate records and manages the associated workload. A method consolidates
multiple records that are associated with a single entity and are stored in at
least one record repository. The method involves identifying first and second records
and applying record matching criteria to compare data element content of the first
and second identified records to determine commonality data. The commonality data
is indicative of a likelihood the first and second records are associated with
a common entity. The first and second record content is merged into a composite
record in response to the determined commonality data. One of the first and second
records are selected as a surviving record based on earliest date of record creation
or relative content of the first and second records.
