In a repository domain, you frequently need to share metadata across repositories.

PowerCenter

provides a mechanism for sharing metadata among multiple repositories.

Sharing metadata can help you save time and reduce work by reusing metadata. It also helps enforce standards for the design of transformations at the enterprise level. For example, a sales division develops a standard calculation for the profitability of each product. This calculation is complex. It is based on variables such as production costs and marketing expenses. Because profitability is important information when investing in product development and building a sales strategy, you need everyone in the organization to use the same calculation. If you share the profitability calculation, you ensure that everyone views the value of each product the same way.

When you develop the component of a mapping that performs this calculation, you might want to reuse it in other mappings, even in other repositories. The profitability calculation might appear in several mappings in the sales division repository. The production, marketing, and accounting divisions might also need to use the same calculation in mappings in their repositories.