Managing Master Data to Maximize Value of Core Enterprise Systems

By Sam Sliman
President, Optimal Solutions Integration, Inc.

Large-scale SAP customers are intimately familiar with the challenges inherent in managing master data – customers, vendors, materials, etc. But what about the advantages of doing it well? You can “master” master data - and reap substantial rewards from a comprehensive master data strategy that features the proper tools, a proven methodology and an appropriate governance structure.

Many SAP customers have invested not only in mySAP ERP, but also in Business Warehouse (BW), Human Capital Management (HCM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and other systems that produce and consume master data. These disparate systems often store their own reference data about core business entities, i.e. master data. With no one system of record, it’s easy to see how data inconsistencies can result.

SAP NetWeaver Master Data Management (MDM) enables companies to define, change, and manage master data, ensuring consistent definitions and managing distribution of master data throughout the IT landscape. Working across heterogeneous systems, SAP MDM leverages existing IT investments while delivering centralized data management capabilities.

Benefits for Human Resources

Consolidation and harmonization of employee data provides a coherent picture of employees in a large, international corporation where mobility is a strategic need. SAP MDM enables an organization to maximize employee resources and respond quickly to market changes.

Benefits for Business Intelligence

As management personnel measure overall performance, they often find many versions of the truth. Finance has its own set of revenue numbers, sales has another, and different business units may have yet another. By helping to create a single version of the truth, SAP MDM enables accurate, consistent, real-time business performance reporting.

Benefits for Supply Chain Management

By providing centralized, consistent views of materials and other master data, SAP MDM helps the supply chain process flow more smoothly, improving supply chain visibility, reducing inventories, helping users better plan deliveries, and identifying trends in spending. It also improves the ease with which data is exchanged with trading partners throughout the supply chain.

Benefits for Customer Relationship Management

By creating a single, accurate, timely and holistic view of the customer across multiple channels and business lines, SAP MDM helps sales, marketing, and service teams better anticipate customer needs, provide targeted offers, and improve customer service.

Expertise Needed to Ensure MDM Success

Ultimately, master data management is best thought of as a process enabled by SAP MDM - an ongoing, specialized discipline, requiring a dedicated team focused on standards, data stewardship, consensus building, and change management – the cornerstones of a successful MDM program.

Click to Download FREE Optimal White Paper: Deploying SAP MDM