Welcome to the second part of the MDM Cult series, Check the earlier article for the Part 1.Large ERP systems are designed to manage all of the master data tailored for their system's needs. In this regard they are highly effective, but master data needs to be stored separately from the processes that use the data. As systems evolve over time, one of the easiest ways to modify complex system functionality is to modify the data to solve the problems. Many systems will have multiple customer IDs that map to the same customer to meet some custom reporting needs.
Another issue with storing master data in a process-oriented system is the need to store transactional history. As transactions are created, each is tagged with a combination of account, customer, product, cost center, and so on. These tags must be kept to maintain referential integrity in the system. These histories are like shackles to your master data, requiring multiple custom fields to maintain open and closed statuses.
Master data systems should be agnostic to the uses of this data. This approach keeps these records clean of any attempt to circumvent the programming of a production system. By eliminating the need to maintain ancient accounts for transactional history, MDM systems can provide clean representations of each master data set.
Different methods of implementing master data management
A master data management solution can have many different looks. It is very rare to see a large organization implement a corporate-wide MDM solution in one project. Most of these projects grow organically as different group associated with the project spread the word of the cost and time savings that MDM enables. There are a number of different factors that contribute to the style of implementation that is chosen. Some of these factors are:
Level of the organization behind this initiative
Structure of the current organization
Structure of the current functional systems
Complexity of the systems to be integrated
Size of the organization
Degree of internal pain attributed to master data issues
Level of the organization behind the initiative
A true enterprise-wide MDM implementation requires the highest level of an organization to underwrite the project. If data integration pains are felt at a lower functional level of the organization, single-dimension MDM solutions are a good fit. Once success is achieved for this one area, more centralized support for expanding the implementation may be found.
Size of the organization
How many people within the organization are dependent on this master data set? How many records need to be stored for each data set? These questions help an organization to determine the type of solution to implement. Once an organization reaches a certain size, implementing an enterprise-wide MDM solution in one project becomes unfeasible. A phased approach may be more prudent.
Structure of the current organization
Is the company large and centrally located? Will multiple organizational units need to be synchronized? Will the internal corporate culture create drag on the implementation of any new solution? As much as size matters, the current structure of an organization matters more.
Structure of the current functional system
When evaluating each system to integrate into an MDM solution, a number of structural elements can affect the decision-making process. Are all customers' records reflected in the system to be integrated? Do multiple records for the same customer provide some functional benefit to the system? Can these customer records be aggregated in the master data management solution? Freeing master data from process systems can allow for better data quality.
Complexity of the systems to be integrated
It is important to evaluate the complexity of each system to be integrated. How critical is the system to the business? What are the best methods to import/export master data from the system? Will the master data stored have a high correlation factor to other systems within the organization?
Degree of internal pain attributed to master data issues
As is the case with any IT project, how large a problem the current process creates for the organization is directly related to the amount of resources that are brought to bear on alleviating the issue. Without the financial incentive to optimize master data management, many organizations will choose less costly methods of data integration.
There are a number of different techniques for implementing an MDM solution for an organization. Many organizations begin MDM projects based on data integration issues associated with a dimension of their organization. During the initial research phases of MDM solutions, targeted solutions designed around their specific need will be very appealing. At first blush, these solutions will alleviate much of the data integration problems experienced by the organization. Two highly successful types of targeted MDM solutions are customer data integration (CDI) and product information management (PIM) solutions
Let see a little more in the next article.Have a nice and peaceful weekend.
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