Master Data Management tools for your project
Business applications process transactions that use layers of data. At the surface, users interact with transactional data such as sales orders, purchase orders, transfer orders, production orders to record their business activities. These transactions then rely on a foundational layer such as product, customer, vendor, employee, warehouse, etc. This foundation is often referred to as the master data. Similar to a house with a bad foundation, you cannot rely on a business process running on bad master data. Some companies deploy best-of-breed Master Data Management (MDM) tools to address their problems. Here are some thoughts before you deploy one.
Let’s start with the problem. Why do companies struggle with their master data? A typical company runs dozens of applications to conduct its end-to-end businesses. It is common to see a financial system hooked up to multiple operational systems which specialize in their respective areas or regions. For example, a central ERP system integrated into a PLM system, a retail system, an e-commerce system, a warehouse management system, a regional payroll system, etc. Each of these systems handles different types of transactions which then enforce their own master data requirements. Most of this master data is shared. For example, products cut across pretty much every supply chain system. Customer data is used on any sales and marketing system. At the end of the day, what you are left with is multiple points that maintain the same master data with different formats and requirements. In order to get these business applications to talk to each other, you need to sync them at the master data level.
Master Data Management (MDM) can get quite tricky as well. Products may share the same data but need different fields to support their transactions. For example, the product master is shared across both a wholesale and an e-commerce system that can enforce their own product attribution to the structure. In addition, these application-specific fields may impose their own business logic. For example, a product group selection for a product may rely on values stored in a separate application. Moreover, these fields and their selections may have date effectivity and versions. You can see how an innocent small master data management initiative can sprawl into a large complex project.
Before you jump into deploying a best-of-breed MDM tool, please check the problem statement first. If you are planning to keep multiple business applications around, then you may need the tool. Just set your expectations right. Deploying a best-of-breed MDM tool means you are going to embed multiple applications formats and logic into a single tool which needs to be constantly maintained going forward. On the other hand, if you are planning to consolidate your applications under a single platform, wouldn’t that platform automatically become your MDM tool? You may not end up bringing all the processes under that platform, but if you had enough of them, that platform will manage your master data. Imagine a business application platform that can run all your finance, supply chain, manufacturing, distribution, retail operations across wholesale, e-commerce, and retail channels. That answers the source of the problem directly and offers the best solution.
If you are interested to learn more, please connect with me on LinkedIn, follow me on Twitter, or watch me on YouTube.
My name is Cem and this has been another gem.
