Master data management has become a leading data discipline in organizations where the proliferation of systems, personal databases, and tribal knowledge has overcome the ability to make key business decisions.
Master Data
What is master data? Most often referred to in relation to customers, suppliers, items, and employees, master data is the attributes about these entities.
In a world where transactions systems often hold only the information necessary to support order to cash or labor time to payroll, many of the attributes that support business decisions are held in separate source objects. These other sources include a salesman contact list, an access database on the AR clerks desktop, and even the sales manager's memory.
Centralized Repository
Master data management takes into account there are pieces of information about an entity that are not related to accounts receivable or accounts payable. It is necessary to know pieces of information and be able to link that information together to form one entity.
Disparity in Identifiers
The biggest challenge an organization faces when embarking on MDM or master data management is how to tie all of the disparate systems together identifying one unique customer, item, supplier, or employee. Master_Data_Management
For example, Customer A purchases big ticket items from the company salesman. Customer A also buys parts from an online purchasing system the company has set up to make the sales easy for the customer. Customer A also handles consignment goods and leases for the rental of equipment.
Initially, the systems were rolled out to the business communities independently of each other. Customer A was in the transaction system, but when he signed into the online system he created a new customer number for the system. Then as his business accepted consignment business from yet another system he was issued yet another customer number by the system.
As this demonstrates the more varied an organization is with the way a customer can enter an order the more entangled it can become. Add in suppliers, items, and employees and it becomes increasingly obvious there is a need to manage how all this information is tied together.
Duplication of Entities
Another large challenge to be faced when embarking on an MDM project is figuring out how many of the same entity exists in the source data. Imagine that sales clerk one is harried and hurriedly enters the customer as ABC Rentals, and sales clerk 2 looks for Alx Brb Cttntl Rntls doesn't find it and enters a new customer. Finally, clerk 3 looks for Alexander Barbara Cottontail Rentals and enters yet another customer. This generation of 3 separate customer numbers for one customer is yet another hurdle that must be overcome.
Finding the appropriate tools and utilizing them to provide an organization with an encompassing MDM system is a big endeavor and is a discipline that merits looking into for the savvy information technology professional. Enterprise Master Data Management - Key Challenges and Roles of People, Process, and Technology
Read more at Suite101: Master Data Managment Discipline: Newer Information Technology Career Paths http://computerprogramming.suite101.com/article.cfm/master-data-managment-discipline#ixzz0vACYpQp2
SOURCE:
http://computerprogramming.suite101.com/article.cfm/master-data-managment-discipline
Master Data
What is master data? Most often referred to in relation to customers, suppliers, items, and employees, master data is the attributes about these entities.
In a world where transactions systems often hold only the information necessary to support order to cash or labor time to payroll, many of the attributes that support business decisions are held in separate source objects. These other sources include a salesman contact list, an access database on the AR clerks desktop, and even the sales manager's memory.
Centralized Repository
Master data management takes into account there are pieces of information about an entity that are not related to accounts receivable or accounts payable. It is necessary to know pieces of information and be able to link that information together to form one entity.
Disparity in Identifiers
The biggest challenge an organization faces when embarking on MDM or master data management is how to tie all of the disparate systems together identifying one unique customer, item, supplier, or employee. Master_Data_Management
For example, Customer A purchases big ticket items from the company salesman. Customer A also buys parts from an online purchasing system the company has set up to make the sales easy for the customer. Customer A also handles consignment goods and leases for the rental of equipment.
Initially, the systems were rolled out to the business communities independently of each other. Customer A was in the transaction system, but when he signed into the online system he created a new customer number for the system. Then as his business accepted consignment business from yet another system he was issued yet another customer number by the system.
As this demonstrates the more varied an organization is with the way a customer can enter an order the more entangled it can become. Add in suppliers, items, and employees and it becomes increasingly obvious there is a need to manage how all this information is tied together.
Duplication of Entities
Another large challenge to be faced when embarking on an MDM project is figuring out how many of the same entity exists in the source data. Imagine that sales clerk one is harried and hurriedly enters the customer as ABC Rentals, and sales clerk 2 looks for Alx Brb Cttntl Rntls doesn't find it and enters a new customer. Finally, clerk 3 looks for Alexander Barbara Cottontail Rentals and enters yet another customer. This generation of 3 separate customer numbers for one customer is yet another hurdle that must be overcome.
Finding the appropriate tools and utilizing them to provide an organization with an encompassing MDM system is a big endeavor and is a discipline that merits looking into for the savvy information technology professional. Enterprise Master Data Management - Key Challenges and Roles of People, Process, and Technology
Read more at Suite101: Master Data Managment Discipline: Newer Information Technology Career Paths http://computerprogramming.suite101.com/article.cfm/master-data-managment-discipline#ixzz0vACYpQp2
SOURCE:
http://computerprogramming.suite101.com/article.cfm/master-data-managment-discipline
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