A Beginner’s Guide to Master Data Management
Master Data Management is a discipline that is technology-enabled in which Information technology and business work together to ensure stewardship, uniformity, accuracy, accountability and semantic consistency of the enterprise master data assets. Today, data in the enterprises is spread across the various departments, systems and applications such as CRMs and ERPS. The possibility of data being redundant, fragmented and outdated is high and you may find it challenging to respond to any type of vital inquiries in regard to the performance indicators. For example, to know which branch of the business is the most profitable and what are the factors that are contributing to the growth of our business.
The right data can add more value to your business and on the other side the wrong data can ruin it. Data Accuracy helps business in improving your decision making process, improved marketing, compliance, and overall productivity. The better quality of the data the better the results.
When the data sources are increasing, it is vital to keep the data coherent, accurate and timely. It is no easy job to manage all the data consistently. Master Data Management makes it simple and easy to tackle the challenges by creating a master reference source. Good data governance ensures data security,validity and is one of the essential requirements of master data management.
Usually the type of master data management differs depending on the type of industry your enterprise operates in.
Some of the common features of Master Data include:
High Value – Master Data is used often for the purpose of analysis as it is a part of daily operations of the enterprise.
Not much Volatile – Usually Master data doesn’t change much as it changes lesser when compared to other types of data
Non-Transactional – Though master data is much part of the transaction process it does not consist of transactional data.
Complexity – Master data consists of large data sets that include multiple variables that makes it more complicated.
Focusing on Master Data
The central data within an organization that defines domains is the Master data. This type of data rarely changes and may include reference data. Most of the software systems that are used in any company have master data which is shared and used by many applications. Generally Master Data covers data falling into four main categories of an enterprise:
Classification – The groups who operate business with the enterprise such as prospects, suppliers, customers and associates.
Places – The places and the way they are segmented such as sites, location, geography and zones etc.
Items – Things that your enterprise manages or sells such as products, assets or services.
Organizational & Financial – Accounting and reporting classification include business units, cost centers, sales regions profit centers, price lists, organizational structures etc.
Let us understand some of the Essentials of Master Data Management:
Some of the best practices or critical components of a master data management for an enterprise include:
Data Quality Module : To ensure that data is credible this module helps you to monitor quality of the incoming data. According to the business needs and requirements, data quality rules for your master data has to be described by including a validation rules engines
Flexible Data Model : You require a flexible data model to manage and maintain your master data
Workflow Engine : Within a single flow, workflows allow users to package several activities. Master Data Management and its workflows include several functions that range from validation to merging entities.
Data Integration Module : This module helps you to integrate master data with other systems. It has robust processing engine and an simple, easy-to-use interface for the purpose of executiving high volume integration tasks
Amurta’s Best Master Data Management Platform deals with the opportunities related to user-generated, unstructured, and machine-generated data. Amurta’s Master Data Management Platform is equipped with rich functionalities required by small to large enterprises globally. Please do contact us at +1 888 840 0098 or you can email us at sales@amurta.com and we would be happy to assist you.
