What is master data? Master data is the crucial, all-important data that all businesses rely on to function on a regular, day-to-day basis. It is the core data at the heart of the business process and describes the relationship of the environment and how it relates to the complete business process. Master data encompasses all the data used throughout the entire business process life cycle. It can include - but is not limited to - such relationship processes as: clients (both internal and external), sales, product development, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution. Master data is what keeps the organization moving forward and on track to achieve and exceed the desired strategic goals. The success of every business is reliant on the accuracy, validity, and transparency of its data. In order to maintain the highest levels of productivity and profitability, it is crucial that every organization has master data that is accurate, true, and without any duplication or other errors.
Master data management (MDM) is the process of establishing specific dynamic rules to ensure master data is precise, accurate, and true. Master data management will look at and review every aspect of the data, from entry to maturity, and discover where any integrity issues can, have, or will occur. MDM will also identify and fix any errors, duplicates, or irregularities to the master data and set guidelines to ensure those issues are not repeated in the future. Solid MDM will bring all aspects of the business organization together and integrate all data cohesively and seamlessly to ensure the business can maintain the highest levels of functionality, productivity, and profitability.
Today, every business relies heavily on its digital processes to get the desired, successful results needed to ensure the highest levels of transparency, productivity, and profitability. It is vital to the inherent business life cycle to guarantee every component of the process is secure, consistent, and accurate. An effective, efficient master data management solution will give you the best perspective on the full 360 life-cycle of your business process from inception, development, manufacturing, sales, distribution, customer satisfaction, and more. If there is ever any compromise in the integrity of your data, a gap in your business processes or supply chain management could occur, resulting in customer satisfaction that could be severely affected and result in a potential loss of productivity and profitability.
Imagine there was an incorrect address for a key supplier to deliver the necessary product for manufacturing. If those much-needed supplies went to the wrong location, how many days of productivity would be lost? How would such an error affect manufacturing, order fulfillment, on-time delivery, or customer satisfaction? Such an avoidable error could result in tremendous loss to an organization. This is only one example of the importance of utilizing a master data management solution for your organization.
There are varying levels of responsibility with regard to master data management. Every organization has different titles for its pre-assigned role-players. In this process, you generally have three basic levels of responsibility: administrators, processors, and data process clerks. Below is an example of their roles and responsibilities.
Administrators: This group is the creators and governors of the solution. They will decide how the data will be managed, the duties required to manage the data solutions, how the data will be used, and who has access to the data, and be responsible for the overall process.
Processors: This group owns the process of setting up, configuring solutions, problem-solving, and ensuring those solutions meet all the criteria prescribed by the administrators. They will set and manage the rules for caring for the data throughout the 360 life-cycle process for the entire organization.
Data process clerks: This group is the first point of contact for organizing, inputting, repairing, cleansing, and maintaining the data inside the solution. These valuable key players come from many different areas of the organization. They can be from HR, accounting, marketing, shipping, or any point of service where any data would be introduced to your organization. Their roles and responsibilities are assigned per the direction of the administrators of the master data management solution.
A master data management tool is a hardware or software solution that provides efficient, secure, scalable options to help organizations protect and maintain the integrity of their master data. A master data management tool can be configured to meet any organization’s specific needs and objectives. It will run checks, fix errors, monitor inconsistencies, look for duplicates, and link and match data in a fast and efficient manner. Although many management data tools are available as on-premises solutions, the current trend today is a heavy migration and preference to the cloud, and therefore there are numerous effective cloud solutions to suit every organization’s needs.
Master data management has several benefits, including:
There is a master data management tool that will work best for every organization's specific needs. There are master data management tools available for every business size and every business type. Below are some of the ideal, key features to consider when choosing the best master data management tool for your organization:
