MASTER DATA MANAGEMENT FOR MID-SIZE ERP IMPLEMENTATIONS

August 2013

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Master Data Management (MDM) has been a hot topic in business systems architecture for a number of years. It reflects the increasingly complex nature of global business with key master data existing in multiple systems. Many Data Management methodologies and data integration, federation and data quality technologies now exist to address the challenges raised by this complexity. But what does MDM mean to a smaller mid-size Organisation and how relevant is it to ERP implementations in this scale of organisation?

Introduction Well maintained Master Data is a foundation stone of integrated business systems like ERP and Business Intelligence. The very real and complex MDM challenges that large multi-site organisations face are widely documented and can be addressed using a variety of sophisticated data management tools and methodologies. What, however, of the smaller mid-sized organisation that is embarking on a modern ERP implementation for the first time. While ERP has been around for a long time it is still new for organisations that haven’t implemented it before. At the smaller end of the mid-size organisation tier there are many such organisations. Complex MDM may not be relevant to an organisation of this scale but good quality Master Data certainly is.

A typical scenario for a small to mid-size company embarking on ERP is that they have an accounts package, maybe including some sales and procurement process support and, if they are lucky, basic inventory management. The basic system may be augmented with various work-arounds, customisations and manual processes to cater for specific nuances of the business. Various point solutions may exist around the business to cater for CRM, Warehouse Management, Transport Management, Quality, HR and various other business processes. Typically integration between the systems and even between modules within the core system may be minimal or non-existent. This patchwork quilt of systems and processes often begets a disjointed view of master data and a disjointed approach to its creation and maintenance.

Product data is a common victim – products may be created in the system by the purchasing department because they are the first ones that need to transact the products. Typically they will address the fields that are relevant to the purchase of the product. The creation of attribute values relevant to inventory management, manufacturing, distribution or sales might be recorded later by different departments, possibly in different systems or spreadsheets. Similar scenarios may occur for

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other master data entities. All of this fragmentation of entity creation and separation of data ownership leads to a lack of appreciation of the requirement to manage master data as an asset within the organisation and tends to lead to incomplete and poor quality master data. While organisations may get away with this in an environment characterised by non-integrated systems, manual processes and work-arounds, the success of their ERP implementation will be hugely dependent on the quality of the master data.

So what initiatives can a small to mid-size organisation build into their ERP implementation project to ensure the creation and persistence of good quality master data?

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About Lumenia Lumenia is a leading independent ERP consulting organisation and is not aligned with any ERP or other vendor of business software. We provide objective advice and experienced project resources to organisations that are planning to upgrade or change their ERP systems. Specifically, we provide services in the following areas:

• ERP strategy development • ERP product and vendor selection • ERP project management • ERP change management • ERP data migration management • ERP systems validation

We have offices in Ireland and the UK and work globally with many of the world’s leading companies. For more information, please contact Lumenia at: Ireland Parkmore Business Park West, Galway T: + 353 (0) 91 746940 UK 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9BP T: + 44 (0) 207 4708766 W: www.lumeniaconsulting.com E: info@lumeniaconsulting.com Copyright BSM Ireland 2013. Lumenia Consulting is a registered Business Name of BSM Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. No unauthorised reproduction without the Author’s written consent. All references to this publication must cite Lumenia as the author and include a link to Lumenia’s website. Lumenia is not liable for any errors contained within this article.