EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

Special Report: FOCUS on MDM

Master Data Management – the Path to a Sound Data Governance Plan
and Business-Ready Data™

If you are an executive in charge of these areas, read on.

LEGALREGULATORYOPERATIONALFINANCIAL
  • Reduce Risk
  • Reporting Conformance
  • Improve Compliance
  • Traceability
  • Eliminate Redundancy
  • Eliminate bottlenecks and backlogs
  • Increase Customer Value
  • Improve consolidated reporting accuracy

 

Master Data Management (MDM) can be the organizational shift in your business
that has a profound effect on improvement.

Applied correctly, Master Data Management can drive a successful Data Governance process. Data Governance is designed to reduce business-process interruptions resulting from data inaccuracies by improving Business Data Readiness.

Improve your Data Readiness by applying proven MDM solutions and Data Governance methodologies

However, applying this methodology is not the hard part. The hardest part is change. Each area of your business has its embedded processes, methods, technology and human input. How do you overcome resistance to change when focusing on measurable goals in improvement?

You can achieve a resistance-free path to improvement, through Data Governance guidance and a unique approach in MDM that identifies risks and solutions for change management, data quality and business process interruption.

Symptoms of Business Process Interruptions and Red Flags in MDM

Are you suffering Business Process Interruptions in your MDM projects?

  • Polluted master data
  • Difficulty finding customers, vendors, products in your ERP systems
  • Takes more than 3 weeks to enter new materials
  • Impossible to validate new information
  • Data quality issues with migration or new inputs

MDM Red Flags

  • Many users, many points of data entry
  • Varying levels of ERP knowledge
  • Unchecked errors
  • Little enforcement of SOPs
  • All data entry controlled by COE, which becomes the "data manager"
  • Data quality problems from either migration or new inputs
  • Business interruption related to incomplete, missing or erroneous data

Tom Kennedy, CTO, BackOffice Associates, explains how BackOffice solutions bring technology and expertise to the toughest data management projects and smooth the way for data migration, master data and data governance success!  See Tom Kennedy at MDM Summit, New York City  

Learn how BackOffice Associates solutions end MDM project chaos and enable your business to achieve ongoing data stewardship and control regardless of which ERP or database systems you use:

  • Provides a thorough understanding of the ongoing creation, collection, integration and maintenance of your ERP data
  • Provides solutions to optimize performance and profitability from your ERP system(s)
  • Eliminates data redundancy, content errors, data omissions
  • Creates backbone for data standards
  • Provides MDMb® - product that includes technology and process to establish MDM at your organization
  • Establishes a Data Governance process to support MDMb

Guidance for Executives: Steps to Successful Data Governance

Executive Sponsorship: Make an enterprise-wide commitment to data improvement. Don’t get caught unprepared. According to Aaron Zornes of the MDM Institute, enterprises will spend more than $4 billion on Master Data Management solutions by 2013. (Information Management Magazine, May/June 2010)

Governance Group Leadership: Assign Data Owners within each silo to take responsibility for their data, and engage the entire team in group leadership. According to Gartner, the world’s leading IT industry research group, “Many MDM challenges have nothing to do with technology. Obstacles include getting executive sponsorship and stakeholder support, justifying the business case, building data governance and data stewardship capabilities, and managing change in the organization.” (Gartner, Ten Best Practices for MDM of Product Data, 16 March 2010.)

Assess Data Risks using proven methodology. Find out where the “data leaks” are. Assess your financial drain associated with those leaks. Identify the gaps in organizational management, follow-through, and metrics.

Choose Active, Directed or Passive Data Governance. Initializing a Data Governance Process can be quick, painless and non-threatening. Adapt your organization over time to built-in methods and process without spending on retraining or additional headcount.

Measure Results. Using proven metrics and the ease of web-based access, expect to be able to see results on your desktop in near real time. Keeping track of the heart of your business should not be an arduous task of IT backlog, reporting and mismatched data. According to a recent survey by AMR Research, overall ERP operating budget spending was significantly greater in salaries and fees than in application and system costs. Says AMR Research analyst Bill Swanton, “Are you getting the value from ERP that you expected? Are you doing the right things to get and demonstrate the value of your hard work in improving business processes with ERP? Too many companies are struggling to get this right.” (AMR Research, Value from ERP: Where is the Operating Budget Going? 13 October 2009)

Read more about our Data Governance Methodologies and MDM Solutions.

To learn more about our products and solutions, contact us.

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