Survey Methodology

Please note: I am obviously not a professional market research firm, so this is is an understandably limited sample. Still, I am hearing some interesting things that may put your own Master Data work in a bit more context.

• I’ve put together a little survey (download from here) which is intended to take about 15 minutes to complete – that should give you an indication into the amount of rigor and depth I am looking for.
• Please fill it out and email the result to BMRMDM@cazh1.com

I’ve received input from ten companies so far – large and small, with all sorts of ERP systems. If you care to add some information, I’ll thank you in advance, and add it (sufficiently anonymized) to the summary results document (download from here).

Here are some of the findings / observations from the summary …

Master Data Domains

The types of Master Data called out included the usual suspects – Customers, Vendors, Finished Goods, Employees. Others mentioned include Metadata, Packaging / Tooling (components), and Indirect customers (like Payors in managed care, or Buying Groups in B2B). The primary systems in scope included SAP, Oracle, JDEdwards, and QAD, joined by an eclectic mix of legacy systems and point solutions. Secondary systems called out included Siebel, JDA/Manugistics, and ADP (payroll) – plus more legacy / home grown / departmental apps.

Master Data initiatives varied, based on where the “current pain” is – R&D / engineering, CRM / Customers / Contracts / Pricing, and Finished Goods / Logistics were named by different companies as their particular focus areas. Other important considerations were things like geography (North America vs. ROW), and business structure (Enterprise vs. business unit vs. local plant).

A significant determinant of how folks thought about this problem was how their ERP is implemented – in a fully integrated “enterprise” (Finance, Order Management, Supply Chain, etc.) – and/or how the instances are divided (all enterprise, by location (geography) or by business unit).

Note, however, that relatively few respondents are concerned with synchronizing data across multiple instances – a popular callout / feature of some MDM solutions. they will speak of “integration”, but a focus of the conversations were all around quality and process, not synchronization.

An interesting frustration from some of the respondees; the ERP system(s) do not capture all of the required attributes for an item, so these additional details are kept in a separate, siloed system. Easy examples would be specific attributes (like shipping material specifications), but there were multiple instances where [so-called] Master Data is calculated with complex formulas / rationale, so an Excel component is required (typically in the area of pricing / quoting details).

Note: I believe we should consider computation of pricing as a (potentially) complex process that occurs in it’s own transactional / analytical system (aka “the magic gonkulator”). The output is master data – but the calculations don’t belong in an MD system.

Size & Scope of Master Data

Predictably, there was a great variation in the responses – 100s to 1000s of customer, vendors, finished goods. However, the interesting trend was the notation that 10s of people (relatively large numbers, based on size of the company), were “responsible” (i.e. “did some of the data entry”). Could this be why there is interest in MDM and an MDM organization? Apparently, Master Data is often managed like a wiki – everybody is an editor.

Note This is not always “out of control” – companies that have reasonably sized groups are the same ones that speak of metrics and controls. However, few report the existence of a centralized data governance organization (see below).

Most organizations have no metrics in place; a few can speak to “data police”, folks that actively monitor the data looking for issues. Best examples cited included “Health Check measures” (does data fit set of established guidelines / tolerances); vendor audits, and [results of] scrubbing (ex. Name And Address data against external sources).

When asked about the business benefits of a Master Data Management effort, most companies left this blank or said “none”. I generally got the sense that hard benefits are difficult to quantify; notable exceptions seem to come from past pain. Some organizations spoke to inventory reductions and transportation savings – both derived from more accurate supply chain data, which is facilitated by clean, consistent, complete Master Data.

Master Data in the Organization

Many companies keep control / accountability at the functional area. However, companies with “enterprise ERP” implementations (full integration of Finance, Order Management, Supply Chain) typically call out ownership at the Enterprise level. It’s not about the size of the company or the recency of their implementation – it’s the degree of integration within the primary ERP.

Organizational specifics were tougher to get at – depending on how the company managed their master data. Generally speaking, companies that manage Master Data at a functional level (Customer Service, Purchasing, Finance) have organizational clarity. However, folks that say they manage at the Enterprise level had the wispier definitions for Title and Accountability

Of note: centralized MDM teams rarely manage the bigger projects (implementations, acquisitions, or special projects with large MD components) – but they will (out of necessity) participate. None of the respondents look to these organizations / people for project management skills. However, there were some good callouts for the communication / change management skills required for the role, especially where the group has to review implications of adds / updates [of Master Data items] with multiple groups that will/may be impacted.

Scope of Responsibilities

An interesting, consistent set of answers in this area; “Yes, we take ownership and accountability – but no, we can’t measure it”. To be fair, not all companies had that clarity of ownership, but the lack of sharp, clear quality metrics is noticeable. Content, Quality, and Governance are consistent in all of these companies … consistently not-well defined, not well measured.

Positives & Challenges

Funny how best practices in one company are challenges in another. There are two recurring themes throughout the responses; Quality and Complexity. The latter is interesting; this was the first point in the survey where the difficulties of Finished Goods Master Data were raised. Many companies call it out as a large challenge; all of them cite the complexity, the multiple facets (manufacturing, packaging, warehousing, transportation, pricing, costing) and the cross-functional nature

Full Results

The summary results document is available for download from here; I will add a version date on the page and keep it up to date as additional surveys come in.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Let me know …

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Send mail to webmaster at cazh1 dot com
© Jim MacLennan for cazh1, 2009. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: corporate information systems, data, data governance, data management, ERP, Execution, JDA Manugistics, legacy systems, market research, market research project, Master Data, QAD, SAP, skunk works, Supply Chain

All articles, blog entries, and other content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons License    ]]> http://www.cazh1.com/bootstrap-market-research-master-data-management-results/feed/ 0 http://www.cazh1.com/bootstrap-market-research-master-data-management-what-who-how/ http://www.cazh1.com/bootstrap-market-research-master-data-management-what-who-how/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:08:00 +0000 Jim MacLennan http://qc.cazh1.com/?p=317 I’ve been asked a lot of questions about “Master Data Management” over the past few weeks – what does it mean, who does it, and what are some tools and metrics that organizations are using to reign in this important aspect of ERP and analytics systems. I started reaching out to the folks in my professional network with some results, but I thought I might be able to leverage LinkedIn and Twitter to get input from far and wide. This “bootstrapped” market research might not deliver the depth and reach of the bigger technology research firms, but it will be interesting to see what can be gathered.

Bootstrap Market Research: Ground Rules

1. I’ve put together a little survey (download from here) which is intended to take about 15 minutes to complete – that should give you an indication into the amount of rigor and depth I am looking for.
2. Please fill it out and email the result to BMRMDM@cazh1.com
3. I’m trying to get input from a number of companies – large and small, with all sorts of ERP systems. So in return for your input, I’ll be happy to email you an aggregated, anonymized summary of what folks are telling me. Please note that none of your specific answers will be tied to your company name in any way.

Some Definitions

What do I mean by master data? Compare and contrast to transactions …

• Transactional Data – describes “events”
  • Production orders, material movements, and confirmations
  • Customer orders, shipments, and invoices
  • Payments, credits, rebates, and returns
  • Journal entries
• Master Data – describes “facts”
  • Finished goods, raw materials, and work-in-process
  • Manufacturing routings, warehouse picking strategies
  • Customers, vendors, employees
  • Organizations and hierarchies
  • Chart of accounts
  • (also referred to as Reference Data, Configuration Data)

The Question of Ownership

I’ve asked this question before – who owns Master Data? – but there may be some different understanding over what “ownership” refers to. Is the “owner” responsible for …

• Master Data Quality?
  • Data Structure, including requirements and interdependencies
  • Process & Procedure for getting Master Data into the system
  • Access & Training for getting Master Data out of the system
  • Audits & Quality Checks to make sure corporate requirements and standards are met
  • Metrics & Visibility for critical Master Data processes, especially when adding new products
• Master Data Content? (for example …)
  • Structure of the chart of accounts
  • Bin configuration and capacity
  • Modeling manufacturing processes in a routing
  • Product families, sales org hierarchies
  • Credit ratings
  • Material substitution

Benchmarking Survey Questions

The survey asks some high level questions in these areas:

• Master Data Definitions
• Size & Scope of Master Data
• Organization Structures
• Scope of Responsibilities
• Positives
• Challenges

There is also space at the end to bounce back some questions – let me know what else is on your mind!

AtDhVaAnNkCsE

Thanks (in advance) for your input – and watch this space for the results!

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Send mail to webmaster at cazh1 dot com
© Jim MacLennan for cazh1, 2009. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: analytics, corporate information systems, data, data governance, data management, ERP, Execution, JDA Manugistics, legacy systems, market research, market research project, Master Data, QAD, SAP, skunk works, Supply Chain

All articles, blog entries, and other content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons License    ]]> http://www.cazh1.com/bootstrap-market-research-master-data-management-what-who-how/feed/ 1 http://www.cazh1.com/who-owns-master-data-in-your-company/ http://www.cazh1.com/who-owns-master-data-in-your-company/#comments Sat, 30 May 2009 20:14:00 +0000 Jim MacLennan http://qc.cazh1.com/?p=303 I’ve had to respond to this question, inside and outside of the company, in a number of different conversations over the past few days. It’s interesting, because this is one of those conversations where semantics mean a lot – what people say is just as important as what people don’t say. I only mean that people assume their listeners have precisely the same understanding of the concepts – which is often a mistake.

Case in point – who owns the Master Data? It seems obvious to many IT folks, having dealt with ERP and data warehousing in the past,  that the business owns the Master Data – it’s their business, right? Then why so often does the business look to IT to take the lead on cleansing / populating / defining / loading Master Data?

Business owns the Master Data

… they make the decisions on specifics. What should the next item number be? How should we structure the routings?  Who defines the standards for bin / storage location / building / plant / campus identifiers? What is the desired format for capturing customer street addresses consistently? How will we set up the chart of accounts?

The business knows that who and the why of Master Data.

On the other hand, and in most companies …

IT pwns the Master Data

Yes that is the correct spelling. For those who don’t know, it’s a hacker term; when I pwn the system, I have a root, I have a system admin access. I understand the technical underpinnings and details – I know how everything fits together. I know how to do anything I want with the system.

In Master Data terms – IT understands the data architecture and the interdependencies. They know all the transactions required to enter data into the system, and what security roles are in place to limit access to those transactions. IT also has tools and knowledge on how to extract data from the database and batch import data en masse.

IT knows the what, when, and how of Master Data.

What does that mean?

When an organization needs to get its Master Data in shape, it’s going to be a team effort between business and IT. The business must take the lead, making and clarifying decisions and driving the details. But IT absolutely needs to be right by their side, helping with the mechanics.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Send mail to webmaster at cazh1 dot com
© Jim MacLennan for cazh1, 2009. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: Art, chart of accounts, data architecture, data management, data warehousing, database, ERP, Execution, Master Data, ownership, pwn, SAP, Science, Supply Chain

All articles, blog entries, and other content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons License    ]]> http://www.cazh1.com/who-owns-master-data-in-your-company/feed/ 1