A robust Master Data governance platform is not only critical for the business process and analytics excellence of an enterprise but has a key role to play in the migration to SAP S/4HANA. Deepa Salem, Vice President and Research Director, SAPInsider With the explosion of data generated across the enterprise, we have entered an era where data itself is now a valuable raw material that can be mined to deliver innovation, drive user experience, and provide competitive advantage. While many factors are critical for creating a data-driven enterprise, master data governance is a critical foundation to ensure data integrity and to maintain a single source of truth for the organization. Organizational frustration can creep in with poor quality master data management, yet only 36% of respondents have MDM governance and policies in a SAPInsider research on Data Management and Data Warehousing in the Cloud. SAPInsider discussed the challenge of master data and a cloud-based master data governance solution called SimpleMDG with Matthew Phu, Chief Executive Officer at Laidon Group LLC, a Certified SAP Partner. Laidon’s main product, SimpleMDG, is an SAP Business Technology Platform solution for Master Data Governance.

Key Drivers for Master Data Governance

Many SAP customers today are modernizing their ERP by moving to SAP S/4HANA and/or migrating to the cloud. With many SAP and non-SAP systems on both cloud and on-premise, they have to standardize master data to prevent data inconsistency and ensure interoperability. Phu uses the analogy of moving to a new home. “When we move from one home to another, we leave behind the things we no longer use but we bring all our valuable items. Similarly, when customers move from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA, they bring along their most valuable property which is their data. Once they migrate to S/4HANA, they want to keep the data clean, so that the migration delivers the impact it is supposed to.” Data quality has a direct impact on the business performance and financial outcomes. Phu says, “Data quality means cost savings, business growth and, ultimately, profitability of the company. Further, there's a lot of key innovation that are emerging related to artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), etc. However, for those technology innovations to create impact, companies need strong data quality. And that data quality starts with proper data governance”. IT leaders recognize that master data is very complex. For example, when we consider material master in SAP, it is maintained and accessed by many different departments. It also has many different data attributes that need to be validated properly based on specific business rules. It also needs to be approved and activated to be used across the enterprise. In addition, the master data should be in compliance with required regulations as well as company standards and policy. Having a robust master data governance policy also helps make SAP S/4HANA migrations and application development a success while also reducing the cost of migration, development, and testing. These are all the reasons why Phu believes master data management is a strategic element of the data strategy. “Master data governance program is not just about managing a set of master data objects. It is meant to be strategic to help the company perform, innovate, and grow.”

The Power of Master Data Governance Solution

To achieve the above drivers, companies must invest in strong master data capability – which includes people, processes, and technologies. Best-in-class companies have the following elements in their master data strategy:

• data governance for master data, including roles and responsibilities
• company policies and standards for different master data domains
• processes for creating and maintaining master data with key validations embedded
• data reporting and management to cleanse master data, and
• easy to use tools and technology to support the master data organization.

This is where Laidon’s SimpleMDG solution comes in. It is designed with the flexibility and scalability to configure the organization’s master data governance requirements without any coding. SimpleMDG’s streamlined user interface retrieves real-time ERP master data and initiates maintenance requests for all CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) processes. Overall, the value proposition for SimpleMDG spans key areas in master data governance:

1. Rapid onboarding - Easy onboarding with no need for any consulting help within hours or days. Native integration with over 50 SAP S/4HANA master data objects available out of the box to use as a template without any coding. Several out-of-the-box integrations to solutions and services that enhances data quality and provides seamless experience for trusted data.
2. Intuitive, modern user interface (UI) with automation – Intuitive UI with easy to use through a powerful portal, in which administrators can also set up validation rules and approval policies.
3. Automated Workflows - Rules-based notification and hand-offs for master data approvals that can easily be configured to support any business scenarios.
4. Effective maintenance of data quality – Prebuilt templates and SAP HANA searches ensure higher data quality.

All the features of SimpleMDG not only lead to a robust master data governance process, but also enable user satisfaction due to its intuitive UI.

Easy Onboarding to Succeed in SAP S/4HANA Journey

One of the challenges in moving to new master data platforms is the cumbersome onboarding process. This is a non-issue with SimpleMDG. SimpleMDG can be accessed through the SAP App store or from simplemdg.com. Phu provides some advice for those launching master data initiatives, “An important success factor with setting up a high-quality data program is to understand the business use case scenarios. Currently, companies may be using an Excel spreadsheet or some custom application that used to work for SAP ECC, which no longer works for SAP S/4HANA. In that case, they are forced to invest a lot of time and money to upgrade those custom applications to support their master data governance process or their data management.” In such case, with SimpleMDG, it is very simple to onboard them by helping them set up their business rules and workflows. Companies can deploy and implement very quickly before their migration to SAP S/4HANA. There is no need for a developer to do any coding. It is easy to configure and implement the master data governance process. Phu gives an example, “A consumer product company was able to move to SimpleMDG within a couple of weeks, instead of months.”

A Common Use Case to Update and Activate Data

One of the common master data use cases is to create or update master data, which also needs an approval and activation workflow. Phu explains, “We have a seamless way to update and activate data into SAP backend. This is a streamlined process not only can deliver data quality, but also make it very easy for the user to request an update or creation of new master data record.” The requester can login and view all the master data objects that are pertinent to their role. SimpleMDG offers over fifty master data objects out of the box. The requester uses one of the available master data object templates, say the material master, and adds the data for that material. The already configured business rules validate the data to ensure high data quality. SimpleMDG allows a requester to create a finished goods or a component with very few simple steps. It can also be customized for more complex objects including pricing, sales data, etc. Many of the data can be prepopulated with defaults. For example, a certain material can be assigned to a specific sales distribution channel based on preset business rules and default values. In addition, SimpleMDG offers derivation rules. Phu describes, “Based on the user input, there will be other fields that will be populated with specific values”. If the user makes an error and changes any field, the entire validation kicks up again. This ensures data quality despite human errors and oversight. Finally, the solution performs duplication checks to avoid master data duplication – which is often the bane of many companies. In all the clients that have implemented have realized, Phu confirms, “A process of creating master data which can often take up to an hour and be prone to errors is done in minutes with no errors.” Phu has big plans for SimpleMDG. “We have over fifty master data objects out of the box. We plan to develop more master data objects, as well as specific ones for verticals such as retail. We also want to develop functionality to help companies integrate with multiple ERP systems.” In and through all the progress, SimpleMDG is committed to one goal – to keep their master data governance platform very user friendly.  

What Does This Mean for SAPinsiders?

With the migration to SAP S/4HANA and proliferation of new applications that connect o SAP, how can companies ensure data integrity and quality to delivery best-in-class analytics and business transactions? SAPInsiders can develop a robust data governance framework with the following elements:

• Review and refresh enterprise data governance during or before moving to SAP S/4HANA. The value of the migration to SAP S/4HANA is dependent on the data quality and integrity. Migration costs can be cut down with a master data governance program. Engage with business users to reassess data taxonomy, objects, rules, and policies to build this data foundation.
• Develop and document processes for data governance. Data governance processes allow authorized users to create and approve master data. Reassess data definitions, rules, and goals. Modernize processes and business rules so that they can meet today’s goals
• Explore rollout of a robust master data governance platform. A platform like SimpleMDG can ease the migration of master data, as well as the management of it going forward. Prebuilt master data objects with validation and approval workflows can enable rapid creation and updates, as well as ensure compliance.

  About Laidon Laidon Group LLC is a Certified SAP Partner with offices in the US, UK, and Vietnam. Laidon’s main product, SimpleMDG, is an SAP Business Technology Platform solution for Master Data Governance. It is designed with the flexibility and scalability to configure the organization’s Master Data Governance requirements without any coding. SimpleMDG’s streamlined user interface retrieves real-time ERP master data and initiates maintenance requests for all CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) processes. With SimpleMDG, companies can increase user’s adoption with an easy-to-use UI and implement MDG for each master data object in as little as 8 weeks.