What Happens To Your Data After You Click Submit?

Businesses generate and collect all sorts of data over time. Any organization will have data about its products, services, customers, suppliers, employees, transactions, and inventory to name a few. All this data is collected at different locations throughout the company. Ever wondered what happens to all that data once it enters the system?

The Need for Master Data Management
Today’s businesses collect more data than ever before. Organizations even have metadata i.e. data that describes other data. Some data is recorded for compliance purposes while other types of data are needed for further analysis. However, enterprises use different systems for various purposes like CRM, ERP tools etc. All these systems may not be working with the same data.

Consider the following example. When a customer buys a product, the information is recorded by the customer service department and the accounts department. The marketing department is not notified that a sales lead has now become a customer. As a result, the customer continues to get promotional materials unrelated to the actual purchases.

As a company collects more data, it becomes difficult to reconcile information in multiple systems. Employees no longer know if they are working with the correct data, if any information is missing or if it is duplicated across several departments. Sometimes changes are made to data in one system but this change is not propagated across the entire organization.

For instance, a customer stops getting bills correctly after they move. The reason is simple – the customer service department has the new address but the billing department doesn’t. In an increasingly competitive environment, businesses need master data management to maintain data quality and integrity.

What Is Master Data Management (MDM)?
Master data management is a method by which organizations can link all of their critical data to a common reference point, often called a master file. Without the proper master data management tools, an organization may end up using multiple versions of the same data in daily operations. This data may be inconsistent, out of date, and outright wrong in many cases.

The benefits of master data management increase as organizations deal with different types of data. Apart from structured data like account number or address, a company also has unstructured data about customers. This could be data about their browsing habits or how often they engage with the company on social media platforms. These types of data are more difficult to manage and analyze without the proper tools.

Benefits of Master Data Management
One of the main purposes of using MDM is to create and maintain a master file of all critical data. Any MDM tool has to clean data, verify its accuracy and remove duplicates before it is stored. The Profisee platform includes a Golden Record Management (GRM) engine that ensures your data is clean, consistent, and standardized. The solution can also scale to millions of records, a necessity for any enterprise.

MDM has a strong link to data governance. An organization needs data stewards – people who are responsible for managing the data within the MDM. Any master data management tools should include comprehensive data stewardship options and applications tailored toward their specific requirements. The MDM will provide valuable feedback and progress reports necessary for governance.

Master data management is not a one-off project but a continuous process. Event management is an important part of MDM. Any change to the data in the master file should propagate through all enterprise applications. Similarly, those applications should be able to communicate data changes to the master file. This ensures data accuracy, so all business functions can view and work with the same data.

The benefits of MDM extends to metadata as well. An MDM solution will have a data dictionary that defines and describes the data within. When the actual data changes, the metadata should also synchronize accordingly. Different companies will have different models for that metadata and your MDM solution should be flexible enough to accommodate your needs. The right MDM tool can streamline metadata management to improve efficiency.

Most organizations think of master data management as a technological issue. But like many enterprise problems, it is as much a people issue as it is about technology. Implementing master data management requires time, resources, and significant effort. Businesses often allocate too few resources to project implementation. Many projects use momentum due to the lack of visible benefits. Different departments may not agree on data management practices or architecture.

Organizations put a lot of effort into collecting data about customers, products, and transactions. But what happens to the data after that is even more important. You need processes to ensure the data is of high quality and consistent. The right set of master data management tools can help any enterprise get a single, clear view of mission-critical data.