Experts and Analysts Panel Discussion at MDM Summit
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I’m going to be attending the upcoming MDM Summit in New York on Sunday, 10/19/08 through Tuesday, 10/21/08.
I’ll be on an “Experts and Analysts Panel”, moderated by Jim Ericson, Editorial Director of DM Review, along with Jill Dyché, Partner & Co-Founder of Baseline Consulting and Aaron Zornes, Chief Research Officer of The MDM Institute.
The session will be on the first day of the conference (Sun. 10/19) from 5:15 – 6:00 pm, followed by the opening night reception in the exhibit hall.
I’m looking forward to it – Jim is really sharp, and I always enjoy hearing Jill’s and Aaron’s perspectives on the MDM space.
For more information, go to www.mdm-summit.com/MDM/agenda.html.
Customer Data Quality
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Quite often, an enterprise faces an event where it needs to load massive customer files into its enterprise information systems.
Examples include integrating a new subsidiary’s customer master with the parent’s CRM or ERP system, migrating to a brand new ERP, consolidating customers from various silos within the enterprise, importing partner files and their customers, etc.
Sometimes, attempts are made to programmatically improve data quality within a customer record, but because of tight deadlines, data quality across the file is usually not given serious attention.
IT’s thinking is usually that “We received 50,000 customer records; we uploaded 50,000 records – job well done!” But wait a minute, is that really true?
It is highly likely that duplicates exist within the file and the same customer is being loaded more than once. There’s also a possibility that the same customer already exists in your target system.
Multiple instances of a single customer can lead to end-user confusion, serious reporting errors and even to reduced efficiency and impacts to customer service.
A good approach is to be proactive about data quality and to plan for spending extra cycles correcting these types of problems in the customer files before doing the migration.
A simple tactic is to extract the existing customer records from the target system and run this file along with the legacy / source system data through an address validation and matching process. A number of vendors can do this task for you at a reasonable cost, ranging from 15 cents to 55 cents per record.
The next step is to separate the non-duplicates and load only these records in the target system. The duplicates are either managed outside the target system (by building cross-references in your data warehouse, for example) or, if your target system has a way to maintain cross-references, by uploading the cross-references only into the target system (typically an MDM hub or ERP application).
A major benefit of this approach is that the new records are genuinely new and have validated addresses for deliverability. This significantly enhances corporate data quality. Then, IT can say “We received 50,000 customer records; we uploaded only 40,000 records, the other 10,000 were duplicates – job well done!”
September Column in DM Review
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Here’s an excerpt from my latest “MDM Insights” column in DM Review.
After watching both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions I saw a pattern playing out that (believe it or not) applies to master data management (MDM) projects and ongoing data governance initiatives.
Just as a strong business case is usually important in getting initial funding, communicating your successes is critical to retaining it. But, it’s usually better to let someone else tell your story.
Click on “Taking Credit for Your MDM Success” to continue reading.
And please let us know your thoughts by commenting here …
Announcing an Intensive, Two-Day On-Site Seminar
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Attaining High Quality, Integrated Information
High quality, integrated master data is all that matters in your business/IT landscape. Sure, people, processes and technology are important. After all, they get the brunt of everyone’s attention. But in the end, superior business intelligence, smooth transactions and harmonious customer interactions all depend on the quality and usability of your master data.
Why This Seminar Program?
Hub Designs and Perera have teamed up to create this important, two-day on-site seminar program for organizations struggling with low quality, fragmented enterprise data. With over 40 years of combined experience, you can expect a new level of practical insight that is unavailable in any other forum.
Our goal is to bring unparalleled Master Data Management expertise to your front door. A blend of education and hands-on guidance, your organization will gain the knowledge to confidently undertake and succeed with your MDM initiative… and transform your enterprise master data into an appreciating corporate asset.
Agenda For Mastering Your Data
Together, we will explore the issues, challenges and opportunities associated with creating and maintaining high quality, integrated enterprise master data:
- Creating a business case for managing customer, product, supplier, financial and employee master data
- Analyzing the types, nature and severity of enterprise data quality problems
- Determining quality and integration requirements for enterprise master data
- Creating enterprise master data architecture and models
- Formulating a plan to correct and transform your existing enterprise master data
- Developing and embracing master data content and format standards
- Integrating and synchronizing master reference data within and across enterprise systems
- Identifying, evaluating and selecting MDM software and third-party data sources
- Designing data quality processes for continuous master data management
- Determining metrics for assessing, monitoring and certifying the quality of master data
- Organizing and managing a data governance and stewardship program
This program is geared to business, project management and IT personnel who are actively involved in Master Data Management (MDM), Customer Data Integration (CDI) and data quality initiatives. The ideal session brings together up to 15 participants from your organization to discuss the production, distribution, consumption and maintenance of enterprise data.
By conducting this program at your site, stakeholders have the flexibility to join program segments that are appropriate to their functional areas. We charge a fixed program fee so you can tailor attendance to your needs.
Schedule TODAY!
For more information or to schedule this two-day program at your location, please call us at 781-749-8910 or visit our web site.
Call for Papers for Next Oracle Applications User Group Conference
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It’s that time of year again! As a member of the Education Committee for the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG), I’m helping to plan next May’s COLLABORATE 09 Conference. As you might expect, I’m managing the “Master Data Management” track.
Here’s the announcement for the Call for Papers, which ends on October 31, 2008. Please follow the instructions below to submit your Master Data Management paper idea.
Share Your Knowledge at COLLABORATE 09!
May 3-7, 2009; Orange County Convention Center West, Orlando, FL; http://oaug.collaborate09.com/
The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) invite you to share your Oracle knowledge at the premier annual conference for Oracle customers — COLLABORATE 09: Technology and Applications Forum for the Oracle Community, taking place May 3-7, 2009, Orange County Convention Center West, Orlando, FL.
Submit a presentation proposal by Friday, October 31 to be considered to speak at this leading user-driven event and have the chance to:
• Share best practices and tested solutions for Oracle technologies and applications.
• Enhance your own Oracle knowledge through the peer networking and exchange.
• Learn from Oracle experts and leaders through other education sessions.
If you are an Oracle Applications professional with an interest in Oracle E-Business Suite, Hyperion, Agile, PeopleSoft, Siebel, Oracle Retail, Communications Billing and Revenue Management and MetaSolv Software, as well as applications technology, we invite your proposals for the COLLABORATE 09 — OAUG Forum.
For more specific information about COLLABORATE 09 — OAUG Forum, including tracks, specific industry- or product-related areas of emphasis, presenter requirements and the presentation submission process, please refer to the call for presentations on the COLLABORATE 09 OAUG conference Web site.
Attention Team Oracle! All Oracle employees interested in speaking at COLLABORATE 09 are to contact Michael Neuendorff at michael.neuendorff@oracle.com. Do not submit papers through the official COLLABORATE 09 call for papers!
We look forward to seeing you in Orlando!
Important Dates and Deadlines
* October 31, 2008, 11:59 p.m. EDT: Presentation abstracts due.
* January 12, 2009: Accepted presenters notified by the OAUG.
* March 8, 2009: All presentation materials including white paper and presentations are due.
Managing Unstructured Data
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I wrote a guest article a few days ago for Infoglide Software’s Identity Resolution Daily blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
In an earlier article, Governing Unstructured Data, I discussed some of the challenges in managing and securing unstructured data in a large enterprise. Given that unstructured data accounts for more than 80% of all business data, this is a big issue.
In my own company, we use Microsoft Groove as a collaborative document repository and content management system. Groove has its quirks, but it works for us, and its military-grade security features and robust document encryption help guard against “lost laptop” syndrome.
Click on “Managing Unstructured Data” to read the whole article.
Getting to the Single View
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If not Master Data Management, what?
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) – the “back office” – has been around forever, and the “customer master” function in most ERPs is adequate, but due to acquisitions, many companies have more than one ERP system, and some companies let major business units build their own separate technology architecture.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – the “front office” – was supposed to be a “silver bullet”, bringing businesses closer to their customers, delivering 1-to-1 marketing, and increasing sales.
And data warehousing and business intelligence were supposed to deliver performance management and analytics, enabling better decision-making and deep analyses, but have sometimes proven to be difficult to deliver and extend.
But to varying extents, all of the technologies failed to deliver on all of their promises.
So circa 2004, along came Customer Data Integration (CDI) and Master Data Management (MDM). I call it the “hole in the donut”. MDM takes information from source systems like CRM and ERP, and eventually passes it on to downstream applications like data warehousing and business intelligence. But a lot of magic happens in that “hole in the donut”.
Information is consolidated into an MDM hub, usually using service-oriented architecture based integration technology. It’s cleansed using data quality software and completed or enriched with third party information. And it’s managed by a data governance organization. For more details on the end-to-end MDM process, see our earlier post on the “Five Essential Elements of MDM“.
So that would give you the Single View of the Customer (or Product, or Supplier, or whatever data domain you were mastering).
And from there, most companies would, in fact, flow the consolidated / cleansed / completed information into a data warehouse or business intelligence application.
But if your MDM hub is missing, and you don’t have the data governance organization or processes, all of the above is going to be much more difficult, if not impossible.
Organizations are waking up to this, realizing that they’ve got “the donut” i.e. key pieces of the puzzle (plenty of source systems, decent integration technology, tons of third party data) but no data quality tools and no central MDM hub.
If you want the Single View (the “whole donut”), you need to invest in those missing pieces.
Structured vs. Ad Hoc Data Governance
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I was struck recently by the difference between companies that have a formal, structured approach to data governance, versus an informal, unstructured or “ad hoc” approach.
In many cases, companies with an ad hoc approach already have the right people, in the right places, doing the right things.
But it’s not formally part of their job description. They just do it because they know it’s the right thing to do, or that the company really needs it.
So they act as unsung heroes of data stewardship, cleaning up data manually, writing scripts to make data corrections in bulk, even working together in teams to do data governance tasks, without ever formalizing it into a data governance program.
I wrote yesterday about whether data governance should be located in the business (with support from IT) or in IT (with support from the business). It’s a natural tendency of business people to think that data management, since it involves computers, should be part of IT. And it’s a natural tendency of the IT people to think that only the business knows the subject matter well enough to manage it.
But wherever you stand on this question, I think it’s better to have a structured approach to data governance. Set up a data governance committee or team, define its mission and processes, and give them the technology tools they’ll need to achieve the mission.
Relying on an ad hoc or informal approach is risky. People take new jobs, go on vacation, or get burned out. So you can’t rely forever on the unsung heroes of data stewardship.
I’ve said many times that if companies treated their physical assets (like inventory or cash) the same way they treated their information assets (particularly customer data, for some reason), then people would be going to jail.
Start thinking about how your organization can improve its data governance maturity, or start a data governance function, if you don’t already have one. You’ll find that “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. In other words, once you start, if you remain diligent and patient, the rest of the organization will ultimately see the value of adding data governance to “how we do things here”.
Here are some good resources for further reading:
- “So You Want to be a Data Champion?” by Tom Carlock
- Wikipedia article on Data Governance
- The Data Governance Institute’s Data Governance Framework
- The Master Data Management Institute
- Data Governance Blog
Please let us know via a comment if you have any other resources on data governance you’d like to suggest.
Where Data Governance Belongs
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Both IT people and business people usually realize when data management issues are having an impact on the company. And senior executives are usually at least aware of the issues with important master data domains like customer, supplier and product, because they live with the end results of data quality issues every day.
But sometimes the business is reluctant to hire anyone to work on data quality or data governance. So here’s my question: is it better for the IT team to take that on, if the business doesn’t step up to the plate?
I usually recommend that Master Data Management (MDM) and data governance programs be driven by the business, and in a perfect world, that probably is the best route.
But even if the business is driving, they usually need a lot of IT support. And if the business doesn’t want to take on the issue at all, perhaps it’s better to have IT doing it than have no one doing it.
Please share your thoughts via a quick comment here.
More Info. on Microsoft’s External MDM Strategy
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In November ’07, Microsoft released a “technology preview” of its Master Data Management (MDM) solution (codenamed “Bulldog”) to selected customers and partners for testing and evaluation.
Microsoft’s public MDM road map is available, as is their overview of MDM. There’s also an MDM forum on the Microsoft Developer Network.
A couple of Microsoft people (Kirk Haselden, Group Program Manager for MDM and Roger Wolter, now with Microsoft’s internal MDM project) are blogging at http://blogs.msdn.com/knight_reign/ and http://blogs.msdn.com/rogerwolterblog/.
My opinion is that Microsoft’s entering the market is a validation of MDM and probably does signal the transition from “early adopters” to “mainstream”. I continue to be interested in learning more about the Microsoft solution, and how it will impact small & medium-sized businesses, as well as larger enterprises.
