Unlock the Value of Data with Master Data Management

Continued

Starting an MDM Initiative
Managers must present a compelling business case to provide the motivation and prioritization for MDM projects. The approach to such a business case involves assessing the current business process and its performance, designing the future process and the solution footprint to support it, identifying the benefit drivers, and finally, calculating the return on investment.

A company’s MDM program should be an enterprise-wide initiative. However, it is often difficult to start the initiative across the entire enterprise. The key is to embark upon tactical projects that are aligned with an overall enterprise vision for MDM. Pick a starting point with limited scope that proves the technical approach and delivers business benefits quickly. For example, the starting point could be mastering customer data from a limited number of systems within the enterprise. This helps put together the technical foundation of the hub and allows the organization to gain experience with limited but controlled data stewardship. Of course, care should be taken that even this limited project brings measurable return on interest.

Once the first tactical trial of MDM proves successful, companies should quickly document the learning and develop a longer-range strategic vision for MDM across the enterprise. Next, companies should develop a roadmap that outlines the enterprise’s MDM architecture, complete with the source and target systems, and identifies the scope of the entities to be covered in the next round of MDM implementations. It should also be noted that adopting an MDM strategy will require process changes that impact the day-to-day workings of many people. Bringing this change to the enterprise requires careful planning and a well thought-out management process.

Over 1,000 companies and organizations are managing billions of master data records with Oracle’s MDM solution. These companies are achieving that elusive goal — a single version of the truth about their business across the enterprise — and reaping the benefits associated with it.