Complete and structured master data is a strategic success factor for companies. The interest in IBsolution's MDG Summit was correspondingly high. The SAP consulting company invited to Mannheim on October 17, 2019 to give the participants an up-to-date overview of the topic master data. In addition to the latest developments in data management and clear practical examples, the exchange with other master data managers was on the agenda.
Master Data Governance (MDG) is the SAP software for maintaining master data in the company. Various solutions are tailored to the needs of different departments, such as finance, production, purchasing, or sales. Users not only simplify their daily work, but also have the certainty of handling data in a legally compliant manner.
The main goals in managing master data are higher efficiency and lower susceptibility to errors. They can be achieved with intelligent sets of rules, for example. These reduce the effort required for maintenance and prevent errors during data entry. At the MDG Summit IBsolution presented its solution EVIMENDO.rules_control. This enables companies to use rules that go beyond the SAP standard simply and intuitively.
The use of intelligent technologies also plays an increasingly important role in data management. This was confirmed by CDQ, one of the leading institutions for data management in Europe. The IBsolution partner demonstrated in Mannheim how artificial intelligence, machine learning, data catalog and data lake governance increase data quality.
With the Demand Signal Management (DSiM) tool, SAP supports companies in collecting, analyzing, and integrating external market data. DSiM creates a central repository of external master data and transaction data for different applications and views and optimizes the process of data preparation.
However, the participants of the MDG Summit were not only provided with theoretical basics, but were also given exciting insights into practical issues. GEA Group showed how a comprehensive master data project can be made a success in record time. Within twelve months, the system provider for the food processing industry managed to migrate its customer master data in 50 countries from SAP and non-SAP systems as well as from a CRM system to SAP MDG and put it live. Since the successful migration, a data steward has maintained data quality throughout the company.
Of course, networking at the MDG Summit did not come off badly either. During the Business Speed Coaching, the participants discussed the challenges they face in data management and the hurdles they face in their daily work. The goal was to find different perspectives and creative solutions every ten minutes. After the official end of the event, the participants continued their networking during the informal get-together.