Looking for a change into MDM

[Former Member]

Hi All,

I am looking for some kind of small help from each one of you who are part of SAP-MDM. I require information related to Master Data Management.

To tell about my self, I am into SAP field from past 2yrs as SAP-FICO consultant. The information or help I am expecting from you all is:

1. Whether I moving to SAP-MDM is a good idea.

2. Would it be feasible for a functional person like me, where I don’t have any technical background?

3. Where can I get trained on SAP-MDM?

Can any one please give me brief introduction about MDM and answer my questions mentioned above.

Regards,

Rahul

[Former Member]

Hi Rahul,

Sorry for the late reply.

Your idea of moving to SAP-MDM is very good. Please go through the link below and you will know that why i'm saying this.

[http://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid91_gci1287620,00.html?bucket=NEWS&topic=307330]

Hope that it will be helpful to you.

Regards

Richa

[Former Member]

Hi ,

To answer regaring your interest in MDM i would like to add that all the present masters supported by MDM viz vendor, material, customer& employee none of above comes under SAP FICO but a good business doomain background will definately help at understanding clients requirments & mapping the same in MDM.

Regards,

Anand K

[Former Member]

Hi Rahul,

Master data is the key for any organization and for ERP implementation.

As u have very good domain knowledge in Finance area and work experience in SAP FI/CO module

definitely it will be a good idea to move MDM...

The scope and benifits of MDM are already explained by other experts..

Suresh Reddy

[Former Member]

Dear Rahul,

This is about your second query which is: Would it be feasible for a functional person like me, where I don’t have any technical background?

Well,Rahul,this is highly individualisitc concern answer of which may change from one person to another with different experience and/or esposure level.Though from my view point and understanding of "NEED OF FUNCTIONAL PERSONALS TO EXECUTE ANY MDM IMPLEMENTATIN SUCCESSFULLY" I'd like to add as following:

As you might be aware/and we discussed also that Master data is the core data of an enterprise that exists independently of specific business transactions and is referenced in business transactions. Master data builds the foundation for the smooth execution of business processes and well-informed business decisions. Master data represents business objects rather than business transactions and is rarely changed over a long period of time.

In any large size organization that seeks MDM Implementation will be having any one or more or all of the following master data viz.

● Product

● Customer

● Supplier

● Employee

As a member of Technical team of MDM i can understand that a functional Person...

a) Helps in understading and simplyfing,sometimes, the complex "domain specific" landscape of client which may be a bit of challenging task for MDM technical team.

b) Clients/Industirries are mainly domain specific [for ex Automobile or steel or so] for which several solutions are feasible from technical point of view.BUT it is the functional [rather TECHNO-Functional person which u wanna be] person who envisages the scope of the solution model and it's practicle applicabliity

c)most importantly, it is the domain experience of the functional personal/team which SOMETIMES also enhances/helps in visulizing the MDM Implimentation methodology and satisfies the client with MOST PRAGMATIC SOLUTION AT PARTICULAR POINT OF TIME.And i am sure beyond above reasoning there is much more practical solution provision process in which participation of a functiional person/team makes it smother and faster.

I hope it will also help you to move in the direction you desire.

Best regards,

Krutarth

[Former Member]

Dear Rahul,

Having gone through your work profile and keen intrest i'd like to share about MDM first which may suffice as solution for your first query:

Data is the food for any system to run and master data is the heart of that system.Master data is that crucial information on which all your business process run.If your master data is not in proper shape the analytics run on them will be incorrect as a result the business decisions taken will be wrong and this will result in a complete failure of your business.

There are many ERP systems existing today but very few provide an effective,systematic and fool proof method to preserve a single version of truth odf your master data.

SAP MDM address this problem and so is here today to bring all your master data under one roof.

Secondly,about the MDM as career and future prospectus point of view.All mojer organization have many IT systems and all of them have master data.

The problem starts there as all have their own master data. Thus for organization it have diff master data for all systems which is not common and thus creates problem.

So benefits of keeping Master data in 1 place is

Conformance/Auditing

Single view of customer

Global data synchronization efforts

Accurate reporting

Consolidation after mergers and acquisitions

Reduced effort to consolidate information

Reduced cleansing/mapping of information

Increased efficiency

Reduced costs overall

Now about Certification and Training:

for getting know-how of MDM following are the topics/areas which one shoule beaware of

1. MDM Fundamentals (+++)

Console

Data Manager

Import Manager

Importing Product Data

Syndicator

Master Data Harmonization

2. Data Modeling

3. Print Publishing

Providing catalog layout

Categorizing and enriching product data

4. Global Data Synchronization

5. Integration scenarios within SAP NetWeaver

Portal integration

BI integration

XI integration

ECC Communication

OCI integration

6. Administration Security and User Management

Performance

Hope it will suffice to aid you in your decision.

With best regards,

Krutarth