Comparision

[Former Member]

Hi,

My company is upgrading to the latest ECC from SAP older version, in such a case we need to migrate all the data from old to new.

In such situation one would use migration tools available out in the market to cleanse and remove duplicates and import into ECC(both master and transaction).

1. Is it advisable to use SAP MDM in such a situation to migrate all the data handling the conversions instead of a standard migrating tool? I am not sure if MDM would be as expected to do a good migration job.

2. If MDM is preferred, then what is the best way to migrate the transaction data?

3. If SAP MDM is not prefered as a migration tool, rather use a standard migration mechanism, then I would say all the cleansing efforts would have already been completed by the migration tool, then we wouldn't require MDM to do the cleansing efforts.

Please correct me if I am analysis it the wrong way.

Appreciate all your responses.

Rgds,

Peter.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Kris,

1. Is it advisable to use SAP MDM in such a situation to migrate all the data handling the conversions instead of a standard migrating tool?

Ans: MDM is advisable or not, nobody can predict it untill and unless all the functional requirements, cost, data security, landscape of scenario and other related things are clear. But yes as mentioned in previous replies MDM can be easily used for data migration. it is because, MDM can be easily integrated with PI(Process Integartion) hence with R3/ECC. so any conversion if required can be done in PI with the help of functions/UDFs while mapping and as well as in MDM with assignments etc.

2. If MDM is preferred, then what is the best way to migrate the transaction data?

Ans: 'MDM deals with master data only', you will see this line in many documents, replies etc.. but no where is written "MDM can not deal with trasactional data". I say, MDM can store master as well as transactional data. just the way is different.

Qualified Lookup tables are the best option to deal with trasactional data in MDM. So no need to worry, again it purely depends upon scenario requirements, what it demands.

In addition,regarding 3rd question, yes you are right if you don't want MDM then any other tool will do that, but MDM as compared is quite strong in search capabilities, easily deal with hierarchies, rich data like pdf, and documents, images, and cleansing, deduplication, distribution, workflows etc....

Please reward if found helpful.

BR,

Alok

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks to all the replies.

So, I read as 'MDM' can not be used as a 'Migration' tool a one time effort kind of scenario, rather use for cleansing ongoing new customers/materials etc.

Points rewarded.

[Former Member]

The data cleansing requirement will take place, while move the data from legacy system to new target ERP / system. I.e. need to cleanse, enrich, de-duplicate, & standardize.

The existing data may not have consistent format since it is often being derived from various sources. It may contain duplicate information as well missing or incomplete information. Cleanse and normalize content to achieve accuracy, consistency and proper understanding of the data.

Also it’s a process of organizing the data, which will ensure enrichment of your data which are up-to-date, accurate, and complete. These processes are manual / labor intensive and require a fair bit of specialization.

If you need to have more details please feel free to interact with us as per below.

Thanks

Kumar

Edited by: Yael Oryan on Apr 19, 2009 1:36 PM

[Former Member]

Ram,

Interesting approach. What is your offering exactly?

Edna

[Former Member]

Hi,

Regarding migration of data, I would advise you let an ETL tool (such as the one that Business Objects has) do the job.

Cleansing: For initial cleansing while migration, many ETL tools have connectors to cleansing. Again, Business objects has cleansing capabilities as well (Data Services XI).

Matching: same as cleansing, do it as part of migration. Many tools offer that.

Another point to think of, is that cleansing and matching is needed not only when data is migrated.

As we see it as an on going process, I would recommend that if you have your master data in MDM, you should consider ongoing cleansing, using MDM capabilities to obtain cleansing from tools. Such a connector exists between MDM and different tools, as well as with Business Objects.

If you do not have your master data in MDM, maybe it's about time to think of it.

Edna

[Former Member]

Hi Kris,

Is it advisable to use SAP MDM in such a situation to migrate all the data handling the conversions instead of a standard migrating tool? I am not sure if MDM would be as expected to do a good migration job.

- SAP MDM is not designed to perform good Data migration activities.

As it is a tool for data Deduplication.Data cleansing is a vast area and there are many specific tool for data cleansing.

MDM is rather prefered when you need to eliminate duplicates in your master data for an Ongoing process (Steady state) and for harmonising this cleansed data.

If MDM is preferred, then what is the best way to migrate the transaction data?

- MDM is Master data management tool ,so it does not work for transactional data.

However using MDM we can find out the duplictae records and then identify them using a single global key and from then on future transactions can run on the global data record instead of the individual duplicate records and gradually open transactions can thus be analyses and closed for future transactions on the duplicate records.

If SAP MDM is not prefered as a migration tool, rather use a standard migration mechanism, then I would say all the cleansing efforts would have already been completed by the migration tool, then we wouldn't require MDM to do the cleansing efforts.

- This is a good question.

Firstly MDM is not a data migration tool.When we rae migrating data besides cleansing them by eliminating duplicates we also need to perform several transformation,conversions etc which is any ways not designed to be handled by MDM effectively.

But however when you are going for migration of data from SAP to ECC it will be a one time activity.What about the masters created in ECC after that.

You need a mechanism where by every new material or customer or vendor master created in/for the company needs to be sure that it is not a duplicate record.This is taken care by MDM.

Besides thsi we can use workflows to cobtrol the process of master creation and thus employ governance mechansim.

This will ensure that the quality of our master will always be good ,Then MDM can be used to syndiacte these correct records back to ECC.

So your workprocess would be

SAP->MDM (Workflows)-> ECC

Hope it helped

Kindly reward points if found useful

Thanks

Simona

[Former Member]

Hi Kris,

Yes you are right, MDM can be thought of an option of migrating and mostly cleaning the Master Data while migrating the Data from old to new.

However, then the Transactional Data cannot be migrated using MDM as MDM only deals with the Master Data.

But if you can find standard migration tools available out in the market to cleanse and remove duplicates and import into ECC(both master and transaction), then I feel that using those migration tools will be better option. Because MDM will not be able to handle the Transactional Data and you will require some other tool for migrating the transactional Data.

MDM can be even used if you have already migrated the data but some specific tasks have not been performed such as :

1. Consolidation - If you are having multiple systems in Heterogeneous landscape, then it would be better to consolidate all your Master data and Maintain a Single Version of Truth.

2. If your company has decided to create the Master data centrally in MDM. This would be beneficial because from MDM, the data can be harmonized back to the respective systems.

3. MDM gives flexibility as any system can be ritired. Your Master data will be safe in 1 central system.

4. Governance process has to added.

This all areas will be available if you decide to use MDM even after using Migartion tools for Migrating the MAster+ Transactional Data

Hope it helps.

Thanks and Regards

Nitin Jain

[Former Member]

Hi ,

According to my level of understanding about MDM tool, MDM works well for data migration.Its equally good with any other data migration tool.I do accept that the Cleansing is quite difficult,since merging of records has to be done manually.

You can migrate the transaction data using LSMW or use BAPI (if many logics has to be applied).

If you prefer other migration tool instead of MDM, still MDM can be used as a data hub.It can be used like data from the X Migration tool can be stored in MDM and new records should be created in MDM(CMDM) and MDM will syndicate the records to other SAP and Non-SAP systems.By this way you can have a good control over your data and further duplicates can be avoided.

Thanks,

Felix