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By: Manish Shewaramani

How to Create the Right Master Data Management Roadmap?

The roadmap for Master Data Management (MDM) is an important governance strategy that helps you define master data management and other processes that make your business more efficient and profitable. The roadmap should help get the master data management roadmap initiatives off the ground and help you implement the master data management system successfully in the organization.

It will definitely help you achieve your goals and satisfy your customers. Master data management system is highly suitable for various business management applications and can be fruitful in offering higher profits at every stage.

What is Master Data Management (MDM)?

Master Data Management (MDM) is a set of practices that can be implemented by managing the architecture. Master data management systems are governed by high-quality data standards and can be designed to manage the business.

Master data management can be allowed to run various departments in the organization by utilizing the data. It can perform the following operations:

  • To plan camping trips for business promotion activities
  • To keep track of sales and marketing performance
  • To finalize the budget and to forecast future trends in business
  • To manage people, processes, and places
  • To monitor business opportunities and product launches
  • To involve new customers for better business prospects

Master data is high-quality data that remains accurate and consistent. It can be a part of assets, suppliers, products, customers, and business prospects. Master Data can be divided into four domains, such as customers, products, locations, and business prospects. Master data management system offers useful business management techniques.

Visit What is Master Data Management (MDM)? To get exclusive insights into the different aspects associated with master data management that contributes in creating centralized, complete, and accurate.

Master Data Management Tasks & Activities

If you look in general, the role of master data management is to consolidate the data and to provide a golden record or act as a single source of truth for data. However, master data management is capable of doing more than that.

Well, creating data consolidation and being a single source of truth for data by combining clean master data with various data sources is the big picture of master data management. But here are a few key tasks and activities performed by a good master data management system.

  • Identifying the relevant sources having master data that needs to be consolidated.
  • Master data management plays a handy role in creating a target or expected view of the master data for a particular selected model.
  • Master data management act as a tool for pulling essential data from multiple sources.
  • Master data management does the job of data cleansing and data profiling among the collected master data.
  • Master data management plays a key role in merging relevant data by developing merging rules based on key attributes.
  • Data redundancy and data duplication can be eliminated with the help of master data management.
  • A master data index can be created using master data management, with that identifying entities and taking vital business resolutions can be done.
  • Loading of consolidated master data to the master repository can be done through the master data management system.

To explore the advanced capabilities of master data management, don’t miss vising Essential Features of a Robust Master Data Management (MDM) Solution that helps you attain your business objectives seamlessly.

Pain Points Involved in Planning Master Data Management Roadmap

Here are the lists of pain points enterprises may consider in their master data management plans. If they fail to address those issues at the right time, then there might be a significant failure in their master data management initiative.

  • Enterprises may face challenges in their data quality.
  • Picking the master data management solution which is not agile.
  • Having no proper data governance policy and improper business rules.
  • Having isolated master data management activities with no proper coordination.
  • Unable to scope business definition and no proper planning of the business process.
  • Losing support from the C-level workers, due to no knowledge of master data management initiatives.
  • Unable to predict the exact costs by failing to identify the hidden costs.
  • Poor leadership without knowledge of the master data management tasks and activities.
  • Failure to identify the basic risk management protocols.
  • Data loss during the data sync or merging operation.
  • Meaningless data consolidation by isolating IT staff.
  • Taking business decisions without understanding business scope.
  • Unable to address the 3rd party connections with the internal systems.

All those above-mentioned pain points and challenges can be overcome with the perfect data management strategy. Having a good data management strategy will help organizations or enterprises pave the path to leverage the power of data quality and achieve business goals quickly.

The roadmap to the activities of data management through effective strategy delivers more work efficiency, easy to govern data, and achieves business goals without any challenges & hassles.

Creating A Successful Strategy for Master Data Management Roadmap

Every organization today needs to make use of data that is of high quality. Data is available in abundance, but to have higher consistency in the business, organizations need to create a successful master data management roadmap strategy.

The set of steps defined in creating a successful master data management strategy is well-planned, thoughtfully implemented, and perfectly managed while offering the results effectively.

To create a master data management strategy that suits the business requirements, the following steps should be taken into consideration:

1. C-level execution is required

C-level executives are the best decision-makers when it comes to managing data.

The business should be started with a small pilot project. Pilot projects enhance business understanding. It is also required to involve the stakeholder groups in the business. Business managers understand master data management strategies better.

Master data management initiatives are based on business values, and they can use KPIs for better business applications. It helps in improving customer experience, conversion rates of marketing campaigns, and organizational efficiency. The regulatory reporting can be automated and offers consistency in the customer experience.

2. A master data management roadmap should be planned

To implement master data management initiatives, you have to test the following:

  • How to manage and capture the collected data?
  • How many data sources are connected to the database?
  • Have you implemented the standards of data governance for the available data?
  • Have you separated structurally unstructured and semi-structured data from each other?
  • Which data-fixing procedures do you prefer? Manual fixing or automated data management.

3. Define roles and responsibilities

The master data management system does not only manage the business operations, but the process also involves managing the data. The data is owned by the business owners, and it is required to assign roles.

CRM data can be assigned to the users according to their authority and seniority. The department should be given master ID access, and other users should be given restricted access. Retail stores and banks need to have better data management services to interact with a large number of users.

4. Choosing the master data management services

For choosing the right master data management services, you need to make sure you have clear answers to the below-listed questions.

  • What are the main features required to make use of specific data management services?
  • Will the master data management tool make the work easier or will it require extensive learning?
  • Will the master data management system be easier to use and achieve results faster?
  • Will it be required to consult the team members for longer to achieve the outcome?
  • Does the data management process involve data cleaning, profiling, and duplication and allow for the use of software?
  • Does the cost of the system depend on the size of the business?

5. Decide milestones and set KPIs

The entire business process should be tracked while it is managed with the help of a master data management system. Milestones should be defined, and key project indicators (KPIs) should be decided.

These are the five steps required to implement the master data management initiative. These five given steps will help you to create a strategy for the master data management roadmap and to manage the business operations, achieve the goals, and earn a profit. The master data management roadmap can definitely help you to reach your destination.

Do you want to create a successful master data management strategy? How to Create Master Data Management Strategy in 2023 helps you design the right and effective master data management strategy for your business.

If you are interested to dig more into strategy designing, visit Master Data Management Strategy: Explained with Example! It helps you understand master data management in real-time scenarios.

Master Data Management Roadmap – A Brief

The roadmap for a master data management strategy can be based on a set of principles and systematic procedures. It can be useful in managing various processes and data governance.

master data management procedures are involved in activities such as the maintenance of data by accumulating, consolidating, and standardizing. It also makes use of de-duplication methods that are useful in planning a master data management strategy.

The other important feature of a master data management roadmap is a definite time frame. It can be either a long-term or a short-term time frame, but it can be dependent on several factors.

Every factor involved in the process is related to the vision, mission, and objectives of the business enterprise. It certainly helps to evaluate the roadmap of the master data management strategy, and it will be implemented successfully.

The gap analysis will help in finding various gaps in the system and preventing further damage while planning and executing the processes. To monetize the data sets, the master data management system should offer effective leadership and planning skills to the business.

It should manage project development and execution successfully. It also keeps track of cultural readiness which can change attitudes, behaviors, skills, and processes while implementing the latest business techniques.

Read All You Need to Know About Master Data Management (MDM) [Steps & Roadmap to Create Strategic MDM] to get better clarity on the different aspects related master data management along with detailed insights into master data management roadmap.

When Is the Right Time to Plan a Master Data Management Roadmap?

The master data management roadmap has to be implemented immediately by planning the required data strategies and tactics. It is highly important to plan the master data strategies and implement the governor processes by deciding data quality rules and also by enabling the required technology that can address the dependencies.

It is always recommended to clients have the foresight that can help in deciding the road map at an early stage. The recommendations made are useful in designing a consistent product and managing the processes at the organizational level.

The inter-process should involve diverse brand teams that work independently of each other, as well as globally diverse functional teams that are a part of the entire process.

The entire flow of work remains critical and needs definition and a set of information as per the present context. It also makes maximum use of data profiling methods along with process mapping. It also makes use of the rationalization of various data definitions and processes.

It also offers meaningful ways to understand change management efforts. It also takes care of many other responsibilities, such as data governance, and the requirements of data design, which include managing data qualities, and monitoring master data management technology.

A road map is designed to manage already planned business initiatives at a critical level. The processes will be managed one after the other according to the time frame.

The inter-organizational work should be accelerated by getting external help and managing the expenses of real engagements from the functional stakeholders. The risk factor is mainly defined by the requirements of the technology rather than the requirements of business processes.

The recommendations for the road maps can be part of the process. This process should be measurable and can be useful in delivering business values to organizations. The road map journey is the most useful and committed process.

What Are the Steps to Create the Master Data Management Roadmap?

Step 1: Readiness assessment

This is the first step that can help us in our assessment of the data management roadmap process. In this step, we have to review the overall workings of the organization, including the people and processes. It helps us understand the data management and governors’ features in Pro.

It is also required to review every business process technology used and the information available. It also helps us to find out the maturity model of the organization and the scale of the maturity level between 1 and 5.

Step 2: Define the desired state

The step involves several available workshops and a group of people selected from various parts of the business processes and also working in the information technology field. When is the best time for the master data management roadmap to be planned and implemented? The time required can be short-term (1–2) years or long-term (3–5) years.

It is also required to find out more about the master data management roadmap that involves data integration, data quality, data enrichment, and data governance.

It is required to identify the strategic objectives of the organization, and it can be decided to implement the master data management strategy with the help of corporate objectives.

Step 3: Managing Gap Analysis

It is a step required to analyze the gaps in the processes. It is a process that takes you from who you are to what you want to become. Gap-closing strategies can be developed, and they can help move from the present state to the desired future state.

The gap-closing strategies can be grouped into four domains, such as business applications, information, and technology. The JAB group closure strategy can manage the list of gaps as per the group type. This type is mainly used to find the gaps between the processes and analyze and group them for better management of the system.

Step 4: Sequences and priorities

Each group closure strategy will be assigned a priority. The priority can be high, medium, or low. It helps cover high-priority items. The natural predecessor and successor items can be utilized sequentially.

The sequential order is logical and in the form of the first a, second b, third c, and so on. The high-level gantt chart can be used as a resulting deliverable. It can illustrate the projected program schedule according to its duration. It can be either a short-term duration of 1 to 2 years or a long-term duration of 3 to 5 years.

The entry process is divided into defined work streams such as:

  • Governance and managing the processes
  • Organization and change in management
  • Use of technology and information
  • Disturbing will make the road map clear and ready.

Step 5: Development of a master data management roadmap

The roadmap consists of four steps. Make it to the final step, which is based on the recommendations of the current state assessment and can summarize the issues that need to be solved. The time frame can be defined in the future state definition document and vision to define how factually the master data management strategy can support the overall corporate strategy.

It can also define various values and the benefits of the program as defined. It also defines several gaps and the gap reduction strategies that are part of the entire process. The Gantt chart can easily define the overall progress for the next 5 years.

These are the well-defined steps that can be useful in building organizational commitment as per the requirements of the master data management program. These five steps will help in completing a socialization process, and they can be applied to a definite region that helps in better implementation and execution.

Conclusion

To build organizational procedures that can help in mastering data management programs. master data management roadmap not only offers a strong vision but also communicates messages to the stakeholders strongly.

The master data management roadmap significantly enhances the probability of success even while managing complex situations and huge data. The master data management roadmap should be embedded using the master data management roadmap, strategy, and methodology.

The strategic road map not only manages the processes from one stage to another but also manages the people who are involved in various activities of the business.

Say goodbye to data chaos and embrace the power of PIM/MDM to supercharge your business growth!