Right Data, Right Place, Real-time

Transcription

1 Right Data, Right Place, Real-time How Master Data Management Supercharges Fast-Moving Businesses By Phil Wainewright Commissioned by Dell Boomi Procullux Limited, 2013

2 E veryone in business knows that inconsistent and inaccurate data costs money. Workarounds and make-do solutions have kept a lid on the problem, but as more and more systems get connected up, the cost of inaction is escalating. Today, fast-moving businesses need the right data in the right place and in real-time to remain competitive and stay agile. The good news is that a new generation of cloud-based master data management (MDM) technology fixes the root cause of inconsistent data silos without the high cost and labor overheads of traditional MDM solutions. In this paper, discover: Why MDM matters, more than ever, to every business Compelling business cases for MDM How next-gen MDM systems meet the needs of fast-moving enterprises Dell Boomi s cloud blueprint for successful MDM adoption Why MDM matters more than ever In today s high-paced business environment, no one can afford the delays and discord caused by information sprawl and the resulting data silos. In the past, it didn t matter that each of the systems operating separately around the enterprise had its own way of organising data it was rarely necessary or urgent to match up the information. But in recent years, there s been an explosion of information systems across all aspects of business. In an always-on, connected world, the pressure is on to get them all working in sync. That s when the mismatches and inconsistencies across this new sprawl of applications become a massive drag on a fast-moving business. Instead of moving at Internet speed, everything grinds to a halt. Data about the same customers, products or people is held in different systems but not in the same way. All too often, the only way to link up information from one system to another is to have someone sit down and laboriously match up a long list of disparate records. The way to get information flowing again is to introduce automated systems that harmonize the data at Internet speeds. This is where master data management (MDM) comes in but with a new approach more suited to the needs of today s businesses than previous generations of the technology. Instead of reconciling data into a central MDM store without updating the source systems, next-generation MDM is architected to ensure that users immediately see the updated information in the applications they use, regardless of where changes are made. MDM is no longer an obscure specialist technology that only the largest enterprises could afford. Refashioned for the high-speed demands of today s connected business environment, it has become an essential piece in the IT toolbox of every thriving enterprise. Making the business case for MDM The world moves at Internet speed and customers, partners, employees and other stakeholders expect the same from the enterprises they deal with. They re no longer prepared to wait around for answers and action. But mismatches when collating and aggregating data within an organization s internal operations often undermine attempts to deliver an up-to-date performance analysis, a current 360-degree customer view, a robust sales pipeline or a reliable stock-on-hand report. 2

3 The problem is frequently most acute within those enterprises that have advanced the furthest in automating their business operations. Their readiness to adopt the latest connected technologies and SaaS applications have left them painfully exposed to conflicts between data sources. They pride themselves on delivering timely, agile business outcomes. Yet under the covers, they are struggling to join up processes and data across the sprawl of applications deployed around the organisation. The result is that business goals are thwarted by poor data harmony. Here are some examples of how a cost-effective MDM solution can significantly impact business outcomes for the better. Real-time analytics. In today s connected world, business success increasingly depends on being able to present the right information in an instant. Whether it s suggesting product options to buyers on an ecommerce site, showing demand forecasts to an account manager on a sales call or helping HR identify this month s top performers, timely business analytics depend on real-time data. Effective MDM enables clean, consistent data that fuels business dashboards, operational BI and big data algorithms providing employees with the data they need, when they need it. Sharper execution. The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) estimates that data quality problems associated with customer contact data alone are costing US businesses more than $600 billion a year in postage, printing and staff overhead, at the same time as alienating customers (TDWI, "Data Quality and the Bottom Line ). Introducing MDM brings operational improvements such as eliminating billing errors, better tracking of delinquent accounts, and more efficient upselling and cross-selling. It also ensures that management has an overview of who are the company s most profitable customers and best prospects, helping to accelerate the sales cycle. Smarter operations. In the era of online commerce, customers expect to see what s in stock when they place the order, while suppliers need to know when to schedule top-up deliveries. MDM allows accurate matching of product line items between inventory, logistics and sales systems, reducing errors and enabling real-time automated data updates. According to research by Aberdeen Group, using MDM to improve inventory accuracy can boost customer satisfaction by as much as a fifth, while yielding a 4% reduction in inventory carrying costs. MDM for today s fast-moving enterprises Traditional MDM technology was not designed to meet the needs of real-time enterprises. Implementation was costly and complex, delivered with a labor-intensive and slow-moving data governance process. Only the largest enterprises with vast IT budgets and governance staff could justify the implementation and ongoing costs of these cumbersome, heavyweight integration and data management suites. The rest of us have done our best to make do with simple, ad hoc solutions spreadsheets that run macros to convert data, regular manual audits of linked databases, sporadic fixes in response to problems as they occur. These manual processes are rapidly being overwhelmed by growing information sprawl, especially as new applications are added to the mix. Without the time and resources to afford a complex, heavyweight, labor-intensive solution, nimble companies need a better alternative. Fortunately for this emerging market, the next generation of MDM has arrived to meet these needs. It has six core characteristics. 3

4 Distributed. The one-way architecture of early generations of MDM was designed primarily for reporting. Data was collated from multiple applications into a central store, but the results were never harmonized back out to the operational applications. Next-generation MDM has a distributed architecture that maintains the master data records in the source systems where end users perform their daily tasks. Real-time synchronization and bidirectional flows harmonize data across multiple applications, business units and geographies, respecting complex patterns of data ownership while providing the consistent, up-to-date information that modern businesses need to be able to serve their customers and stakeholders effectively. Integrated. MDM works hand-in-hand with integration and data quality management. In most conventional suites, each of these functions operates on separate technology stacks that require systems integration to unify, increasing the burden of support and maintenance costs. A single access management regime and a consistent look and feel allow for easier account management and simpler, easier navigation across all functions. Cloud. Satisfying all of the complex demands of an integrated, next-generation MDM system far exceeds the IT capacity, sophistication and budget spend of the typical midmarket organisation. The massively scalable, shared infrastructure of the cloud model allows provision of a high-performance, real-time system with a low cost of operation and no upfront technology acquisition cost. Enterprises can quickly get started and benefit from cloud-native connectivity that greatly simplifies the task of linking data and processes across a distributed ecosystem of domains and applications with a mix of on-premise and cloud stacks. Collaborative. Workflow and real-time collaboration across the distributed system help to rapidly resolve outstanding inconsistencies around quarantined items or data errors. The ideal is to check new data against the MDM system prior to its inclusion. Where that s not possible, workflow in the MDM system can use or social media alerts to automatically chase approvals and change management requests. This allows each user to fix issues as they arise, minimizing the time the data remains in limbo. A multi-tenant cloud platform brings another dimension of collaboration, allowing everyone on the platform to benefit from dynamically updated domain models that continuously evolve as community usage grows. Connected. With partnerships and ecosystems becoming an increasingly important part of business today, MDM must extend its reach out from the core to the periphery of the enterprise and beyond into supplier or partner ecosystems, applying governance policies and integration frameworks wherever data enters the extended application infrastructure. External resources such as data quality services must also be available, not only to validate and cleanse data as it enters the system but also to enrich and standardize it. Agile. To properly serve the needs of a fast-growing, midmarket enterprise, the MDM system must be capable of reconfiguration and updating to keep pace with changing business needs. This is especially true when cloud applications can be deployed within weeks and have significant functional updates three or four times each year. How to get started Fast-moving businesses face many technology choices. They succeed by adopting those that most rapidly and cost-effectively deliver the most profitable business outcomes. For MDM to figure as one of those choices, it must offer a quick solution to a pressing need, such as delivering real-time 4

5 business information, helping the sales team to identify its best prospects more rapidly, or improving stock turns. Once the business worth has been demonstrated, the case for further investment is more easily made. Dell Boomi has created an MDM solution that s designed for quick wins as well as long-term performance. Leveraging the cloud, there s no need to start from a blank sheet or reinvent the wheel. Cloud infrastructure. Since the platform is already running in the cloud, there s no time lost installing and configuring servers. You can start work immediately on configuring the software to your requirements. Crowdsourced data models. As you start working in the visual designer, the Boomi Suggest feature automatically recommends suitable data models and definitions for the application domains you plan to include, based on the popularity of data relationships across systems at thousands of prior implementations. These are not static templates stored in a library. Each model is dynamically created on demand, based on instant analysis of the collective experience of the entire user community on the shared cloud infrastructure. The models automatically adjust with updated attributes as new use cases arise from day to day, for example as more companies add data from social media. Cloud-scale integration. Built-in data quality and integration components are each designed to leverage cloud connectivity. The Data Quality SDK offers pre-packaged, branded data quality services or you can choose to integrate with other public data quality services specific to your domain or vertical, or with private data quality assets. A robust Web Services API allows for utilization of any data integration product and can integrate MDM into other applications. Packaged connectors offer ready-made integration to most common applications and interfaces, while if a custom connector is required, it typically takes a developer just 2-3 days to create. This combination of tools allows most customers to deploy their first implementation within 6-8 weeks and deliver those all-important first business outcomes. From there, it s easy to incrementally expand the scope of the data management solution, bringing in more applications and domains to provide additional business value. In summary, Dell Boomi MDM offers fast-growing businesses economical, real-time aggregation of data for instant analytics, error-free transactions and efficient operations. Especially for those enterprises already taking advantage of the rapid deployment and flexibility of cloud applications, this is a platform that ensures the right data is in the right place in your business, in real-time. About the author For more than a decade, Phil Wainewright has been a trusted thought leader in cloud computing, as an analyst, consultant and author. He maintains a popular blog on software-as-a-service on ZDNet and serves as vice-president of EuroCloud, a pan-european business network promoting best practice in the cloud. He is also CEO of strategic consulting group Procullux Ventures, where he advises top cloud vendors on messaging and go-to-market. His forthcoming book, Frictionless Enterprise, describes how forward-looking enterprises are harnessing the cloud for business transformation, redefining best practice for successful organisations in the 21st century. The work to research and complete this white paper was commissioned and funded by Dell Boomi. 5