Master Data Management (MDM) in the Sales & Marketing Office As companies compete to acquire and retain customers in today s challenging economy, a single point of management for all Sales & Marketing master data is critical. Accurate product catalogs, services and pricing; up-to-date locations and Point of Sale information; and channel synchronization--each are key to a successful Sales and Marketing organization. With the increased complexity of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), product configuration, sales channels, and compliance processes across the enterprise, the benefits of establishing true governance over shared data are significant. Shared data enables faster product introductions, allows companies to adapt to constant market and channel changes, ensures accurate sales reports, and ultimately increases revenues and profitability. A Solution Overview by Orchestra Networks
What Type of Master Data is Managed by Sales & Marketing? Product and Services information is highly valuable master data for Sales & Marketing departments because it provides the who, what and where of the sales cycle. It is also the most complex data since it defines how a company differentiates itself in the market. For example, a product catalog is more than just a simple hierarchy of product references arranged in categories. A comprehensive product catalog describes complex attributes, business rules, and inheritance relationships in order to extensively model product characteristics, pricing and packaging. This information is also widely shared by teams and IT systems. One single product attribute can be consumed by multiple ERPs, sell-side or buy-side systems, or business intelligence reporting solutions. In addition to product information, Sales & Marketing departments also need to manage large sets of master data that define locations such as sales territories, fixed assets including Point of Sale information, and the sales channel (i.e., partners, vendors or customers). When linked, this data resolves conflicts between multiple data sources and serves to form a global definition of the Sales & Marketing master data landscape. - Ability to model complex product attributes, rules and relationships - Ability to define inheritance rules between data - Ability to model any type of master data, not just product information 2
Why is MDM a Critical Solution for Sales & Marketing Teams? Managing data through a single point of governance is key to a company s success as products gain in complexity, regulatory requirements become more stringent and channel synchronization is required for success. Reducing Time to Market with Faster Product Introductions Mastering product information through one central solution means faster time-to-market for new products. Product information is typically dispersed in different ways through ERP systems (global and local instances), custom applications by product line, or even in spreadsheets managed by individual product managers. A centralized MDM solution allows enterprises to decouple product information from existing systems and provide Sales & Marketing teams with a single interface for defining and maintaining complex catalogs. By using a flexible MDM solution companies have reduced new product launch times from months to weeks or days. - Ability to create new products using a collaborative workflow - Ability to enter new product data using a simple User Interface (UI) - Ability to synchronize master data with all IT systems Sales & Marketing Teams Have More Than Just Product Data to Manage Sales & Marketing teams use different solutions to manage different types of master data. Typically, product information is managed within a PIM (Product Information Management) solution or an ERP system, while other data such as parties or locations are managed elsewhere. This siloed approach to information management results in inconsistencies in master data and the inability to enforce strong integrity controls across data domains. A multidomain MDM solution that manages all the master data required by Sales & Marketing provides the optimum result -- a single point of governance. For example when a company creates a new distribution channel or store location, a multidomain MDM solution allows them to quickly reallocate products from one channel or store location to another. - Ability to model any type of master data (products, locations, parties...) - Ability to enforce integrity controls between all master data - Ability to dynamically add new data and rules 3
Consistent Master Data = Improved BI = Accurate Reporting Sales & Marketing departments use BI (Business Intelligence) solutions extensively for analyzing sales in many dimensions and forecasting revenues. Without a unique definition of master data, business intelligence solutions consume inconsistent data that can lead to low quality reports and inaccurate forecasts. An MDM solution helps improve the quality of master data before it is consumed by BI. In addition to core master data such as products, parties or locations, a Sales & Marketing MDM solution applies the definition of reference data that is specifically used in BI such as KPIs, dimensions or classifications. - Ability to maintain complex dimensions and hierarchies - Ability to define and maintain reference tables for BI - Ability to manage multiple versions (past, present and future) Multichannel and ecommerce Enablement Today companies are selling their products through a variety of channels, including brick & mortar stores, resellers, white-labeling partners or ecommerce websites. With multiple channels, accurate and consistent product catalogs, pricing policies, product customization and category management are required. A flexible MDM solution allows you to maintain a unique product definition for each context such as regional pricing or suppliers and, without duplicating information, it enables masscustomization of products for all channels. This capability ensures long-term consistency of data across each context in which it is used. - Ability to manage channel master data - Ability to define inheritance rules between channels - Ability to customize master data for each channel - Ability to delegate user permission by channel 4
Localizing to Meet Market and Regulatory Requirements Large multinational companies face the challenge of maintaining a global product catalog as well as customizing offerings for each country or region. A single product that is marketed globally must be localized in different languages, rebranded/named for specific countries or reconfigured for local policies, regulations or market requirements. MDM allows you to adapt product definitions without duplicating the information and to maintain one unique master catalog that can be used for consolidated reporting. - Ability to link products to locations, countries, regions - Ability to define inheritance rules between global and local levels - Ability to localize master data in any language - Ability to enforce strict validation rules and audit trails for compliance Enterprise-wide Data Governance Sales & Marketing departments collaborate and share master data across the entire enterprise. Here are some examples: new products introduced by Sales & Marketing will be linked to Accounting structures; a new cost center will be attached to a Human Resources geographical hierarchy; a new point of sale will be linked to an organization structure owned by Finance and to an employee hierarchy owned by Human Resources. Each example illustrates why Sales & Marketing teams must be part of an enterprise-wide data governance initiative with comprehensive change management and cascading approval processes. - Ability to configure change management and cascading approval workflows - Ability to provide any end-user with a simple workflow UI without training - Ability to define fine-grained access rights 5
What Solutions are Available for Sales & Marketing MDM? Companies have historically struggled to manage all master data owned by Sales & Marketing in one single solution. Typically, the solutions marketed by well-known technology brand names have been limited to product information--mainly for Retail--or to business applications such as ERP. PIM (Product Information Management) Solutions PIM solutions such as IBM MDM Server for PIM have been available for many years. Originally developed as product catalog management tools for the retail industry, these solutions have not evolved enough to provide a true multidomain platform for all master data owned by Sales & Marketing. PIM solutions are limited to product information and not designed to handle non-standard, complex products and services because of their lack of semantic data modeling capabilities. In addition, beyond product information, PIM requires costly custom developments for managing other master data such as locations, assets or parties. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) ERP solutions such as SAP are still widely used by Sales & Marketing teams for master data reference typically because they are the point of entry for new data. However; where ERP solutions fall short in managing complex master data is with their fixed data models. As a result, users may resort to duplicating information in spreadsheets or custom developed solutions. All of which contribute to inconsistencies in the product, location, party and asset master data required by Sales and Marketing teams. Spreadsheets Spreadsheets are still one of the most widely used solutions by Sales & Marketing for managing master data. While flexible enough for end users they lack critical data governance features such as collaboration, validation controls, security or sharing. Even when coupled with an enterprise portal, the duplication and manual governance processes inherent in the use of spreadsheets invariably cause extensive inconsistencies and errors in operational and analytical systems. Custom Developed Solutions Generally companies invest in their own custom MDM solutions when off-the-shelf software does not sufficiently address their needs. While custom development enables a company s specific requirements to be met, it typically results in a rigid and costly solution with lower adoption rates. Custom solutions have difficulty managing flexible data models and business rules. They rarely include sophisticated features such as version control or workflow or offer the flexibility to scale to meet enterprise-wide data governance requirements. 6
Introducing Orchestra Networks EBX5 Solution Orchestra Networks EBX5 is the first Master Data Management software to provide Sales & Marketing teams with all the features they need for true data governance in one single software solution. The product offers a 100% web-based user interface and enables Sales & Marketing teams to build a single point of governance for all master data. The Top 5 Benefits EBX5 Delivers to Sales & Marketing Teams EBX5 offers the most complete, end-to-end MDM solution and addresses data modeling, data quality, data management, data governance, data lineage and data integration. The following summarizes the value Sales & Marketing teams can achieve with EBX5. #1 Powerful Data Modeling and Rules Definition: Model-driven MDM Sales & Marketing teams need a flexible solution where they can model the exact definition of their core master data and not try to force it into a pre-defined, rigid model. Products and services are so specific to any organization that a model-driven solution is required. EBX5 is the only true model-driven MDM solution. Its What You Model Is What You Get approach allows users to define data objects, quality rules, and business dictionaries and then automatically see the results in the EBX5 User Interface. EBX5 has been successfully deployed for all type of master data including products, services, locations, channels and parties. In addition, EBX5 provides an easy-to-use business rules editor that allows you to define complex validation rules for your master data. For example, it is possible to define a rule that specifies that a leaf-level product reference can be a child of another product package or product category; that there are three fixed categories at the top of the hierarchy; and then a variable number of product roll-up levels. Another example is the ability to write complex formulas for data input validation with expressions, operators and functions. 7
#2 Hierarchy Management: Become a Sales & Marketing hierarchy master Sales & Marketing master data is organized in complex hierarchies based on many dimensions and relationships. Product catalogs are a good example of this because they are arranged by categories, channels, markets or geographies. Each one can be attached to another with multiple roll-up levels but can also be linked to other objects. To better maintain multi-dimensional views of your data you need a sophisticated hierarchy management tool. This tool should not only provide the ability to display your data in a tree structure but must deliver rich features for defining relationships, adding business rules, moving / attaching nodes and enforcing validation controls. With existing ERP applications or spreadsheet programs these capabilities are nearly impossible. Current solutions do not provide a way to visually view and manage hierarchies. EBX5 is the only MDM software that provides out-of-the-box, web-based hierarchy management for any master data hierarchy. Using a simple Web User Interface (UI), end-users can define and maintain their hierarchies and import / export data in various formats. EBX5 supports all types of recursive and relational hierarchy with unlimited number of attributes, relationships and roll-up levels. Hierarchy management leverages role-based security and workflow features for active collaboration between groups of users. #3 Built-in Workflow for Change Management & Approval: With EBX5, everybody is involved Sales & Marketing hierarchies are among the most shared master data across the enterprise. When creating or updating a product, point of sale or channel, you need to not only involve multiple teams inside Sales & Marketing but also across other departments such as Supply Chain, Finance & Accounting or Human Resources. To better control change management and approval processes users must have a simple, easy-to-use workflow. This is very difficult to achieve in existing applications since workflow features are disconnected from your data. 8
EBX5 delivers a flexible, fully-configurable workflow engine. You can define your own data governance processes and provide users with a simple web user interface. EBX5 workflow supports advanced collaboration features such as email notification, deadline management and conditional rules. #4 Sophisticated Version Control: Back to the future When managing product hierarchies, sales territories or channels, one of the most complex issues is time. Present, past and future data needs to be worked on simultaneously. Consider sales territory data: the current organization hierarchy may need to be maintained but for reporting or regulatory reasons you may also have to track your past territories. In addition you may also want the ability to model future reorganizations of sales territories and analyze the differences and impacts on your hierarchy. To achieve this version control is required, not only for your data models, but also for the data content itself. The ability to work concurrently on past, present and future is non-existent in other tools on the market. EBX5 is the only MDM software to provide true 3-point version control giving you the ability to maintain an unlimited number of data versions. This unique feature can be used for impact analysis, future updates or comparison between points of time. #5 Security and Auditing: Who does / did what, when? With increasing product compliance regulations and complex approval processes across the organization, data security and traceability is critical. First, you need to define who can access, update and provide approval of your master data hierarchies. Role-based security must be fine-grained, sometimes down to the attribute or record level. This capability is needed to track all data transactions in order to perform who did what analysis. When managing product information in spreadsheets or multiple ERP applications, you lose control of security and traceability. As a central and secure MDM solution, EBX5 ensures that the security rules for each group or individual user are enforced. In addition, EBX5 also tracks all updates in a detailed audit trail and provides a consistent user interface for real-time monitoring of all transactions as well as record-level history of all master data objects. 9
EBX5: The Next Generation of MDM Enterprise-class Power. User-focused Experience. The Sales & Marketing organization s contribution to master data across the enterprise is significant and far-reaching. In support of this effort, a single solution must be available that allows shared master data between functions and enables company-wide collaboration. Orchestra Networks EBX5 multidomain MDM solution helps Sales & Marketing organizations develop, use and enrich their most important shared asset--data. EBX5 is an end-to-end, model-driven solution with superior management and governance capabilities. With its simplified business user experience, EBX5 provides accurate and flexible shared master data. This shared data gives Sales & Marketing teams the ability to deliver faster product introductions, adapt to constant market and channel changes, provide accurate sales reports, and positively impact company revenues and profitability. For more information about how Orchestra Networks can help your company achieve true data governance, visit our website: http://www.orchestranetworks.com. Copyright 2011 Orchestra Networks. All rights reserved. Orchestra Networks, the company s logo and tagline are trademarks of Orchestra Networks. All other brands and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. ONM030111 10