Introduction

SAP MDM (Master Data Management) is a tool used for maintenance and management of Master Data for an Organization across geographies. In other words we can even explain MDM as an Enrichment Tool, which enriches the Business data in order to provide correct and reliable data to the Business for better Business decisions, to reduce fault resolution time, to speed up data processing and much more.

But still there are questions that needs to be answered for effective decision making by the Business which cannot be directly answered by SAP Master Data Management tool, however, this tool defines a baseline by defining an Integration Model that would help you to get the answers of Business specific questions before deciding on if this particular data needs to be further maintained in the central hub or not.

This article revolves around:

• Concept of External Enrichment
• How SAP MDM Integrates with Third Party Enrichment Tools
• Key Benefits with this approach.

Need for External Enrichment

MDM always plays a vital role, when it comes to Reduction of Duplicate data or Mastering the Data for a Business with respect to there Master objects like Products, Vendors, Customers, Materials etc., but there are scenarios when the Business needs further Enrichment if not in terms of core master and transactional data but Data related to the Organization the Company is dealing with, for e.g.-

• Will my customer pay me on time or will he pay at all?
• What is the financial condition of my business partner? Are his financial statements running into red?
• Will my supplier deliver on time?
• Is my business partner reliable enough to business with?
• Is my business partner involved in lawsuits or has any background that would hamper my business?

Getting answers to all these questions is what you call “Risk Management”. However, these questions cannot be directly answered by MDM, but SAP Master Data Management can be modeled in such a way that before storing any Master Data like Vendor, Material, Customer etc, it can ensure to get the complete information about the data that you are using and help the Organization to make efficient decision. These kinds of Enrichments are not possible using MDM, however, to manage risks effectively it is imperative to have all this data consolidated for a particular master data. But with a diverse system landscape and duplicate customers and vendors existing in various parts of organizations; assessing risk becomes a very big challenge. Inaccurate risk management would lead not only to bad financial decisions but also may hamper your relations with your vendors and customers.

External Enrichment

External enrichment services are provided either remotely by a service provider or by locally installed software. They typically offer very specialized and sophisticated enrichment functionality for certain kinds of master data.

There are various Service Providers in market with which an Organization can sign up a deal such as DnB, Acxiom, Intermat, Zycus and JP Morgan etc where you can send the Master Data related basic information and end – to – end information (which is accurate and clean) would be sent back by the Service providers. Some providers like DnB also maintain scores and ratios on various risk aspects which are calculated by them. Of course all of these wont come for free!

Consider the example of enriching customer address data. We have third party service providers like Dun & Bradstreet (DnB) which provide industry standard, accurate information on global entities. Given a small set of information like DUNS number, Name, City, Country etc DnB replies with a plethora of information like the World base Package containing the hierarchy of organization, its specific details like email, phone, website and other address details.

Using SAP MDM and Enrichment Controller provided by SAP, we can send the request as a web service to DnB and then enrich our repository records with information returned by DnB. This increases the data quality enormously! Errors such as typos, spelling, incomplete information etc do not take place as the data provided by DnB is standard and accurate.

Similarly other web services can be invoked from SAP MDM like VAT number, Latitude& Longitude etc. Use of such enrichment architecture can ensure high quality master data.

Enrichment Controller

Enriching your business partner master data with necessary information is the key to your Risk Management initiative. You can use a single third party data provider or opt for multiple providers to give you specific information on business partners. Requesting and gathering information is one part but most important is to use it effectively to make better decisions. Using the Enrichment Architecture, SAP MDM provides a Service Oriented Approach to easily connect and communicate with third party providers. Also now as all the data is consolidated with SAP MDM acting as a central hub, it facilitates better risk management.

All the steps of consolidating, cleansing and de-duplicating would come handy while enriching as you would now be able to ask for the exact Master Data related information and your request details would be more accurate. This would make it simpler for the 3rd party providers to send you the required details.

As shown above, SAP MDM comes with an Enrichment Controller which helps maintain communication with 3rd party service providers. The steps to be followed are:

• SAP MDM syndicates XML file to Enrichment Controller.
• Enrichment Controller will forward the file to 3rd party service provider.
• 3rd party service provider will analyze the data and send the information requested.
• SAP MDM will import the XML file using Import Manager and update data of the specific Master data object.
  

Conclusion

Using the Enrichment at Organizational level helps the Master Data Steward to get the Correct and Accurate data without any discrepancies.

Some of the key business benefits of using External Enrichment are:

• Single face of business partner; irrespective of whether it’s a customer or vendor.
• Reduction of Fault Resolution time.
• Reduction of Overhead cost due to incorrect data.
• Efficient management due to enriched master data and hence better decision making.
• Compliance Adherence as a result of avoidance of “unwanted business partner relations”.
• Accurate reporting by BI systems due to consolidated business partner single source of data.
• Increase in business revenue and better relationships with your customers/vendors by analyzing them as business partners across geographies and systems thereby able to offer them better financial rates and terms.