How to Drive Digital Transformation with Master Data Management

Digitization of business has come a long way since the late 20^th century, when the concept of embracing technology to overcome day-to-day business challenges started gaining momentum. Although most people had their reservations initially, the advent of globalization pushed more and more companies across the world to adopt a digital way of running their businesses, giving out a clear message — digital business transformation is here to stay. Digital transformation denotes a foundational change in how an organization uses technology, people and processes to deliver valuable customer experience with the help of their data.

Although digital transformation varies in its functional aspects depending on the industry or the type of business involved, one feature that remains undisputed is the ever-changing quality of digital transformation. It is therefore imperative for you to have a solid integration in place, among your systems, applications and processes, along with sound data practices, that can make your organization’s digital business transformation more effective and stable.

Master Data Management can help you in this journey. A well-thought-out master data strategy can help you achieve an effective transition to digitalizing your operations by ironing out all issues connected with the quality of data across entities. A master data management tool also ensures the availability of consistent and trustworthy data that can help your organization make informed, critical business decisions.

What is Master Data Management?

Master Data Management (MDM) is a technology-enabled discipline in which business and IT work together to ensure the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship, semantic consistency, and accountability of the enterprise’s official shared master data assets. It is the result of specific tools and data governance processes to ensure timely, consistent and accurate data migration across your business departments, entities and applications, so that information can be processed simultaneously, enabling everyone to be on the same page. Master Data Management provides a unified view of the data that’s spread across the organization, its departments and its applications. It creates a single source of truth based on the various pieces of fragmented data that come from multiple sources within the enterprise.

What is the role of MDM in Digital Business Transformation?

Experts say, your business is only as fast as your data. Not only does data steer business strategy and policy, but it also drives digital transformation initiatives in any industry. However, as data creation has increased by leaps and bounds in the past few years, the classification and the integration of data have become tedious and complicated. Since transformational decisions in business can only be made based on trusted and good-quality master data, automation is required to manage master data, and to make it more secure and reliable. In fact, from the digital transformation perspective, reliable and trustworthy master data is vital in making substantial changes to critical business functions.

How can Master Data Management benefit you in your Digital Transformation journey?

Master Data Management comes with a plethora of benefits. Since good quality data forms the foundation of your organization’s digital business strategy, understanding the role of Master Data Management can help you sketch out your company’s digital journey competently.

Let us look at some of the major benefits you could expect out of Master Data Management in the digital transformation of your business:

1. Consolidation of Data

Digital transformation is a comprehensive concept that would affect every aspect of your business. So, as you take steps towards digitally revolutionizing your business, data will be an essential tool in your arsenal during every aspect of the journey. Master data consolidates the vital, updated, and relevant information you would need, thus turning disconnected information into implementable business outcomes.

2. Consistency of Data

When Master Data Management came into existence in the early 90s, it was touted as the solution for enormous amounts of disjointed data on various platforms that companies had to deal with. This was welcome news for those who wanted to transition to a digital model. Master data sources tend to lie at multiple destinations, creating problems in the collection and management of data. By investing in an MDM solution, consistency and uniformity in data could be achieved.

3. Holistic Business Insights

The significant contribution that master data offers, in the context of digital business transformation, is to provide holistic as well as specific business insights. It is challenging to derive these business insights through manual processing alone. Hence, it is crucial to invest in efficient MDM software that can improve the quality of your data. As a result, you would be able to make well-informed decisions.

4. Improved Data Standards

Apart from the consolidation and the integration of data, an MDM solution would also ensure data quality, integrity and security. Redundancy, inaccuracy and discrepancies in master data are eliminated. All the data management processes within the organization are streamlined. Data duplication is weeded out, and a single data source is established, pruning confusions.

5. Enhanced Data Security

The right MDM solution would offer you role-based accessibility, which eliminates the risk of data breach and safeguards the privacy of data. It provides data stewards with an easy and risk-free way to operate and manage data efficiently. Moreover, Master Data Management rationalizes data regulations and privacy rules. This controlled access would enable you to work with more reliable and updated data, benefitting your digital transformation efforts tremendously. Read more about our Data Security Solution for Dynamics 365 F&SCM.

Why is Master Data Management key to a successful Digital Transformation?

Although it is not the sole criteria for successfully completing your digital transformation journey, a good Master Data Management solution is, nevertheless, a crucial part of the process. By implementing the right MDM solution, you would be able to see a definite improvement in your ability to scale your business and handle crucial functions. A good Master Data Management tool comes with a flexible data mapping feature that allows you to map your organization’s data on the basis of location. Therefore, in the long run, you would be able to see the effects of the strategic advantage that Master Data Management provides in every aspect of your business.

The Way Forward

Digital transformation is the order of the day. Every business needs to have a digital transformation program in place, in order to stay competitive in the current business world. Given the significance of master data in establishing a unified view of your entire business operations, an efficient MDM solution would surely be an invaluable asset in streamlining and optimizing your digital transformation strategy.

To help you in this journey, STAEDEAN offers you the Data Governance Solution for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management, which can help you manage your organization’s master data. Our master data management solution enables you to arrive at a single source of truth through centralized or decentralized master data ownership and can also complement your business strategy for a successful and scalable digital transformation. To help you get started with MDM in D365 F&SCM, download our beginner’s guide from the link below.