How Can You Enrich Data in Dynamics 365 Using STAEDEAN’s Data Governance Solution?

Working with a well-defined data governance strategy and outlining business scenarios for which you need to identify solutions will help you understand whether the data governance solutions you shortlisted are the best for your organization. Sometimes it helps to understand the scenarios the software provider has already identified with existing customers.

At STAEDEAN, we have a Data Governance Solution for your master data management challenges. Our solution, although built within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management (D365 F&SCM), can also help you enrich data from other systems by importing data using our data integration engine.

We often get asked that since our solutions are embedded and built using the same business logic as D365 F&SCM, can customers still use our solution to improve their customer data from their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system or Third-party logistics (3PL) system and the simple answer is yes. It can be done by making Dynamics 365 as your master data system and integrating other business systems with the ERP using our Data Governance Solution.

In this blog post, we will share a few scenarios that explain how our prospects and customers are using our solutions to enrich data in D365 F&SCM. This is just a starting point to give our readers an idea about how they can use our master data management solution for Dynamics 365.

An overview of our Data Governance Solution

The integration engine of our master data management solution for D365 F&SCM can help you surpass the limitations of Dynamics 365 and integrate with any business system or application on the cloud or on-premises. You can run data imports and exports from D365 using simple configurations and monitor your integrations, MDM messages, and more using our integration monitoring application.

Our Data Governance Solution for D365 F&SCM offers functionality for data quality management, data workflows, and data distribution. Our solution, allows you to improve data quality by configuring data validation rules, connecting to web services to validate data, and/or running data quality checks. Using workflows you can streamline data entry, ensure collaboration between team members, and also validate data internally. Using our MDM solution, you can control the distribution of your master data and also ensure the security of distributed data.

Now that you understand the power of STAEDEAN’s Data Governance Solution, let’s look at some actual customer scenarios where our MDM solution helped them enrich data imported into Dynamics 365 F&SCM.

Now that you understand the power of STAEDEAN’s solutions, let’s look at some actual customer scenarios where our integration and data governance solutions helped them enrich data imported into Dynamics 365 F&SCM.

5 use cases where our MDM solution can be used to enrich data in D365

Scenario 1: Employee record from an HRM system

An employee record is created outside of the ERP in a Human Resource Management system (HRM). The company needs this data to be synchronized in Dynamics 365 instead of creating a new record. They must also check if the employee’s information matches or conflicts with a customer or vendor record. So, after the data is entered into the external system, the data file is imported using our integration engine.

But since the fields are different from the external system, that record is sent to a pre-configured workflow. The workflow has the necessary fields assigned in different steps with a step for approval. Fields like address and relevant information important for the organization about the employee can be added to the workflow. A duplicate check is run to ensure that it is not a duplicate employee record, and some fields are also made mandatory.

This record can then be added to the master data records once approved.

Scenario 2: Customer record from a CRM system

Another common scenario is the customer record that is created in another system, e.g., Microsoft CE or SAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, and then using our solution or a direct integration (in the case of CE), the record is imported into Dynamics 365. This could be an XML, Excel, or other type of file. So, then the record is completed using a workflow, which also has all the rules configured active, and integrated. So, there are fields assigned in different steps for a customer template that has been pre-configured. If all the fields are filled in for a step, that step gets auto-completed, and the workflow triggers the next step so that the address fields, phone number, email address, and other details can be filled in and verified using web services.   

Next, the workflow goes to the financial team, and the financial details are filled in. This is followed by an approval step to ensure the correct financial details are filled in. After the record is created, our solution can be used for distributing the records to selected companies/legal entities once everything is set up.

Scenario 3: Vendor details from a file received through email

You received vendor details via email, and you need to add those details to a new vendor record in Dynamics 365. So, you import that file using our solution and then add vendor details in Dynamics through a pre-configured workflow, which has the quality checks and validations for the record imported. Similar checks for addresses have been added, and of course, our MDM solution can be used to add validations for the record to check if the data is good for address details, with duplicate checks to ensure this is not a duplicate record. An approval step is added to ensure the bank account details are internally verified by the finance team before that record is created and synchronized with the master data company.

After that, if you want to distribute this record to other companies, you can use our solution to share the record. And you can ensure whether fields are open to editing or not.

Scenario 4: Purchase order received via another system   

A purchase order record is imported using our Data Governance Solution from another business system and sent to a pre-configured workflow to check the quality of the data and enter missing fields assigned to the responsible team members. A step has been created for the financial dimensions to be approved by the manager, and after that, the record can be processed. Some data quality checks and rules for critical fields are active and integrated with the workflow. There are errors, but since the company does not want this to block its activities, the data quality rules are configured with warnings.

Scenario 5: Product record from the PLM system

When the product information comes from a PLM system, but the customer is not using PLM integration and that product is released in Dynamics 365 using our Data Governance Solution, many fields can be present in Dynamics 365 but not in the PLM system. To ensure the critical missing fields are filled and data quality rules are activated to enrich data quality, the record can be enriched in a pre-configured workflow using our MDM solution. With the automated steps, the fields will be assigned to the responsible team members and since the data quality rules will be activated, any errors that need to be addressed can also be updated in the data workflow. Post this step, the record can be distributed to select master data companies, and the critical fields can be blocked from being edited using the Dynamic field security feature

Share your business scenario with us

This is just the tip of the iceberg if we are being honest, as our Data Governance Solution can be used for multiple data enrichment scenarios such as product item, trade agreement, accounts payable, accounts receivable, purchase or sales order, and so on. If you configure a workflow for these records, whenever you import the file or if you are creating a new record, you can do that using our MDM solution for importing or exporting data, and our solution will enable a workflow that has integrated data quality rules to ensure accurate data entry and data quality checks. After you have enriched data, you can use our MDM solution for D365 F&SCM to share the record with selected legal entities or even external systems.

If you have a different business scenario, share those with our business experts and we can recommend the best approach using our MDM solution based on your organization’s requirements. Before scheduling a demo, we recommend downloading our Data Governance Solution factsheet from the link below.