A picture is worth a Thousand words!
You don't want to be the only person on earth picturing an iphone in your mind by reading "iphone: The missing manual" without ever seeing one!
Now Picture this,.....
You are quarter mile into learning MDM and that ever mystifying concept of Display field , Qualified Table still remains elusive....
You always thought you finally understood it , and next day...hmm.... it is the same story again!
Swear to GOD, you have been through the reference guide a zillion times,
SDN forums!? ...been there ...done that
Still, you wonder what happens to that display field Y/N in that Qualified Table with Two level Lookup fields in-turn having 3 display fields, and GOD knows which combination of Unique fields is just going to break your neck while Importing stuff.
oh I forgot! , there are these MDM Default repositories right! ready for you to use and understand the intricacies...nitty ...gritty details of MDM.
Cool, but where is the data?, the beauty of MDM is Data Manager, all other clients/ services are still , however complex, just add-ons, if you will! ( I can hear a lot of grunts! :P)
So here comes our Hero !
Two simple repositories with just about the right amount and Kind of Data a Newbie to MDM will love to see ...play and learn with.!
Little known ( pardon me, if I am actually, the last one in the room, to know about them) little marketed and rarely referenced in any of the official literature. ( Well I did post a Thread in MDM Forum 😉 )
A Business Partner Repository with 21,694 records
17 Languages enabled, and filled ( Trusting my counting skills & ofcourse my eyes)
3 Workflows (ofcourse Working! :P) for Import, Validation & Matching.
A region hierarchy
A Category for Organization/Person/Group
Two Qualified tables, Addresses, Tax Numbers with all you contents you were craving for !!!! for starters Addresses Qualified has
Lookup(flat) , Lookup ( Hierarchy), Lookup ( Flat Multi Valued).
Actual Validations on Address, Name, Phone Number
Don't get me started on the Schema's, Import maps, Syndication maps.
And guess what the actual thrill begins when you open up the data manager !
I wanted this episode ( actually blog ) to be more on the lines of LOST episode 1 , tickling your senses , going nowhere, but also leaving you wondering to explore everywhere!. bad at words but hope got the message across!
oh and BTW not to irritate soap haters, here is the link to the first repository I just talked about
SAP NetWeaver - Demo Model
I will get back in my next installment with loads of screen shots & possibly mutlimedia.
SO before I sign off, the most logical question , what you can do with this DEMO stuff and is it going to be just another SAP content on your Harddisk living next to a corrupt sector . A BIIIIG NOOO!
The beauty of MDM is in the intelligent layout of data manager, and no wonder it is wisely said, if you are set about to design a repository which makes people scroll too far to right or too many clicks/drill downs or clumsy display of unimportant data right upfront, then it is actually signs of upcoming problems when Importing , syndicating and upgrading functionality/ design change
So this DEMO model with "rich data" will
A) Give Designers an Idea of what data types, hierarchies, taxonomies, & Display field settings , Qualified table structures will look like.
B) Developers can Quicly see get their hands dirty by tweaking the infinite settings MDM has to offer.
C) ETL experts can take a look at rich Import maps and most importantly matching and merging capabilities as there is alreadt good data present.
D) data Quality experts & Cleansing guru's can take a peek into MDM Validations and how data quality is enforced via validations & inherently by the web of check tables woven into the very fabric of MDM.
E) Most importantly, Business users can take a look at very much actual data in data manager and feel how they can work with MDM even before Project Kick's off.
F) And Managers/ project Visionaries and Project COE can actually show this to all stake holders and give a high level brief of a working BP model. ( Time is money, a GO-NO GO decision need not be backed up by a boring 20 mins presentation when you can actually juggle infront of Executive committee).
And Last but not the least Rookies, newbies and enthusiasts like me always can use DEMO reps as a nitro mode for accelerated learning and my next couple of blogs will explain simple yet highly effective concepts of MDM in a tone similar to the "missing manuals" using DEMO reps as base.
-----------------------------"The beginning"-------------------------------
PS: I always wondered " if only i could get that corporate VPN working on my iphone and actually see that MDM result set iview on my safari browser!
