Paving the Way Towards Federated Master Data Governance

SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition released to customers: a new way of thinking in master data management.

Master data integration and management

In a recent blog post, I outlined the interplay of master data integration and master data management as a highly beneficial strategy for the intelligent enterprise. An SAP expert talk reiterates the complementary nature of these disciplines. Listen to Torben Schuchart and Andreas Doehrn as they discuss how master data management adds value to SAP’s corporate strategy for the Integrated Intelligent Enterprise when it comes to sharing master data in one language.

Listen to the 25-minute Let’s Talk Data podcast:

Federation of master data governance

In the podcast, the experts – among other topics – discuss the concept of federated master data governance, which is a new way of organizing enterprise-wide master data management. In simple terms, this is about setting up corporate-wide master data management in the application landscape in such a way that globally relevant (=core) attributes of a master data object, for example a Customer, are governed centrally and shared with all relevant applications across the enterprise while decentral applications govern the attributes that are specific to a business unit or group locally, because this is exactly where this data is best understood.

Take the simple example of a Customer who goes by the same name, title, address, etc. globally for everybody in the corporation, and this information is used to globally identify the Customer (for example, for global profitability analyses). However, this Customer may have different payment options  based on the business unit they’re doing business with (“pay within 30 days after invoice”, “pay in advance”).

Federated governance lowers the overall TCO and adds business agility by rendering major organizational adjustments and cumbersome data harmonization tasks unnecessary. In this context, you may also be interested in reading the IDC Market Note by Steward Bond and the white paper by Senior Analyst Andy Hayler about the benefits that can be gained from a federated governance approach.

SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition now generally available

SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition is generally avalable and I’d like to reiterate that it does not replace SAP Master Data Governance on S/4HANA. It is an additional deployment option where customers can fully leverage their earlier investments into MDG. It goes hand in hand with SAP’s integration strategy and is a key driver for federated master data governance:

• It is based on the SAP One Domain Model providing the lingua franca or common language and on SAP Master Data Integration being the unified layer for sharing high-quality master data.
• It is focused on the governance of core attributes of Business Partner data (more domains planned) and it is open to a federated network approach where de-central/local applications can manage their application-specific attributes.

In a nutshell, the first release features the following key capabilities:

	Consolidation Facilitate highly effective import of duplicate-free master data. Create and manage consolidation processes including match and merge capabilities
	Central governance Create/change single or multiple records based on approval workflow, enabling business applications to access and use core attributes of business partner data in pristine quality
	Data-quality management Allow experts to collaborate in defining the required quality level and resulting checks Visualize data quality to reveal and remediate master data issues before business processes fail
	Field Extensibility Increase flexibility and process scope by managing core attributes through extensibility by custom fields Use Wizard-like Fiori app to define and configure custom fields
	Replication Replicate to SAP Master Data Integration (MDI) as the unified data sharing layer: Push data when replicating to MDI Pull data when receiving messages from MDI based on events

SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition enables organizations to start a master data management initiative at a low entry barrier and at the same time, it opens the door to federated governance for organizations seeking at a more modular approach in master data management.

For more details on the functional scope of this release and planned innovations for SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition, take a look at the SAP Roadmap Explorer, or see the Feature Scope Description on the product page for SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition on the SAP Help Portal. In addition, there are short process videos showing:

• Creation of a business partner record
• Data quality analysis and remediation
• Concept of federated governance

Finally, I’d like to invite you to watch an SAP Community Call recording, in which SAP experts explain the key processes and features of SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition:

Meet the experts For more expert knowledge, take the opportunity and watch the SAP Community Call from May 27, 2021: This is about taking a closer look at SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition, which is a key driver of federated governance.

To stay up to date with what’s going on in the SAP Master Data Governance, simply follow the SAP Community Topic Page for SAP Master Data Governance, check out the FAQ page about SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition and join the Q&A and discussion forum.

“The Times They Are a-Changin’ “. Let’s be at the forefront in shaping the change. By the way, recently Bob Dylan had his 80th birthday. Congrats (a bit late) and keep on keeping on.

Best,

Markus