2 reasons why we like NetWeaver BPM for Data Governance

[Former Member]

Master data governance is often an afterthought of most ERP-driven business transformation initiatives. As a result, its design and execution is typically performed in a reactive manner leading into a slow but steady decline of master data quality and consistency that will eventually plague the core business processes. So how do we avoid this natural tendency?

The first step is to realize that master data governance is a discipline that requires several key components to be effective - process design, organizational model and architecture.

Process Design	First and foremost, data governance should be viewed as a collection of business processes, not just a technical activity performed by IT Each data governance process workflow must be clearly defined and optimally designed based on the business requirements for managing master data It is important to start with an architecture-agnostic view of the master data governance process and leverage open standards in the process design
Organizational Model	As with any collection of business processes, we should create a clear definition of roles and responsibilities Due consideration should be placed upon segregation of duties, security and controls
Architecture	We should define and implement an architecture design that effectively realizes the business requirements defined for data governance

NOTE: For the purpose of this post, we will focus on the architecture. If interested, you can obtain a better overview of data governance process design and organizational model by reviewing a recent webinar that SAP and Deloitte co-delivered  - "Enabling effective data governance through Business Process Management" (the recording is available on http://webinars.sapinsideronline.com/). This webinar also includes a demonstration of the concepts that we will be covering in this post.

Realizing Master Data Governance Architecture

We've often observed a misguided pursuit of a single tool that provides all the functionality required for data governance. From our perspective, it is necessary to decompose data governance architecture into several layers including:

• Orchestration layer to drive the workflow of data governance
• Presentation layer to provide a simple user experience
• Application layer where the data resides and where it is consumed by the business processes
• Integration layer that facilitates the syndication and distribution of master data across your application landscape.

Please take note, that the realization of this framework will vary based on your business requirements. Let's apply this framework for a global MDM environment with decentralized maintenance of master data across multiple SAP ERP systems with a complex data governance process requirement including syndication and distribution of data. The resulting architecture may include deploying NetWeaver BPM for the orchestration, Portals for the presentation, NetWeaver PI for the integration and the MDM and SAP ERP systems for the application layer.

Why we like NetWeaver BPM for Data Governance

1. It provides a very good orchestration capability

The following table summarizes our perspective on the value of NetWeaver BPM. First, the ability for collaborative process design where you have one platform for functional and technical design. This enables the usage of a rapid development methodology therefore reducing your total Design and Realization/Build cost. Next, the ability to support cross-system workflow driven by the process model.  This helps minimize the risk of translating the functional design incorrectly because the flow is based on industry standard Business Process Modeling Notation. The ability to integrate a rules engine to separate technical code from the business logic is another critical capability. This reduces your cost of ownership because you do not need to trigger a software logistics process for every change in business rule. And finally, integration with BW analytics. The ability to readily export the process information to perform business analytics is a very powerful feature.

 

2. It simplifies the user experience

NetWeaver BPM can help improve user experience because we are able to invoke the specific user interface at the process step or activity level independent of the underlying application. As far as the user is concerned, he/she only needed to deal with the user interface independent of the underlying application environment. Basically, NetWeaver BPM allows you to separate the business logic and it reduces the opportunity for error due to the tight orchestration of human interaction and system-to-system integration.

 

It is because of these two reasons that we recommend that any current and future discussions regarding Data Governance should include consideration of NetWeaver BPM for the Orchestration layer. Certainly, as briefly discussed earlier, data governance architecture must be driven in conjunction with process design and organizational model.