With more data available today than ever before and the volume continuing to grow exponentially, enterprises who want to tap into the power of their data depend on SAP Master Data Governance (SAP MDG) to securely access, govern, and manage master data in real time. If you’ve been following our master data governance series, we’ve focused on best practices for getting your MDG implementation off the ground. Today we’ll be covering best practices for the organizations who have an existing SAP MDG deployment and want to ensure they’re harnessing the full value of the solution for long-term success.
Organizations that implement MDG on their own may not always adequately plan for maintaining the solution post-deployment. MDG must be configured as your business evolves so that it can continue to verify data, protect data, and ensure that new or changed data still gets to the right people. As the business continues to grow and amass more data, users may find themselves needing to add regions, add another value to an existing attribute, or adjust a dynamic workflow to better meet the organization’s needs. Without establishing visibility into the solution to easily manage workflows after deployment, users may find themselves resorting to the offline processes that they had used pre-implementation.
To avoid this misstep, it’s essential that organizations plan for two things when embarking on their MDG project. First, it’s important to set expectations about the role of data governance. This is a long-term endeavor that should be woven into the fabric of the organization, rather than a one-off project. Even in the early stages of an MDG project, companies should be planning for the future and building a governance model that is able to constantly adapt to changes in the company and the evolving business environment. Establishing this cultural shift is the first step towards long-term MDG success.
Second, if your organization has decided to use an SAP MDG accelerator for master data governance, it is critical to choose one that offers visual workflow maintenance. A tool that brings the technical, backend work of MDG to the forefront through a visual UI will allow business users and data stewards to easily manage the solution’s configuration with full visibility into its ongoing performance. Users who may not be configuration experts can see what is being implemented in the system in real time and use the tool as a form of live documentation, rather than resorting to tracking down the latest updates in SharePoint or another repository where businesses may keep workflow documentation.
Your SAP MDG accelerator should also be using SAP-native technology. A solution like Syniti Rapid Data Governance (RDG) for example, is built on top of the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and is SAP-approved, so organizations can take full advantage of SAP’s leading technology to work more efficiently. This streamlines the way users route any issues and data defects to the appropriate level of approval. Syniti RDG leverages SAP Business Rule Framework (SAP BRF), giving users the ability to create email templates and add them to any workflow wherever required in the approval process. With the combined power of Syniti RDG and Deloitte Data Governance Accelerator (DGOAL), organizations can leverage Deloitte’s industry-leading data governance practices to support and continuously configure the solution through workshops and reporting tools based on years of data governance expertise and best practices.
By choosing an MDG accelerator that provides this ease of use and streamlined response and resolution to data issues, your data teams gain the ability to spend more time looking at the bigger picture. With maintenance activities simplified, data stewards can spend less time solving data defects and more time developing large-scale data analytics and innovation initiatives.
Data has become a key enabler of business transformation, with master data governance proving to be a necessary component of any organization’s strategy to fully harness the potential of their data while minimizing risk. By establishing a culture of business-driven data governance and utilizing a visual, SAP-native solution to accelerate SAP MDG deployment, organizations can lay the foundation for a robust governance program that sustains long-term value.
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