Flexible and Cost Effective Approach to Managing Master Data for SAP
Reliable and accurate master data is critical to the successful implementation and operation of SAP. Master data, in particular customer, vendor, material and employee master data, are the foundation for integrated operations. Poor quality master data impacts almost every aspect of company operations; whether it is misdirected invoices arising from incorrect customer master information or bloated inventory as a result of duplicate material master records, problems with master data reduce or destroy return on investment.
SAP NetWeaver Master Data Management (SAP NetWeaver MDM) is an enabling foundation for enterprise services and business process management - providing a single version of the truth for customer, material, vendor and employee master data. However, while SAP NetWeaver MDM may be the ideal “end-state” configuration for many companies, competing business priorities, complexity and cost may combine to stall the adoption of this architecture. GAINE Solutions provides a Master Data Management Service tailored for SAP to accelerate the creation of high quality SAP master data. The GAINE Advantage™ SAP Master Data Solution is delivered as an "On- Demand" service and may be used as a one time conversion platform, an interim master data management solution or an accelerator to SAP NetWeaver MDM.
GAINE Advantage™ SAP Master Data Solution
GAINE Solutions Inc. provides a proven solution to produce and maintain high quality master data for SAP. The GAINE Advantage™ SAP Master Data Solution combines state-of-the-art master data management technology, reference data libraries, on-site analysts and cost effective offshore resources. Everything required to manage SAP master data is provided under a single contract and backed by a service level agreement tailored to the client’s needs.
Deployment Options
GAINE Advantage™ SAP Master Data Solution is fully compatible with SAP NetWeaver MDM. However, if the NetWeaver architecture is not deployed, the GAINE service can produce either LSMW or BAPI load files. The GAINE service may be used as a one-time master data integration platform for a new SAP implementation, as a one-time clean up in an existing SAP environment or it may be employed on an ongoing basis for master data maintenance in the absence of SAP NetWeaver MDM.
The GAINE Advantage™ Engagement Approach
I. Planning
GAINE consultants work with the customer to develop or refine a data migration strategy based on best practices. This initial strategy extends beyond the mechanics of creating SAP master data to include data governance policies, data stewardship and ongoing data maintenance.
II. Configuration
The GAINE Center of Excellence consultants select the appropriate target SAP model for the desired SAP configuration and set up the MDX data center environment.
III. Extract and Load
Developers within the GAINE Center of Excellence configure source data extracts and load them into the MDX based staging area.
IV. Data Transformation & Integration
GAINE Center of Excellence consultants use data profiling tools to identify and configure rules to transform the available source data into SAP-ready master data.
V. Data Enrichment and Validation
GAINE Data stewards (onshore or offshore) and subject matter experts from the client receive formatted data extracts for validation and augmentation . The GAINE data stewarding group use a combination of reference data libraries, research and data entry to augment and validate the source data.
VI. Load File Configuration
The GAINE Center of Excellence is responsible for producing the required master data extracts from the MDX data center to support the chosen load strategy. Support for LSMW, BAPI and MDM is provided.
VII. Testing Support
The GAINE team remains engaged with the customer throughout testing, making changes to transformation rules, producing load files for testing, refreshing the master data and trouble shooting data queries.
Case Study
Applied Materials Inc. (Nasdaq: AMAT) is the global leader in nanomanufacturing technology solutions with a broad portfolio of innovative equipment for the fabrication of semiconductor chips, flat panel displays, solar photovoltaic cells, flexible electronics and energy efficient glass. Applied Materials had net sales of more than $9.8 billion in 2006.
Applied Materials selected MDX from GAINE SOLUTIONS to accelerate the integration and cleansing of master data for SAP. GAINE worked closely with Applied Materials and SAP to create customer, vendor and material master files from more than a dozen source systems. These master data files were loaded into SAP NetWeaver MDM for integration and ongoing harmonization with SAP.
Not all of the data required for the new SAP implementation was available from Applied Materials source systems. GAINE data stewards in India provided extensive data augmentation services for materials data including taxonomy classification, validation of key attributes and research of other required attributes.
The GAINE process provided Applied Materials with a reliable process to create and maintain master data throughout the SAP implementation project. The GAINE approach produced master data on time for each phase of the project and is estimated to have reduced data migration costs by up to 60%. |
