Agile MDM

Data experts believe that only 15 percent of the data in German companies is "clean". About 60 percent of the data is "dark data". This is data whose usefulness is unknown. First of all, it costs a lot of resources, but it may well contain data that is relevant to the company.

In addition, there is also so-called bad data. Analysts assume that at least 25 percent of the data in companies is incorrect. This is critical because it has a direct impact on business results.

They are incorrect or duplicated. This naturally leads to faulty operational processes and decisions. Of course, these can be tackled with deduplication and other MDM tools - but you need a plan, a consistent process model.

Data governance and compliance rules become necessary! Winshuttle focuses on this core problem of enterprises and has developed an agile MDM concept as well as the corresponding solutions for the optimization of mission-critical data.

"Master data management is indeed an often unloved topic and only comes into focus when poor data quality shows impact on business operations and results"

Winshuttle manager Ralph Weiss also knows.

"Often, people then invest in costly projects that improve data quality in the short term, but fail to master the problem in the long term.

Due to agile master data management, for which the Winshuttle platform offers ideal solutions, responsibility for data quality can remain in the business departments - where the data is also created, managed and used - while the IT department retains sovereignty over the processes."

The result should be permanently high data quality, and the need to carry out expensive projects to improve master data quality can be eliminated. Companies can use the existing data and agile processes to make valid decisions and respond quickly to market requirements.

Ralph Weiss knows the weak points from practical experience and he often hears discussions about data sovereignty. With its hybrid solution, Winshuttle offers a different approach than SAP's centrally oriented approach. At SAP, it is called Master Data Governance (MDG) and is an add-on to SAP's ERP and also considers this system to be the leading and central one in IT.

The master data governance approach is about optimizing master data quality through a defined, centralized process and set of rules. In this way, the ERP system becomes the sole source of master data - but it often cannot achieve the necessary user acceptance to gain significant influence on daily processes in the company.

"MDG is a new offering that leverages existing technology applications and better integrates with existing SAP ERP infrastructures"

explains the Winshuttle DACH boss.

"As a result, from my perspective, the focus is more on process and application data, rather than the master data approach of MDM.

Ultimately, it's a master data governance solution for SAP application data."

Quality & Heterogeneity

The term Master Data Management has many different meanings, depending on the status of the master data organization and the technologies used to work with master data.

A significant focus for SAP is recognizably on the ERP system in conjunction with reporting and analysis based on the data in the SAP system.

"Relevant data, however, very often exists in many departments in Microsoft Excel without any connection to the central SAP system"

Weiss says.

"We see ourselves as the link between these Excel-based data silos and SAP"

Weiss continues. He emphasizes that it is important for departments to be able to maintain their data in their familiar environment and then transfer it to SAP in a largely automated process.

In a Winshuttle environment, users in the business units create scripts via which they load or extract SAP data. This gives them more flexibility and autonomy.

"Part of our platform is the Winshuttle User Governance module - it enables IT to control and centrally manage the use of these scripts within the organization.

In this respect, master data maintenance in a Winshuttle environment is primarily the responsibility of the business departments. Governance, on the other hand, is primarily the responsibility of IT."

Weiss describes the bimodal MDM system.

Master data plays an important role in companies today. They serve as the basis for business decisions, as it is often necessary to react quickly and agilely to changing conditions.

"And master data strongly influences the value chain in companies, because if master data quality is poor, there will be delays and errors and missed opportunities, and this often leads to increased risk premiums out of uncertainty"

Ralph Weiss recounts from his professional experience.

Data quality and the knowledge available within the company as a result are increasingly seen as critical factors and should be on the agenda of top management.

This is also the conclusion of a study by the renowned market researcher Barc from Würzburg. Eight meta-trends are currently influencing IT and thus also the use of solutions for business intelligence and data management or their organizational integration.

These are digitization, consumerization, agility, security, analytics, cloud, mobile and artificial intelligence. These developments and requirements in turn are again drivers for a total of 19 BI and data management trends from the user perspective, which have now been recorded and analyzed in detail by the Barc BI Trend Monitor 2016.

Globally, the application areas of data discovery, data visualization, data quality and master data management, and self-service are currently the trends most frequently cited by companies as influencing their daily work.

"Companies often have little time for lengthy adjustments to operating processes, and expensive projects to improve data quality should be avoided. Instead, management must rely on fast and flexible data processes that focus on the accuracy of the data.

Winshuttle's Lean Applications simplify data collection and transfer. As a result, the quality of the data increases and master data becomes a valid asset in the companies".

adds Winshuttle manager Weiss.

"Every organization needs to think about how it collates and captures data, both from a transactional and master data perspective"

defines Ralph Weiss in conversation with Editor-in-Chief Peter Färbinger. The correct handling of data is a challenge to the organizational structure of a company.

Some SAP legacy customers solve this in a very good and controlled way, but it comes at a price. Either it requires a lot of work or many controls, which leads to delays until the data finally appears in the system.

From his numerous contacts with existing SAP customers, Ralph Weiss learns that the challenge is magnified by the fact that the SAP infrastructure is usually very complex and there is no clear winner in the tussle over data sources and data sovereignty.

SAP provides a robust framework for application data management in the current ERP release, but the challenges are still systems that are not fully integrated, the group of heterogeneous users (who are not all SAP users), and custom configurations.

SAP's governance model for information provides a clearly described path for new and existing customers when it comes to SAP technologies. This is achieved primarily through a range of à la carte solutions from which a customer can choose.

"The biggest challenge with all of these offerings is that a customer must first recognize and accept that they have a problem, and from that, deduce which solutions are best suited to meet their needs"

Weiss explains in an E-3 interview.

"In some organizations, that can be problematic if they're separate areas that have already decided on certain applications and are unwilling to make changes here and deploy solutions they don't know."

This is where Winshuttle's solutions come into play.

They create the connection between the Excel-based data solutions of the business departments and the SAP environment while adhering to governance and compliance guidelines. According to Weiss, this is an important option for both existing and new SAP users.

"As I said - with Winshuttle's lean data management applications, the responsibility for master data and its maintenance is once again in the hands of the specialist departments that are competent for this data."

the Winshuttle manager emphasizes once again.

"This relieves the IT department and accelerates ERP data management and process automation.

Regardless, IT continues to have technical control over the systems."

Master Data Methodology

The Winshuttle platform enables the connection of heterogeneous systems - precisely these data silos - to SAP via lean applications for data management or form-based workflows.

Winshuttle thus creates the basis for transparent and efficient data management across system boundaries.

"Our platform also ensures that SAP actually becomes the central system for data management, the single source of truth. This can also be realized by existing SAP customers without any problems."

Ralph Weiss describes the process model.

Why did Capgemini decide to enter into a strategic partnership with Winshuttle?

"Our ambition at Capgemini Application Services is to continuously industrialize and automate our IT service delivery to our clients"

explains Martin Arnoldy, Vice President Application Services Germany at Capgemini.

"With Winshuttle's solutions, we achieve both. By establishing a universal best practice model for master data maintenance, we establish more agile and flexible processes for master data maintenance at our customers.

Future projects and initiatives of our customers in the field of business process optimization, IT analyses and specifically Hana migrations can thus be implemented more efficiently.

We have integrated Winshuttle into our master data methodology at Capgemini and see great potential in its future standard use in our customer projects."

Naturally, this raises the question: What is the solution for data governance and compliance? SAP recommends MDG Consolidation with the goal of transporting all data to one platform - Hana, of course.

"It makes perfect sense for SAP systems - the way data is collected and entered into SAP systems should be consistent, reliable and high performing"

Ralph Weiss also thinks so.

S/4 is positioned as the next generation ERP that supports hosting this data. However, it does not dictate that SAP Master Data Governance should be the only way to go, only that some consistency and a reliable approach should be used.

SAP believes that many aspects of the MDG help to achieve this. Some SAP legacy customers may disagree with the data entry-only approach.

S/4 is positioned as the optimal environment for master data, as Hana is seen as the best option in the ERP market for data retrieval, reporting and analysis.

"It follows: If a company doesn't see SAP as the best option for hosting critical data, it needs to create its own reports and analytics from many environments, across many applications."

Weiss says.

Winshuttle believes that SAP is a good environment for reporting and analytics. Winshuttle, on the other hand, supports ERP customers with transactional and master data whether or not SAP Master Data Governance or accompanying solutions are used.

"It is undoubtedly true that master data forms the DNA of every company"

explains Winshuttle manager Weiss.

DNA & Agility

"At the same time, it's certainly not realistic to expect that all enterprise data can be centralized within IT's direct sphere of influence."

According to experts, about 80 percent of the tasks involved in processing corporate data are performed using Microsoft Office applications without a connection to the SAP systems - which shows the dimension of the problem.

The Winshuttle platform enables companies to connect these data silos to SAP systems in a user-friendly and transparent manner.

"We apply the principles of lean management to data management - and after all, these stand for agility like no other methodology"

Weiss emphasizes the commitment to dynamic MDM.

"Our solutions enable teams in business departments to respond quickly to changing requirements and continuously optimize their processes via Lean Applications without programming."

Business departments can continue to work in Excel or use user-friendly web forms with Winshuttle solutions. And CIOs can give business departments this freedom to develop in a timely manner without hesitation.

You have control over these lean applications via the Winshuttle User Governance module.

"In addition, our system validates the entered or changed data against SAP"

assures Ralph Weiss.

This makes Winshuttle a successful platform for initiatives to improve efficiency around SAP systems.

"In the latest unpublished figures from the Capgemini IT Trends 2016 study, it is evident that compared to last year, IT departments' overall agility has increased.

The core processes in particular have become more flexible".

knows Stefan Sack, head of Capgemini's Agile competence team in Germany and Austria.

However, the coverage of IT functionalities demanded by the business side declined. At the same time, fewer IT departments have managed to implement the planned new or further developments on time, one can read in the Capgemini study.

"This is in line with my project experience. Digitalization has obviously led to a significant increase in often short-term business requirements that many IT departments are currently unable to meet."

interprets Sack.

"A key reason is likely to be that the structures and culture of many organizations stand in the way of agile approaches."

The agile Winshuttle solution is specifically designed to capture, validate and integrate data without compromising security or governance.

"Our platform enables the creation of lean data management solutions without programming that can be implemented by both business and IT"

explains Ralph Weiss. In addition, there are so-called accelerators for certain master data processes, such as the Vendor Master for the rapid implementation of company-specific requirements.

The Winshuttle platform is highly scalable from simple entry-level workstation-based applications through the Studio product family to supporting large enterprise projects such as improving core master data processes through Winshuttle Enterprise Foundation.

"Customers typically go through a difficult process to move to a single source of information because the data resides on many different systems and sometimes has few overlapping attributes"

Weiss explains.

"It is therefore all the more significant to respond to this with agile and flexible tools."

This is understandable because SAP systems need certain data for materials management, sales, purchasing and finance. Certain other data, such as that from customer events and conversations, is not necessarily useful for the ERP system, but it is useful for customer relationship management.

Winshuttle's approach to this challenge is the "First Time Right" principle by simply involving all experts needed in the process. This can be done via freely definable processes that can be flexibly adapted at any time.

Conclusion & Future

There are different ways to do this or to decide which data should be synchronized and which should not. Very important, according to Weiss:

"If it was decided that data in one particular system should be matched with another, then it should be as cost-effective and convenient as possible."

Winshuttle helps SAP legacy customers do just that via forms, workflows and templates for Excel-based data integration in a coordinated, structured and regulated way.

Winshuttle's platform has focused on locally installed enterprise solutions since 2003. With SAP and Microsoft certified products for NetWeaver, Hana and SharePoint, customers are able to easily and quickly implement integrations that meet governance and compliance.

"The market shows that existing and new customers are increasingly considering cloud-based solutions"

Ralph Weiss defines the next trends. Accordingly, Winshuttle is developing a next generation of products that support an SAP master data governance strategy and SAP application data management in the cloud. And in conclusion, the Winshuttle manager says:

"SAP legacy customers have many options for how to feed the SAP data engine - but not all of these methods are easy to implement or maintain.

Winshuttle provides a set of innovative and robust SAP-certified methods for data integration - providing the governance and control you need."