Master Data meets Hana

If you don't have your data under control, you don't need Hana. This is how Jürgen Sturm, former CIO at Bosch Siemens BSH, introduced last year's DSAG Congress.

With SAP MDG 8, this statement must be put into perspective, at least with regard to master data. With the new release 8.0 of SAP Master Data Governance (MDG), a solution has been on the market since September 2015 that supports companies in getting a better grip on master data using Hana.

The latest MDG version combines for the first time all the necessary functions to keep the data clean (Keep it clean), but also functions for consolidation and harmonization (Make it clean). Hana is used for Make it clean.

Three main innovations

1. consolidation:

The use of Hana multiplies the application scenarios of the SAP master data solution. In addition to MDG's previous core function, which was limited to the clean creation and modification of master data, customers of heterogeneous systems in particular should benefit from the new consolidation scenarios.

Thus, MDG can be used to provide consolidated and harmonized data for analytical purposes without having to harmonize the corresponding source systems.

In concrete terms, the data is prepared in five steps, which can range from manual to fully automated: The first step is the extraction of data from the corresponding data sources.

The second step involves standardizing the data, based on normalization rules and address directories. This ensures that the data is in a uniform format.

This forms the basis for the third step - matching. In the fourth step, validation against customizing takes place. In the fifth and final step, the data is transferred to the active area of MDG.

This means that the data is transferred to the standard SAP tables. In the process, the data can either be activated directly or run through a workflow by means of a so-called change request.

As a result, users receive consolidated and harmonized master data on a central system. In addition, the cleansed and consolidated data can optionally be written back to the source systems.

2. better search results:

With MDG on Hana, users now find the corresponding search result even if the search term does not match the record in the database 100 percent. This is achieved through so-called fuzzy logic, which does not query the exact search term, but allows certain variants by means of algorithms and presents these as search results.

3. analyses with multi-attribute drilldowns:

With the ability to drill down to the attribute level, users can perform detailed master data analysis to uncover any grievances.

For example, if you have 21 German states stored in your MDG system instead of the 16 that actually exist, multi-attribute drilldowns detect the corresponding duplicates and other erroneous data and can clean them up in a targeted manner.

Conclusion

Especially the consolidation scenario enriches MDG with another important function, although currently still with restrictions. So far, the consolidation scenario is only supported for business partners, i.e. customers and suppliers.

MDG 8.0 also offers a variety of technological options for performing standardization and matching as part of the consolidation scenario - here, interested customers should carefully evaluate the different options.

The other innovations that come exclusively with SAP MDG 8.0 on Hana could already be realized beforehand with additional SAP products. The functions should therefore mainly be of interest to customers who want to use the consolidation scenario, have to cover mass data scenarios or rely on Hana as a database anyway.

For existing MDG customers, a switch to SAP MDG 8.0 on Hana is currently only worthwhile to a limited extent, as the switch to Hana is accompanied by corresponding costs for the database change and the adjustments to the MDG solution.

Nevertheless, Camelot ITLab's experience gained during the ramp-up shows that the migration from an existing MDG to MDG 8.0 on Hana can also be performed smoothly.

It can be assumed that SAP will further expand the scope of consolidation functions. Therefore, especially SAP MDM existing customers should consider an evaluation.