Data is the most powerful resource available to any modern enterprise, but you can only take advantage if you know how to monetize it properly. When you still rely on legacy systems, your data sets are trapped in disparate data silos, and your applications have no way of communicating or sharing data with each other.
If you want to analyze shared data from both systems, you have to rely on a manual transfer. This process is both time-consuming and prone to human error. Not only can you not guarantee high data quality, but the data could even be out of date by the time you get it. Data is only valuable if it’s accurate and current. Yesterday’s data won’t do you much good for solving today’s problems. This is why any successful digital transformation has software integration at its core.
Once your applications are integrated, they’ll be able to share data with each other, and you can collect it all in a single source of truth. This is made easier with data virtualization solutions, which can take care of the data transformation process automatically. Shared data between systems is referred to as master data, and it’s extremely important for your overall data analytics. Master data can be used to keep track of all business transactions, gather better business intelligence, deploy smarter data governance, and much more. Here are just some of the greatest benefits of master data management (MDM).
Real-Time Data
The greatest benefit of collecting master data in a source system is that it ensures that your data sets are continuously updated as new information comes in. You can analyze all your incoming data in real-time to, essentially, get a “bird’s eye view” of your entire enterprise. In a world of big data and event streams, you can’t afford to have anything but the best asset data. Data sources are constantly being altered whenever a business event causes a change of state, and such events occur every time there’s a financial transaction, when a customer visits your site, or even when an employee logs into a secure account.
Particularly when combined with a data visualization service, MDM lets business users quickly understand and interact with product data, customer data, and vendor data in order to come up with better strategies for new products and improved business processes.
Supply Chain Efficiency
Any organization’s supply chain is inherently complex and made of many moving parts. Fortunately, with an MDM strategy, it’s easier than ever to keep an eye on every step in the process and look for ways to optimize your workflow. An MDM program makes it easy to collect accurate stock information, so you can ensure better inventory management by always ordering new stock before the current products run out.
You can also boost operational efficiency on the manufacturing floor by using IoT-enabled devices and sensors to gather data on any bottlenecks or inefficiencies in your processes. Some IoT sensors can even detect things like unusual temperatures or activities on the factory floor, which boosts safety as well. Fleet managers can even use master data collected from GPS devices to plan more efficient delivery routes.
Customer Satisfaction
A master data management program isn’t just good for you and your employees—it can also improve the customer experience. For example, if you use your MDM solution to share data gathered from your customer relationship management (CRM) system with your business intelligence system, they can use customer data, such as demographics and purchasing history, to make special offers to your best customers and come up with more effective promotions. These days, a personalized customer experience is one of the most important things for inspiring loyalty.
