What is MDM?
The Master Data Management (MDM) concept has been making waves over the past few years, and this is largely due to the sheer amount of data being transferred across various information systems. MDM helps link all the essential business files in a company into a single useful master file. The whole process entails streamlining data sharing within the inner company circle while ensuring accurate and up-to-date data access across multiple stakeholders. According to Oracle Insight, the increased attention on MDM has been fueled by developments surrounding Business Intelligence (BI) applications. The concept is widely used to unlock the true potential of BI as guided by business performance metrics directed by organization’s own master entities.
Although MDM is closely tied to IT, it is in fact a cross functional process-oriented concept that defines how information relating to customers, products, locations and vendors is accessed, processed and used. The leverage afforded by MDM means businesses can now deal with fragmented and inconsistent data, and effectively overcome supply chain inefficiencies, poor market penetration as well as challenges affecting cross-sell and up sell. With MDM in place, enterprises can also avoid data duplicates and everyday business challenges like ineffective marketing campaigns, loss of customer loyalty and increased compliance cost. Data management issues such as data enriching, consolidation, cleansing and sharing cuts across various industries.
The MDM Disruptive Benefits
MDM can disrupt a host of industries, including packaging, health and life sciences, public sector, retail enterprises, distribution and communication, media and utility industries. Due to cut throat competition, companies in the communications, media and utilities can use the MDM to rationalize customer information. This can go a long way to minimize duplicates and create a unique identifier leveraged to generate single customer view. Since data management is a tasking and costly affair, companies need to invest in efficient Master Data Management tools to help streamline the various processes. Most of these tools are hosted on Cloud to ensure speedy access. The other attractive features about these tools are compatibility with mobile data and comprehensive data analysis.
According to Computer Weekly, the key benefits of investing in Master Data Management tools include:
• Opportunity to access data from single interface. For example, pulling up a client’s CRM and accounts data at once.
• Ability to share common applications and users with little chance of information duplication or reformatting
• Make seamless updates while keeping master data synchronized across the organization
• The MDM tools are highly ideal in organizations that rely heavily on inter departmental data to perform their operations
Factors to consider when choosing MDM company
There are several important factors to consider when choosing MDM company or platform. According to Exchangewire, the factors include: Local Support, Efficient Data Collection and Organization Capability, Audience Insight and Reporting and Effective Retargeting. Local support is an important deciding factor because of the need to work with a team that will stand with you all through the process implementation. To this end, the MDM Company officials should be able to meet you personally and offer consistent support. A company that is competent in data collection and organization is well-placed to help clients organize first-party data from any data source, whether CRM, mobile platforms, online and offline.
The audience insight and analytics is another important consideration since it helps users differentiate between first and third-party data sources. It also offers insights into ways of engaging the different parties. The insights may include specifics on audience behaviors, interests and demographics. Retargeting is the ability of an MDM Company to create customized campaign-based consumer activities and behaviors. The multifaceted approach can be undertaken online and offline using various devices. The other crucial leads for selecting a Data Management Company include flexibility and cross device access to second party data. The MDM company should be able to identify and reach consumers across various devices and own a third-party data network for crucial insights.
The Profisee Advantage
Due its transformative digital data management solutions with cross multiple department capability, Profisee has become one of the most powerful entrants in the MDM sector, The company’s data management application Lightswitch solution is designed to give users ultimate control over their data along with quick access to reference data. Users can also the solution to move and improve data when migrating to Dynamics 365. The consultants working for the company are MDM experts with a host of skills in governance, strategic leadership and information management. The company solutions target suppliers, products, reference data, asset locations, customers and everything else. The clients include Orange, Pacific Life, Aarons and GAP, among others.