Enterprise Master Data Architecture: Design Decisions and Options

15th International Conference on Information Quality, 2010

ENTERPRISE MASTER DATA ARCHITECTURE:ENTERPRISE MASTER DATA ARCHITECTURE:DESIGN DECISIONS AND OPTIONS

Boris OttoUniversity of St. Gallen

Alexander SchmidtUniversity of St. Gallen

Institute of Information [email protected]

Executive Summary/Abstract: The enterprise wide management of master data is a

Institute of Information [email protected]

Executive Summary/Abstract: The enterprise-wide management of master data is a prerequisite for companies to meet strategic business requirements such as compliance to regulatory requirements, integrated customer management, and global business process integration. Among others, this demands systematic design of the enterprise master data architecture. The current state-of-the-art, however, does not provide sufficient guidance for practitioners as it does not specify concrete design decisions they have to make and to the design options of which they can choose with regard to the master data architecture. This paper aims at contributing to this gap It reports on the findings of three case studies and usesaims at contributing to this gap. It reports on the findings of three case studies and uses morphological analysis to structure design decisions and options for the management of an enterprise master data architecture.


Agendag

• Motivation• Research Question• Related Work• Case Studies• Design Decisions and Options• Conclusion and Outlook


Motivation

• Enterprise master data is key for strategic business requirements– Compliance to regulations– 360 degree view on customers– Enterprise-wide spend analysis

• Active management of enterprise master data requires enterprise master data architecture (EMDA) managementmaster data architecture (EMDA) management

• A gap exists in both research and practice regarding the related design decisions and optionsdesign decisions and options


Research Question and Approach

• Research Question:– What are design decisions companies have to make in the design of

enterprise master data architectures and which design options exist?R h A h• Research Approach:– Exploratory case study

Multiple cases analyzed at DB Netz Deutsche Telekom and SBB Cargo– Multiple cases analyzed at DB Netz, Deutsche Telekom, and SBB Cargo– Data collection followed the BECS principles, i.e. the method for

Business Engineering Case Study researchg g y– Morphological analysis is applied after step-wise case studies


Related Work: Master Data Managementg

• Master data includes material and product data, supplier and customer data, but also employee, organizational and asset data.

• MDM is an application-independent process for the description, hi d t f “ b i d t bj t ”ownership and management of “core business data objects”.

Master data must be unambiguously understood, created, maintained, and used across the enterprise


Related Work: Enterprise Master Data Architecture (EMDA)( )

EMDA

Conceptual Application Architecture pMaster Data Model

ppfor Master Data

Application Systems Data Flows


Related Work: Existing Architecture Frameworksg

Zachman TOGAF EAP FEAF EAC DAMAZachman TOGAF EAP FEAF EAC DAMA

Enterprise master data architecture focusarchitecture focusCoverage of all enterprise master data architecture componentscomponents Reference to master data

Design decisions

Design options

Legend:does fulfill criteria does fulfill does not fulfill Legend: criteria completely criteria partly criteria at all


Case Study Overviewy

DB Netz SBB Cargo Deutsche TelekomgSIC code 40 (Railroad

Transportation)47 (Transportation Service)

48 (Communications)

Markets served Central Europe Central Europe InternationalMarkets served Central Europe Central Europe InternationalBusiness requirements

Compliance reporting, process harmonization

New business models,cash-flow reporting

Merger of two business units

Organizational Enterprise wide Enterprise wide Business unitOrganizational scope

Enterprise-wide Enterprise-wide Business unit

Master data classes Infrastructure master data All All


Case Study at DB Netz: Strategic Business Requirementsy g

Tunnel Railway Track

#1: Inventory of Railway Infrastructure

#2: Unambiguous understanding in end-to-end business

processes


Case Study at DB Netz: Issuesy

• What is a common definition of the business objects “tunnel” and “station track”? Master data object definition Master data object definition

• Which of the business object’s attributes must be used in a standardized way across different processes, and which need not? Master data validity, master data object definition Master data validity, master data object definition

• Which of the business object’s attributes are currently stored, altered, and distributed in which application systems? Metadata management

• How do data flows between application systems look like? Master data application topology and distribution

• Who is responsible for which data?p Master data ownership

• What data is created, used, changed in which activity of the business process? Master data lifecycle, master data operations

• Should data describing station tracks be stored in a central system or in several, distributed systems? Master data application topology


Case Study at SBB Cargo: Strategic Business Requirementsy g g

• In the past:– Cooperation between railways– Everyone is in chare, no-one is

responsible– Interface and quality problems

• Today:– Seamless single-source freightSeamless, single-source freight

responsibility– Uniform business processes

Coordinated timetables and– Coordinated timetables and sequences

– One contact for the customerC titi

DB CargoSBB CargoTrenitalia Cargo

DB SchenkerBLS CargoSBB CargoTX Logistik– Competition TX LogistikTrenitalia Cargo


Case Study at SBB Cargo: Fields of Actiony g

• Determine common uniform definitions and structures for the company’s master data objects Master data object definition conceptual master data model Master data object definition, conceptual master data model

• Create unique identifiers for each master data class for unambiguous identification Master data validity

• Establish a central organizational unit responsible for carrying out changes on master data objects• Establish a central organizational unit responsible for carrying out changes on master data objects Master data operations, master data ownership

• Determine the “leading system” for each master data class and optimize architecture of applications administrating master dataapplications administrating master data Master data application topology

• Create a Master Data Map depicting assignment of master data objects to applications and the data flows between them Master data application topology and distribution

• Design and implement tool-supported MDM processes Master data lifecycle, master data operations


Case Study at Deutsche Telekom: Strategic Requirementy g

Corporate Center

Strategic Business Units Shared Services

Facility ManagementCreated 2007

through merger of formerly separate business units T-

Online and T-Com

Broadband/ Fixed Line Mobile Business

Customers

DeTeFleet Services

Vivento

Online and T-Com

Vivento

Others


Case Study at Deutsche Telekom: Lacking Transparencyy g y

• Origin and distribution of master data objects on its current application architecture Master data application topology and distribution Master data application topology and distribution

• Semantics of master data objects leading to ambiguous understandings and inconsistent usage Master data definitions, metadata management

• Business requirements on enterprise wide data quality of certain master data objects• Business requirements on enterprise-wide data quality of certain master data objects Master data validity


EMDA Design Decisions and OptionsgDesign Decision Design Options

Master Data Ownership Defined enterprise-wide Defined locally

SpecificMaster Data Validity Enterprise-wide Specific business unit Single business process

Master Data Lif l

Creation Centrally standardized Hybrid Local design

Update Centrally standardized Hybrid Local designLifecycle p y y g

Deactivation Centrally standardized Hybrid Local design

Master Data Operations Centralized execution (e.g. by a central organizational unit) Local execution (e. g. by owner)

Conceptual Master Data Model Enterprise-wide, unambiguous Per business unit Per project Not defined

Master Data Object Definition Enterprise-wide, unambiguous Per business unit Per project Not definedunambiguous

Metadata Management Owned and defined enterprise-wide Not actively managed

Master Data Application Topology Central system Leading system Consolidation

Hub Repositoryy

Master Data Distribution Push Pull

Master Data Processing Batch Real-time

EMDAEMDA


Conclusion and Outlook

• Paper contribution:– Investigation of an area in which little research is available– Guidance to practitioners in designing EMDA

• Limitations:– Validity and generalizability restricted due to low number of cases

investigatedinvestigated• Future research directions:

Investigate an extended sample to validate findings– Investigate an extended sample to validate findings– Identification of “architecture patterns”– Relationship between EMDA design and data quality on one hand asRelationship between EMDA design and data quality on one hand as

well as cost and cycle time of business processes on the other


Thank you for your attention.y y