How to Reduce Costs with Master Data Management

It is no secret that the coronavirus pandemic has drastically disrupted the global economy, compelling CEOs and IT leaders to readjust business priorities and to strive for more cost-effective ways to run their operations efficiently. They are actively seeking technological solutions that can maximize their ROIs, while reducing avoidable operational, regulatory and labor costs. Since high quality data is indispensable when it comes to enhancing business performance and making informed business decisions, investing in a master data management tool is likely to be a business manager’s best choice in reducing business costs and improving the quality of reliable business-critical data.

But what is Master Data Management? And what do you mean by a Master Data Management solution?

Master Data Management (MDM) is a process by which the master data of your company is managed simultaneously, providing a unified view of your organization’s internal and external data. Master data collectively refers to the data of customers, employees, products, vendors, locations, services, contact mechanisms, accounting items and policies. As such large volumes of data are prone to inconsistencies, errors and duplication, it is advisable to adopt a master data management process for data cleansing, which can ensure data quality and integrity while reducing the chances of data issues compounding over a period of time.

A Master Data Management tool, on the other hand, is a software-based solution that can support the synchronization of your organization’s master data to create an authoritative source of data which can be relied upon to make critical business decisions. Since master data consolidates the essential data that is core to your business operations, an MDM tool would help you optimize the data management efforts of your organization by creating a single source of truth.

How does adopting an MDM tool help reduce your business costs?

One of the top advantages of adopting an MDM solution is that it helps you save considerable money by offering your organization a plethora of benefits. If you aim at running your business in a more cost-effective manner, then the application of a Master Data Management software will help you automate the crucial aspects of the entire data management process – saving you not just money, but time and energy as well. Here are the salient features of an MDM solution that helps you to save better:

1. Better risk management

Data breaches can cost a company a lot of money. A central data governance system that can ensure data security and compliance is a must-have for any large organization dealing with confidential and critical data, as it’s easy for anyone within any department to misuse company, customer or employee information.

A Master Data Management implementation can help you safeguard your sensitive data and enable you to track each and every user activity by giving you a unified view of the organization’s database and regulating access management. Data stewards would be empowered with better control of data quality. Only the users whose job role needs them to access the data would be able to access it, thus minimizing the risk of penalties due to data breaches. MDM allows you to adhere to data governance best practices by reducing redundancy and improving data quality through the standardization of master data.

2.  Increased process efficiency

It is cumbersome to manage master data manually. Manual monitoring of critical customer, employee, company or financial information would not only compromise efficiency but also consume a large number of resources. An MDM solution can help you minimize human intervention and save the labor costs you incur.

Also, as your staff would have time to concentrate on other crucial tasks, the productivity levels of the organizations will go up. These increased levels of productivity would, in the long run, translate into improved ROI.

3. Enhanced data accuracy

Data errors and duplication could result in performance issues as well as monetary losses for the enterprise. You can only imagine the domino effect a single mistake in master data is likely to cause. As master data is a centralized, single source of truth for the entire business, it is essential that the process be error-free.

A Master Data Management solution integrates your company’s master data, automating and centralizing the process, thus increasing data accuracy. Data cleansing is also ensured, which reduces data duplication and inconsistency. As a result, the risk of losses due to data errors decreases tremendously.

4. Reduced total cost of ownership

Total cost of ownership (TCO) is the calculation of the direct and indirect costs involved in the manufacturing and management of a product or service, meant to analyze the profitability of such investments. Products and services that come with lower TCOs provide better value in the long run. A flexible and model-driven Master Data Management solution that comes with the option of easy configuration (like MDM Studio by To-Increase, for example), can be invaluable in lowering the TCO for your company’s products or services.

5. Reduced point-to-point integration costs

Point-to-Point (or P2P) integration is indispensable if you want data to be processed and updated simultaneously throughout your internal and external database. However, it has proved itself to be unmanageable time and again for medium- to large-scale organizations due to its sheer complexity. A good way to overcome your P2P challenges would be to invest in an MDM solution that has been designed for rapid business integration, and can be counted upon to improve the accuracy of your data migration and integration processes, without being non-invasive, thus reducing your overall P2P integration costs.

6. Reduce process delays

Master Data Management is a technology that automates essential processes, thereby allowing you to time your operations effectively while employing fewer resources for the process. An MDM solution also speeds up the process, thereby eliminating process delays and reducing operational costs, while saving a lot of time as well.

7. Improved customer satisfaction

Happy customers always translate into a profitable business. An MDM solution streamlines not only the master data management process but also other crucial business processes. Most business functions, including the customer-facing departments, use master data to run their operations.

Hence, when you enhance the master data process with the implementation of a Master Data Management solution, you indirectly improve the quality of data other business processes receive. An MDM software helps you handle vital customer data correctly, improving customer interactions, enhancing your reputation and increasing profitability.

To sum it up, an MDM implementation, while being affordable in itself, can help you save money in more ways than one. Monetary benefits are only a part of the package. The right MDM software can amp up your processes with accurate, complete, consistent, conformant, timely and high-quality master data, that helps you create compelling customer experiences and impacts your business profitably in the long run.

To help you in this journey, To-Increase offers you MDM Studio for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, which can help you leverage your organization’s master data, ease the stress of your data stewards and enhance the flow of data throughout your organization seamlessly.

If you would like to learn how an MDM implementation can potentially transform your business, download a copy of our Beginner's Guide to Master Data Management now!

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