The modern enterprise must be able to respond to changes in the market and swiftly capitalize on emerging opportunities. This is a challenge considering the average data scientist spends approximately 60% of their time cleaning and organizing data, according to Forbes.

According to Accenture:

Fully 67 percent of those surveyed (who are senior managers or higher) say they are not comfortable accessing or using data from their tools and resources. The proportion is significant even at companies with strong data-driven cultures, where 37 percent of respondents still express discomfort.

The root cause of this problem is an inadequate approach to Master Data Management (MDM). MDM is “an approach that seeks a single point of reference for all master information sets within an organization.

Master Data Management (MDM) is a solution that helps with the management of master data, which is any data that is used across multiple applications in an organization. Master data typically includes things like customer and supplier information, product catalogs, business processes, contracts and agreements, and more.

The goal of MDM is to create a single source of truth for your organization's master information so that it can be easily accessed by people who need it. Stibo STEP Master Data Management solutions can help you manage how master data is created and used throughout your organization—whether that means ensuring that all changes are made consistently or making sure that they're stored in one place so they're easily accessible to everyone who needs them.

According to Gartner MDM can be summarized in four parts: a central hub for data; integration and synchronization between systems; semantic consistency through a common view of definitions; and governance over master data. If your business has not already begun working towards implementing MDM or you feel like your current efforts are failing, here are three signs you need to implement an effective MDM solution:

Your business is experiencing data inconsistencies.

Data inconsistencies are a common problem for businesses, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in operation for years. The most common issues that arise when your business doesn’t have an MDM solution include:

• Multiple versions of the same information – this happens when your team updates an existing record without deleting the old version first. This can lead to confusion and mistakes as multiple people use different versions of the same file.
  
• Quality issues – if you don’t have a system in place to verify that your information is accurate and consistent, there will be problems down the line. You may not realize until it's too late that certain information isn't actually correct due to human error or user error (like typing in incorrect values).
  
• Data duplication – duplicated information can create confusion among users who might not know what's real and what isn't (or where duplicates come from), which could lead to inconsistent reporting results over time as well as other problems like inaccurate sales trends reports due to using outdated/incorrect sales orders instead of current ones from newer orders that have since been processed correctly under new corporate guidelines.

Your business is having trouble managing information as more sources emerge.

If your business is experiencing data inconsistencies, has trouble managing it as more sources emerge and is facing challenges in data governance, then it might be time to consider implementing a Stibo MDM solution. A good MDM solution will help you:

• Manage the proliferation of information sources by providing a single view of all important information across the enterprise.
• Ensure that the right people have access to accurate information at all times by enforcing security policies and ensuring compliance with privacy regulations.

Your business is facing challenges in data governance.

Data governance is the process of establishing a strategy and overseeing its implementation. Data governance is important because it helps to ensure consistency and accuracy of data across your many business systems, which can be used in multiple ways. Having an overall strategy for managing your company's data will help you avoid:

• Duplication of effort—if you have one system that tracks customer orders, but another handles billing information, then there's no easy way to link the two together or look up how many times a customer has ordered from you. You may also lose opportunities for cross-sells unless all relevant information is available at once.
  
• Messy or inaccurate data—having different versions of events means that users need to make decisions based on incomplete information when they compare different views on the same subject (for example: "Is this person an active prospect or not?").
  
  Data integrity issues like these will increase costs associated with manual workarounds and reduce the quality of insights that can be derived from analysis tools such as SQL databases because they were designed without considering how they might be used together over time as part of a larger system; this becomes especially problematic if new products are introduced into existing systems later downstream due to not having enough foresight during initial development stages.

If you are experiencing one of the above signs your company may benefit from implementing the Stibo STEP Master Data Management Solution.

MDM is a solution that can help your business solve the above problems, managing information across multiple sources and systems.

Using the Stibo STEP Master Data Management solution can be a great way to improve your company’s information governance, data management and consistency issues. One of the biggest benefits of using this solution is that it will allow you to implement processes that are much more reliable than what has traditionally been done in the past. An MDM solution will also help you establish a set of rules for how all departments within your organization should interact with one another when it comes time to access or modify any sort of information regarding customers or products sold by those departments.

If you need help with swiftly implementing Stibo Step Master Data Management Solution for your business, get in touch with our Unit of Measure experts to get started.