Every business uses data. Some, more important than others. The most crucial data is what helps the company or organization run smoother and most importantly, safer. The way that data is stored, used and protected will determine how successful said company or organization is. How? By storing and tracking in one space.
What each company or organization considers being crucial ill differ slightly depending on what they do. Are they a service? A product producer or do they teach? This will determine how they view company data.
In simple terms and as an example, if your company has multiple products of various values such as color, size, etc. then, a master data services program would compile and organize this for a company.
You can accomplish the same with say, a non-profit organization but, instead of color and size values the system would collect the member information and all their necessary vital statistics. Then, maybe the service time each has put in. Another form is those who give to the organization, the age, sex, dynamics and donation amounts.
Master Data Services was created by Microsoft.
Terms to Know:
Entities and Members:
The data being used regardless of the type of business or organization are called members, more commonly known as data records. It’s simpler than what you think and serves a great value to any business or organization.
Attributes:
If you have a product line, the attributes would be size, color and whatever other description or Master Data that each entity would need to be cataloged.
Staging Tables:
These are the cell groupings that your organization will process new data into. From there, they’re sorted according to the company rules of how that happens. That’s the difference we were discussing earlier.
MDS, as we’ll reference this structure going forward, was developed by Microsoft to catalog and store all non-transaction master data for a company or organization. What does this mean? First let’s make something clear. A company can use MDS for virtually anything they deem important to the company. But, for the sake of a simple example, we are using transactions.
Once a customer orders something off the line, the transaction is completed. Period. That means this data will not change. It’s called static data, and this is the most common type of data cataloged by the MDS.
So what is this Master Data used for?
The uses for MDS is nearly infinite. It depends on the goals of the company. It’s not just a CRM system, but it is used on a grander scale to strengthen customer relations. However, it’s more useful to track the progress of the company action with said customers.
Here’s a good way to look at it in comparison to a CRM. Transaction data is the fact that someone bought a product at a particular price and date. The non-transaction Master Data is the list of cataloged items that are for sale in a particular category available, and the vital statistics of each customer. Names, emails, addresses etc.
The Most Important Function for MDS
The MDS has a big important job to do that’s a protective force for a company and that’s to keep the most vital pieces of information together in one place. It does this, after setup according to company policies surrounding data and rules. Then, it will extract the data from all of the outside sources the company stores it. In the cells that we discussed earlier, the data is broken down into members and entities. Then, it’s simply organized and stored in a space where anyone with the proper permissions can retrieve the data whenever needed.
How MDS Saves Money, Time and Issues
Any company, large or small needs data to be kept organized and ready for any situation by which they are asked to surrender it. This can be a lot of scenarios, especially with organizations. The number one organization that comes to mind that may demand the data is the IRS.
Audits can go a lot smoother when a company’s electronic data is collected and stored correctly. They need to see the permissions and how other people access that data and how it’s entered. This is a big issue for a lot of companies and organizations that have their electronic data in different areas to the point that they will trigger an audit.
With an MDS, you can create reports that are safer and easier to manage for an audit. There are also ways to save a company money by having an MDS in place. If part of your day is breached you’ve lost a piece to a puzzle that you need to function. When you have it backed up in one place, your company runs better. This saves money and time from lost sales to IT costs.
Data Congruence:
This is the last beneficial point among many. It may be the most important. Simply put, when data is in one safe, space the data flow is more congruent and the company or organization’s internal functions run efficiently. The picture is clear and any question regarding progress in any limb of the organization is supreme