Data Management Services and headaches

Just imagine the following situation. You are suffering from a terrible headache today. I guess everybody has experienced this at least a couple of times. What do you do? How do you get rid of the headache? Visit a doctor or take some medicines/some pills against the pain? Or do you need some time to relax and get some “fresh air for the brains” to make you feel better? You can go for a walk outside, a little nap, a run in the forest … Or do you rely on the less common cures like a fronthead massage, a yoga session or anything to de-stress? I guess everybody has its own preferences and approaches (or combination of remedies) to get rid of these kind of annoying physical problems. If this is a one-time event, I guess not a big thing, and any solution which solves the problem is actually fine. But what if you have the same kind of headache again next week? Or at least a couple of time each month? Or what do you do if the problem does not go away and your headache remains? Do you get more pills or do more walks? Or do you tend to look for the root cause of the issue? Maybe the headache is caused by your glasses? Looking at the computerscreen with inadequate glasses requires too much efforts from your eyes and brain and hence results in pain in the head? Or is it the physical work environment (like the airco, the light, …)? Or maybe your work-stress and work-life balance is the underlying cause of repetitive headaches? I could even imagine other reasons, but the picture is clear, I guess: the headache is the result from something else. Finding a remedy for the pain is OK, but finding a solution for the root-cause will be more effective in the long run. I use this metaphore of the headache to address the topic of Data Management in general. Too many companies are not getting the value out of their Enterprise Applications or have Enterprise Business Systems which do not enable running the business in the best possible way. The systems are not fully supporting the business operations and processes, or do not enable to transform, evolve or grow the business. The solution to cure, which are commonly suggested go into the directions like … lets implement a business Intelligence system (a datawarehouse, a reportingsystem, a high performance analytical system …) or …. Let’s add new solutions (eg. finance fast close, a CRM system with mobility, …). The “headache” is there: the solution is a pill, … but the headache does not disappear or comes back again. The fundament on which Business run is data. One can have the best processes, state-of-the-art systems, innovative and creative, agile and flexible solutions … but if the data is crap, the value of the systems (operational and supporting) will be far less than expected (or feasible). Data Management Services is addressing the topic of “data as an asset”. Is data an asset for your organization, or is it rather a liability? Does your Data Management enable you to be a “best run” company or is it rather a constraint for capturing the full potential out of your current and future business systems? Is your Data Management set up in a way that your data is a true asset, like your other assets (eg. fixed, variable, or people as your most important asset …) and do you have the necessary data governance in place to manage data assets? For other assets we have often processes, structures, policies, ownership, life-cycle supporting flows … in place which are not always there for data. If you just think about the evolution of data in terms of volume (fast growing enterprise information), velocity (life-cycles), complexity (structured as well as unstructured data) and value (dependency of business operations on data and information for operations and decision) on top of technological evolutions like mobility (data in central/de-central systems combined with data on mobile devices), or cloud (hybrid environments with on-premise combined with cloud systems and data sources) it is a no-brainer to see that Data Management is key to enable “best run” business. One can re-design or optimize business processes (but if the data is not good, than you get “garbage in, garbage out), or have very performing Enterprise Information systems but if the data quality and reliability is not good, the value of the “ insight” is equally not good. The root-cause of unsatisfaction with business support systems might be found in the underlying data and data management. If data is a liability and a constraint for business operations (root-cause of the headache), think about Data Management as a solution. Data Management Services is looking at data governance in a holistic way: enterprise-wide (with a common set of standards and policies across SAP and non-SAP systems), across the entire lifecycle (from the data creation/migration over the maintenance/testing until retirement/end-of-life/decommissioning from a business-drive approach (continuous or linked to disruptive business events like M&A) and beyond the pure data angle (also process, systems, technology). Whether the business scenario a company faces is related to corporate strategy execution (structural transformations due to external events like M&A or divestitures or internal events like re-organizations) to compliancy and governance (during the complete life cycle) or to Business Process improvement or redesign (data harmonization, data conversion, data integration and master data quality management) or purely to TCO (eg. system consolidation, test data management), data management is the addressing the root-cause in a systematic way. Avoid taking pills if the root-cause is not tackled at the same time.