Microsoft Master Data Services - When to utilize?

Question

I'm wondering if anyone is currently utilizing Microsoft's Master Data Services? How you are utilizing it? Whether you find it useful? When you believe it would be useful? Thanks!

Answer 1

Master Data Services helps enterprises standardize the data people rely on to make critical business decisions. With Master Data Services, IT organizations can centrally manage critical data assets companywide and across diverse systems, enable more people to securely manage master data directly, and ensure the integrity of information over time. Top Features

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  Master data hub that provides central management of master data entities and hierarchies
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  Thin-client stewardship portal that provides secure, role-based Web access to master data
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  Versioning of all data entities and hierarchies
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  Human workflow that notifies assigned owners by e-mail of business rule violations
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  Flexible and extensible business rules that safeguard the quality of data entered in the master data hub 
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  Support for a broad range of hierarchy and attribute management strategies and requirements
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  Comprehensive role-based security model that enables fine-grained, secure access to master data

MDM Explorer Align Data Across Systems

Using Master Data Services, organizations can align operational and analytical data across the enterprise and across their line of business systems.

Get a single version of the truth

A master data hub provides an authoritative source for all master data used by an enterprise, regardless of data system. Organizations can easily align data from merged systems, new domains, and even unique domains. In addition, Master Data Services can serve both as a System of Entry (SOE) or System of Record (SOR).

Improve operational consistency

Manage critical data assets by enabling proactive stewardship, defining workflows around data changes, notifying impacted parties, managing hierarchies, and sharing the authoritative source with all impacted systems.

Improve reporting consistency

Each master data change within the system is treated as a transaction, and the User, Date, and Time of each change is logged, as well as pertinent audit details, such as type of change, member code, and prior versus new value. In addition to being a very useful audit trail, the transaction log can be used to selectively reverse changes.

Enable Users to Manage Master Data Securely

With Master Data Services, people across the enterprise can contribute to and consume master data securely and as needed, without having to go through IT.

Simplify the user experience with Web-based access

A stewardship portal provides intuitive Web-based access to the master data hub for browsing, editing, authoring, auditing, and approving master data.

Reduce IT expense and process time by giving people direct and secure access to master data

With role-based security, administrators can enable anyone in an organization to access and update master data directly with minimal impact on IT. Administrators can lock down data and have granular control over what data a given user (or group or role) may access across models, applications, and systems, even down to individual rows and columns in data sets.

Improve data quality across the enterprise

Customizable data quality rules create default values, enable data validation, and trigger actions such as e-mail notifications and workflows. Rules can be built by IT professionals or business users directly from the stewardship portal.

Flexibly add new data, systems, and applications

A Master Data Services platform API enables new systems to contribute to and consume master data and enables partners to quickly build custom Master Data applications.

Ensure Integrity of Information

Master Data Services provides tools and processes to help ensure that data remains authoritative, consistent, and trustworthy across systems as it evolves over time.

Manage critical hierarchies and master data attributes

With powerful and agile hierarchy and attribute management capabilities, Master Data Services supports a wide variety of hierarchy styles. It can accommodate unique requirements and rectifies conflicts among systems, In addition, it provides the flexibility to modify hierarchies and attributes to meet changing needs, with built-in safeguards to insure the integrity of alterations. It maintains consistency by automatically propagating approved updates across operational systems (e.g., DW, ERP, BI, CRM, analytics, and so forth).

Take advantage of comprehensive data cleansing

Master Data Services helps make certain that master data remains clean at all times with a matching service to help clean existing data, rules to keep it clean, and workflows and processes to keep it is clean from the outset.

Be confident that data is accurate and up to date

Data quality business rules and workflow notifications help insure the accuracy and timeliness of data coming into the master data hub.

Get more value from operational systems with authoritative data

By helping to ensure a single, authoritative source for data, Master Data Services enables organizations to unlock untapped potential in line of business systems. For example, with consistent, high quality information, data warehouse systems can deliver much needed dimension management capabilities for analysis. Likewise, enterprise resource planning systems can focus purely on transactions without being forced to take on master data functions they are not designed to handle. Business intelligence systems can provide better analysis when they use consistent hierarchies and attributes best suited to their requirements. Additional Resources

Related Sites

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  Microsoft MDM blog

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  MSDN Microsoft MDM forum

Answer 2

We aren't using it currently in our office, however the presentation Microsoft did in town a while back seemed very interesting. I saw it as sort of a competitor to Oracle's OBAW warehouse. You've probably already looked at these, but Microsoft has a decent set of webcasts that cover how to install and use MDS out here:
http://www.msdev.com/Directory/SeriesDescription.aspx?CourseId=155

I'm anxious to see if anyone else is using it as well, we tend to have a hard time talking our management into letting us try these types of services without being able to point to other corporations that have successfully implemented said product.

Answer 3

Use cases of Master data Services are many. Any databases be it operational or analytical should be using Master Data Services. The problem with MDS is it needs a design change. So best approach is to start building Master data now using MDS and for future project starting using MDS and slowing move current applications IF POSSIBLE to MDS. I am detailing complete MDS here

Tellme if you need help, we can work together.

http://www.abhyast.com/abhyastcom/post/Master-Data-Services-Business-Goals-(Step-by-Step-6).aspx