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Master Data Management (MDM) as a feel-good initiative lacking quantifiable benefits at best, or as a fad at worst. When faced with internal MDM skeptics, it's really just a matter of validating the business benefits to convert them into champions. The best approach to take is to provide tangible metrics or business scenarios that make it difficult for even the most skeptical to doubt the significant business value of MDM. In fact, almost all business functions can benefit from the collective insight an MDM solution can provide either in terms of operational efficiencies or better customer-facing business processes. Despite these benefits, companies still need to take the time to build consensus among both business and IT decision makers before attempting to embark on, or secure funding for a MDM initiative.
Today business managers are more aware of the positive impact that reliable data, including customer data among others, can have on critical business functions such as Customer Service. They also tend to have a clear understanding of the value this data can have on customer-facing functions such as Marketing and Sales. Also, with federal compliance regulations taking center stage-particularly in the Financial Services and Pharmaceutical sectors-having a single view of clients and healthcare providers has become a major requirement in meeting regulations. Yet, despite the acceptance among the various lines of business users, an organization still needs to present a viable business case if it hopes to convince both IT and Executive management of the over-arching benefits of MDM. One of the major challenges is in placing accurate values on such abstract pursuits as improved customer service, brand, and regulatory compliance. Another unavoidable challenge is that many CIO's are understandably risk-averse and may be reluctant to embark on any technology investment that is unable to quantify a return on investment (ROI) largely because many have found top line revenue growth from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Business Intelligence (BI) investments to be difficult or impossible to quantify.
In order to convince skeptics and enable MDM champions, companies should apply the following three principles to build a winning business case:
1. Quantify cost savings before tackling revenue impact.
2. Use logic and arithmetic to derive revenue impact.
3. Link MDM to a bigger initiative.
#1: Quantify Cost Savings before Tackling Revenue Impact
Many companies who look to drive top line revenue growth from a MDM initiative tend to rely on forecasted revenue impact exclusively for project approval. Unfortunately, this approach rarely provides the level of detail required to sell the initiative. Consequently, a successful MDM business case must be built based on a foundation of quantifiable cost savings.
For instance, many companies look for cost savings within their IT department which is a great place to start. After all, a MDM implementation is designed to replace the cumbersome point-to-point solution interfaces which many companies have in place in their current data integration environment. Improved and more consistent data also reduces the developer and data analyst costs often required for the analysis and redesign of management reports. Further, MDM allows for the standardization of common data cleansing and extract-transfer-load (ETL) software and third party data providers, thereby reducing software maintenance fees and data licensing costs. So, before attempting to sell the MDM solution using unreliable and forecasted revenue impact, it is recommended that business users work together with IT managers to explore areas that can have a profound impact on the bottom line and find hard numbers to quantify the cost savings.
An additional area ripe for cost savings is Sales Operations; a group challenged by lead assignment, commission payments, and administration of channel/distribution programs. Organizations should tap into Sales Operations management and identify the amount of time spent on these efforts and the group's use of permanent and temporary employees to address related data. MDM can have a tremendous productivity impact on lead assignment and commission payment processes as well. With MDM, account data can be formatted for use with complex named account assignment rules and synchronization across CRM and ERP systems. Other areas to consider include the marketing of third- party services and systems, order management efficiency, and customer service time spent per call.
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