DAMA - SAP MDG: Concept #9

❗️The Problem

People treat master data like a tech object:

• “It’s in MARA.”

• “That’s a vendor from LFA1.”

• “Customer number 10000217 is fine.”

But no one agrees which system is the source.
No one knows who updated it.
And every report gives different numbers.

Why?
Because master data was treated like IT housekeeping — not a strategic asset.

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🧠 What DAMA Actually Means by “Master & Reference Data”

• Master Data = the key “nouns” of your business
  (Customer, Product, Supplier, Employee...)

• Reference Data = controlled vocabularies used across the org
  (Country codes, Payment terms, Product categories...)

But DAMA goes deeper:
It says this is the data that everything else depends on.
It must be:

• Shared

• Stable

• Governed

• Clear

• Trusted

If transactional data is the bloodstream —
master data is the identity.

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Key Concepts in DAMA

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🔧 In SAP MDG: This Is the Core

SAP MDG exists exactly to operationalize DAMA’s vision for master data.

But SAP doesn’t give you the strategy — only the tools.
You need to define:

• What is a “trusted record”?

• Who maintains it?

• What systems depend on it?

• What happens if it changes?

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⚠️ What Goes Wrong

• Every system has its own version of “the customer”

• Material created by copy-paste from old ones

• Suppliers exist 6 times under slightly different names

• Analytics show fake precision with dirty core data

And the worst part:
The business doesn’t trust the data. So they work outside the system.

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🧠 Questions That Drive Master Data Clarity

• What are our critical data domains?

• Do we have a golden source — or just systems that shout the loudest?

• Are our reference values consistent across systems and countries?

• Can we trace who changed a master record — and why?

If not, you’re not doing MDM. You’re just syncing noise.

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💬 Bottom Line

Master data is not about centralizing tables.
It’s about creating one version of the truth — and making sure everyone uses it.

Without it, no workflow, report, or AI can be trusted.
With it, you build a business that runs on clarity.