And why it frustrates business and supply chain teams
8:00 AM – Supply Chain Team Meeting
Sarah (Brand Manager): “We need these 5 SKUs for our Winter Release.”
Mike (Product Manager): “I’ll add them to the Master SKU Tracker Excel.”
Jennifer (Category Manager): “Make sure you use the right tabs – Raw Materials, Semi-Finished, and Finished Goods each have different validation rules.”
Tom (Supply Chain Director): “Don’t forget to cross-reference the Supplier Master Excel and the Cost Center Mapping spreadsheet.”
9:30 AM – Actual Master Data Management using Excel, Email, and Meetings
Sarah opens 7 Excel files:
- Master_SKU_Tracker_v47_FINAL_REAL.xlsx
- Supplier_Master_Database_Q3_Updated.xlsx
- Material_Categories_Reference_Guide.xlsx
- Cost_Center_Mappings_2024_APPROVED.xlsx
- Procurement_Settings_Template.xlsx
- Quality_Standards_Checklist.xlsx
- Pending_MDG_Requests_Status_Tracker.xlsx
Sarah spends 3 hours cross-referencing, validating, and coordinating with five colleagues via Teams chat, email, and phone calls.
Result: Master data specification for the 5 SKUs, with a few errors (no fault of Sarah)
2:00 PM – The $5,000 MDG Data Entry Request
Sarah submits a ticket to IT: “Please enter the attached Excel data into SAP MDG. All specifications, validations, and business rules are documented in the spreadsheet.”
IT Response: “We’ll need 2-3 weeks to configure the materials properly. Please clarify the classification information for items 2 and 3.”
Sarah’s internal monologue: “WTF! I just spent 3 hours specifying exactly what these should be.”
3 Weeks Later – The Translation Errors
Mike discovers in production: “Half the materials are configured wrong. SKUs 2 and 3 do not have correct classification, the cost centers are incorrect, and there is no quality inspection data for our distribution centers.”
Jennifer: “Should I update the Excel with the corrections?”
Tom: “Yes, and we’ll submit another ticket to fix the SAP data.”
Sarah: “This is the third round of corrections.”
The Absurd Reality Check
Annual SAP MDG Investment: $1,000,000+ (licenses, consultants, maintenance)
Actual Master Data Management System: Excel spreadsheets shared via email
SAP MDG’s Role: Expensive data storage repository
Business Team’s Role: Master data experts managing complex business requirements
MDG Consultant’s Role: $200/hour data entry specialists to take information from Excel to create Master Data in MDG
The Daily Workflow Reality
Real Master Data Governance Happens In:
- Excel spreadsheets
- Teams chat for real-time collaboration
- Email chains for approval workflows
- Phone calls for complex business rule discussions
SAP MDG Is Used For:
- Final data storage after all the real work is complete
- Distributing the master data with errors to production ERP instances
The Weekly Status Meeting
CIO: “What’s going on with our master data quality? Our VP of Supply Chain called and told me that master data errors are creating chaos in our warehouse, MRP, and customer pricing.”
Business Team: “We need things to move fast and fix what’s wrong in ERP ASAP.”
IT/MDG Team: “We’re way behind on several requests.”
CIO: “Team, we need improvements fast! Our business team is under a lot of pressure here.”
Awkward silence.
IT Team: “I think we should invest another $500,000 in a Master Data Quality solution to understand master data quality issues in our main SAP instance.“