As orga­ni­za­tions con­tem­plate migra­tion to SAP S/4HANA, con­cerns about the qual­i­ty of their data to sup­port such a move are under­stand­ably top of mind. Accord­ing to recent­ly pub­lished research, 58% of CEOs are con­cerned that their data qual­i­ty is insuf­fi­cient to sup­port the advanced automa­tion capa­bil­i­ties avail­able with­in SAP S/4HANA.

As I speak with our cur­rent and future clients who oper­ate in asset-inten­sive indus­tries, I repeat­ed­ly engage in rel­e­vant, high-lev­el con­ver­sa­tions about the impor­tance of mas­ter data to suc­ceed with SAP S/4HANA.

Here are some of their most-press­ing questions.

Our data is work­ing for SAP ERP Cen­tral Com­po­nent (ECC). Why would it not work for SAP S/4HANA?

Orga­ni­za­tions are often attract­ed to SAP S/4HANA for its advanced automa­tion and ana­lyt­ics func­tion­al­i­ties, but these same func­tion­al­i­ties require accu­rate, com­plete asset mas­ter data to be lever­aged effec­tive­ly. Such excit­ing capa­bil­i­ties as reli­a­bil­i­ty-cen­tered main­te­nance, asset per­for­mance ana­lyt­ics, and risk-based inspec­tion can­not be trust­ed if the under­ly­ing mas­ter data being lever­aged is inac­cu­rate or incomplete.

Anoth­er con­cern is user adoption.

Good first impres­sions are cru­cial as SAP users leave the tech­nol­o­gy they know and move to the advanced automa­tion of SAP S/4HANA. If the sys­tem appears con­fus­ing or illog­i­cal to end users due to sub­par data qual­i­ty, the road to full adop­tion will be much longer and more complex.

We are a top-tier glob­al orga­ni­za­tion. How could our mas­ter data be that bad?

Most of today’s asset-inten­sive indus­tries oper­ate with aging lega­cy infra­struc­ture. These tech­nolo­gies have been mod­i­fied, expand­ed, and ren­o­vat­ed over time — and, quite often, doc­u­men­ta­tion of those updates has become frag­ment­ed or even lost over time.

The mas­ter data of oper­at­ing assets con­tin­ues to change dai­ly due to planned main­te­nance, unplanned main­te­nance, shut­downs, and cap­i­tal projects. These orga­ni­za­tions can still thrive today thanks to sea­soned, well-trained work­forces famil­iar with the sys­tems of record they work with­in each day. They already know what needs to be done and can read­i­ly rec­og­nize and work around data imperfections.

How­ev­er, with­out a proac­tive pro­gram for asset mas­ter data gov­er­nance, even a top-tier glob­al organization’s asset data qual­i­ty will inevitably dete­ri­o­rate over time, under­min­ing its abil­i­ty to trust and effec­tive­ly uti­lize enter­prise data. 

Why empha­size ​“gov­er­nance” when mov­ing to SAP S/4HANA? Can’t we just include a quick ​“data clean-up” in our S/4HANA migra­tion process?

As men­tioned ear­li­er, oper­a­tional assets in asset-inten­sive indus­tries are ever-chang­ing. With­out mas­ter data gov­er­nance to keep track of mod­i­fi­ca­tions and upgrades, invest­ing in data clean-up is a stop-gap mea­sure rather than a long-term solu­tion — and many con­sid­er this type of mea­sure to be a waste of mon­ey amid the larg­er busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion of SAP S/4HANA migra­tion. Soon­er or lat­er, that cleaned-up data will once again be inac­cu­rate and incomplete.

Prometheus Group is hon­ored to part­ner with SAP for work­shops this month in Texas and Cana­da, which will dis­cuss how asset-inten­sive indus­tries can address their asset mas­ter data qual­i­ty prob­lem with a strat­e­gy that allows them to ​‘Get the Data Clean and Keep it Clean.’

We all agree that bet­ter mas­ter data would be nice. How­ev­er, our IT bud­get is com­plete­ly con­sumed with SAP S/4HANA trans­for­ma­tion. How can we pri­or­i­tize a ​“nice to have” data project in this environment?

Since 2017, Prometheus Group has part­nered with SAP’s Val­ue Engi­neer­ing orga­ni­za­tion to bench­mark orga­ni­za­tions in a vari­ety of asset-inten­sive indus­tries and devel­op a busi­ness mod­el mea­sur­ing the impact of asset mas­ter data quality. 

The find­ings have been impres­sive. These bench­marks and analy­ses prove that improv­ing the accu­ra­cy and com­plete­ness of an organization’s asset mas­ter data can have a mea­sur­able impact on the following:

• Main­te­nance productivity
• Asset avail­abil­i­ty
• Main­te­nance, repair, and oper­a­tions (MRO) sup­ply chain efficiency
• Envi­ron­ment, health, and safe­ty (EH&S) assurance
• Auditabil­i­ty and reg­u­la­to­ry compliance
• Achieve­ment of oper­a­tional excellence

SAP Val­ue Engi­neer­ing analy­sis has also proven that prop­er­ly planned and exe­cut­ed mas­ter data trans­for­ma­tion and gov­er­nance projects can see a sig­nif­i­cant return on invest­ment (ROI) in under one year.

Our indi­vid­ual busi­ness process­es are unique and com­plex. Since our mas­ter data needs are dif­fer­ent as a result, how do we address this challenge?

Across dif­fer­ent com­pa­nies and indus­tries, you may be sur­prised to learn that your mas­ter data needs are like­ly not as unique as you might think.

Below is a high-lev­el list of mas­ter data cat­e­gories that shows how most of them are not that dif­fer­ent from com­pa­ny to company.

1. Equip­ment: Your equip­ment is not unique, apart from ser­i­al num­bers, and any rare mod­i­fi­ca­tions that have been done.
2. Mate­ri­als: These will not be unique, with the unusu­al excep­tion of cus­tomized mate­ri­als. Any cus­tomized mate­ri­als you are using can eas­i­ly be added to the database.
3. Plans, Items, Bill of Mate­ri­als (BOMs), Tasks Lists, and Mea­sur­ing Points: These will all be uni­form to start, although they may be cus­tomized as you move towards a pre­dic­tive main­te­nance goal.

As orga­ni­za­tions move toward advanced automa­tion with­in SAP S/4HANA, what are some best prac­tices for mas­ter data?

SAP and Prometheus Group strong­ly rec­om­mend that asset-inten­sive orga­ni­za­tions devel­op and imple­ment a data trans­for­ma­tion plan ear­ly, ide­al­ly dur­ing the prepa­ra­tion phase of their S/4HANA journey.

By address­ing data qual­i­ty issues ear­ly, orga­ni­za­tions can real­ize per­for­mance improve­ments and pos­i­tive ROI well before their SAP S/4HANA sys­tem goes live.

Dur­ing the prep phase of an SAP S/4HANA jour­ney, orga­ni­za­tions can also engage Prometheus Group and the SAP Val­ue Engi­neer­ing orga­ni­za­tion to devel­op a busi­ness case for mas­ter data transformation. 

With this busi­ness case in hand, an orga­ni­za­tion can devel­op and get sup­port for a mas­ter data trans­for­ma­tion plan, to ensure max­i­mum val­ue from their SAP S/4HANA investment.

Your orga­ni­za­tion will har­ness new abil­i­ties through SAP S/4HANA, but only if the data you are feed­ing into the sys­tem is accu­rate. SAP S/4HANA lever­ages tech­nol­o­gy and a dif­fer­ent method of data­base design. This will pro­vide you with real-time insights into your processes.

While SAP S/4HANA can great­ly sim­pli­fy your SAP land­scape and give you the infor­ma­tion need­ed to stream­line your work­flows, the time, effort, and mon­ey used to imple­ment SAP S/4HANA will be wast­ed with­out con­tin­u­al access to accu­rate data. The ​“dig­i­tal core” nature of SAP S/4HANA ensures all your apps are inter­con­nect­ed. How­ev­er, with­out clean mas­ter data, you will not real­ize the great­est pos­si­ble ben­e­fit from implementation.

What will I learn in the upcom­ing SAP-Prometheus Group mas­ter data man­age­ment workshops?

Dur­ing the work­shops, SAP and Prometheus Group will dis­cuss the top mas­ter data chal­lenges SAP cus­tomers face, explain how Prometheus Group and SAP’s Mas­ter Data as a Ser­vice (MDaaS) and Mas­ter Data Gov­er­nance (MDG) solu­tions address these chal­lenges, and demon­strate how arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) improves the abil­i­ty to achieve and main­tain improved asset mas­ter data quality.

Learn more about these workshops:

• Unit­ed States: SAP-Prometheus Group Work­shops: Mas­ter­ing Mas­ter Data Management
• Cana­da: SAP-Prometheus Group Work­shops: Mas­ter Data Man­age­ment Best Practices

About the Author

Mike Jor­dan is the Vice Pres­i­dent of the Mas­ter Data Prac­tice at Prometheus Group, a lead­ing glob­al provider of com­pre­hen­sive and intu­itive enter­prise asset man­age­ment soft­ware solu­tions that work with­in enter­prise resource plan­ning sys­tems and span the full work man­age­ment life cycle for both main­te­nance and oper­a­tions. You can con­nect with him on LinkedIn or email him at mjordan@​prometheusgroup.​com.

ASUG devel­ops and pub­lish­es insights reg­u­lar­ly in part­ner­ship with its mem­bers and cus­tomers. For more infor­ma­tion on ASUG spon­sored con­tent, con­tact editorial@​asug.​com.