Future innovations SAP MDG
Sander van der Wijngaart - Managing partner / SAP process management consultant
In the rapidly evolving world of digital transformation, master data governance plays a critical role in business success. SAP Master Data Governance (MDG) stands out as a comprehensive solution for enterprises to streamline, manage and regulate their master data, both within SAP and non-SAP landscapes. Upcoming versions of SAP MDG promise exciting innovations and enhancements aimed at improving efficiency, driving automation and enabling a seamless transition to the cloud. This blog provides an overview of SAP MDG's key features, strategic vision and future roadmap for 2025 and beyond.
This summary blog is based on the blog post by Markus Kuppe, SAP MDG Chief Product Owner. It can also be viewed as a webinar.
SAP Master Data Governance Introduction
SAP MDG is an application designed to manage master data within an enterprise. It addresses domain-specific governance needs so that companies can effectively monitor and correct data quality. Whether centrally managing, modifying or distributing master data, or consolidating data from different systems within an enterprise, SAP MDG provides a holistic approach to ensuring data quality and integrity.
SAP MDG's flexibility is one of its key strengths. It not only handles SAP master data, but also provides tools to develop custom governance processes for other, non-SAP master data domains. This flexibility allows organizations to build a comprehensive master data governance program tailored to their unique business needs.
More general information about SAP Master Data Governance can be found here .
Strategic vision
SAP's strategic vision for MDG is based on a set of core values. The company understands that master data is more than just raw information -- it is invaluable and an enabler of digital transformation and the driver of operational efficiency. By embedding MDG in its broader business solutions strategy, SAP ensures that MDG is not just another MDM tool, but a vital part of driving business growth.
A key part of this vision is SAP's shift to a modular and cloud-based approach to master data management. The shift to the cloud, combined with the need for automation, is the future of SAP MDG. As more companies move their operations to the cloud, their master data must follow. SAP plans to offer cloud-based master data integration services and data quality microservices through the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), allowing companies to automatically update their master data.
Key Trends: Cloud, Digitization, Automation and Federation/Modularization
SAP's roadmap for MDG is driven by several market trends, including the growing demand for automation, the shift to modular applications and the transition to the cloud. As companies digitize, the volume and complexity of master data increases. SAP recognizes this and is working to provide automation tools that help companies keep their master data up-to-date with minimal manual intervention.
The modularization of enterprise applications is another key trend. By enabling an incremental journey to the cloud, SAP is helping companies migrate their MDM capabilities at their own pace. This approach not only provides flexibility but also lowers total cost of ownership (TCO) by enabling companies to embrace a more flexible, scalable and efficient master data management solution.
Cloud
As companies increasingly move to cloud-based operations, SAP MDG is facilitating this transition by offering cloud-based integration services for master data. These services, available on the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), include options such as Address-Validation-as-a-Service, which ensures data quality through up-to-date cloud-based directories. The SAP MDG roadmap highlights the modular approach needed to move master data management (MDM) to the cloud. This enables companies to migrate in stages, in line with their business needs, allowing them to get a faster return on investment and grow their MDM programs.
Digitization
Digitization is leading to increasing demand for higher volumes and better quality master data. SAP MDG addresses this need by focusing on modular, specialized business applications that provide harmonized, high-quality data for seamless, end-to-end business processes. The SAP One Domain Model and SAP Master Data Integration support the integration of data between SAP and non-SAP environments. This digitization also emphasizes the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics tools to maximize the value of master data, ensuring a return on data quality investments in all data-driven scenarios across an enterprise.
Automation
Automation is central to improving master data management by reducing manual interventions and errors. SAP MDG leverages automation by integrating external data providers, predicting master data values and using AI to improve data quality. This automation minimizes human effort and accelerates error correction while maintaining high data quality. The flexible and scalable nature of SAP MDG supports rapid expansions and integrations with new systems, processes and data types, further improving efficiency in master data management.
Federation/Modularization
Federation allows companies to balance centralized and decentralized master data management, resulting in greater flexibility and scalability. While many organizations rely on a centralized MDG system, others benefit from a modular, federated MDG structure that fits their diverse business processes and systems. SAP's federated approach provides faster time-to-value and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) by enabling localized data governance where the data is best understood. This deployment option provides businesses with the flexibility to scale their MDM solutions as needed, either through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution or a more comprehensive platform approach.
These trends underscore SAP MDG's commitment to providing a flexible, scalable and efficient MDM solution that meets the changing needs of businesses in the cloud and digital landscape.
For more details, you can read the following blog post on the benefits of federation or read one of our earlier blogs of our own on federation.
Recent innovations and future plans SAP Master Data Governance
Federation and Modularization
A recent innovation in SAP MDG is the ability to use the 2023 version of SAP MDG on SAP S/4HANA as a core data manager in a federated MDG landscape. This enables organizations to manage master data locally where it is best understood, while benefiting from a centralized approach to master data management. In this federated landscape, each system can manage its own part of the data, but control and coordination remains centrally controlled. This innovation is already available and fits perfectly with SAP MDG's broader vision of flexibility, scalability and data quality.
Cloud-Ready Mode
The cloud-ready mode, introduced in Q4 2023, provides an additional option to enable master data management processes such as central governance, mass processing, consolidation and quality management. This mode uses modern software architecture with technologies such as FIORI for the user interface and SAP HANA and Core Data Services for the data model. This allows companies to implement a "clean core" strategy, making their system cloud-ready and future-proof. This innovation is also already available and supports the SAP MDG vision of cloud adoption and scalable solutions, as discussed earlier.
More information about cloud-ready mode in SAP MDG can be found in this blog post.
Integration of Data Providers
In 2023, SAP introduced the ability to support automation using external trusted data sources. This feature is available in SAP MDG cloud edition and SAP MDG on SAP S/4HANA. Companies can create business partner master data and enrich it with data from more than 70 global sources such as CDQ, Dun & Bradstreet and the Dutch Chamber of Commerce. In the future, SAP plans to support massive data processing scenarios, applying automatic updates from data suppliers.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Another key innovation for 2024 is the use of AI in MDG for data quality management. The "Summarize Changes" feature allows for a natural language summary of both saved and unsaved changes to master data. The "Assisted Change" feature allows users to make changes to master data with minimal effort, which is especially useful for less experienced users.
Management of Business Partner Hierarchy
One forward-looking innovation is the management of a legal business partner hierarchy, using data from external sources such as Dun & Bradstreet. This process will be partially automated, allowing companies to manage legal hierarchies and perform consolidations based on external data.
Future Innovations
Finally, an overview of all innovations planned by SAP in the coming years. All this information is also available via the SAP Roadmap Explorer (protected information, SAP universal ID required).
Conclusion
SAP Master Data Governance remains a cornerstone of SAP's broader enterprise solutions strategy. With innovations in cloud-readiness, automation and federation, the roadmap promises to provide even greater flexibility, scalability and efficiency for enterprises.
As companies continue to digitize and move their operations to the cloud, the need for high-quality master data will only increase. SAP MDG is well positioned to meet this need by providing a comprehensive, integrated solution that simplifies master data management, reduces manual effort and allows companies to focus on what matters most: driving growth and innovation.
With a clear vision for the future and a roadmap full of exciting innovations, SAP MDG remains an essential tool for companies looking to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive and data-driven world.
More information
For further questions or information on this subject or for other questions regarding SAP Workflow, Fiori or SAP Invoice Management (SIM), please contact Sander van der Wijngaart.
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