How a Global Personal Healthcare Company Achieved Perfect Master Data
From 3-month cost update cycles to under 30 days, while saving $400-500K annually by decommissioning legacy MDM platforms.
The Challenge
This global personal healthcare company operates a complex enterprise landscape with multiple SAP environments for different functions, plus additional solutions for PLM and go-to-market activities. With headquarters in North America and manufacturing plants and sales regions spanning the EU, Asia-Pacific, and China, maintaining consistent master data across all systems had become a significant operational burden.
Key Pain Points
- Cost synchronization between different SAP systems (Manufacturing and Order-to-Cash) was time-consuming and an obstacle to financial and operational excellence
- Annual cost updates took upwards of 3 months, consuming valuable time from finance teams globally
- Manual approach to resolving data quality issues was long and tedious, allowing many data quality issues to persist
- Maintaining consistent dimensional and packaging-related data for SKUs across multiple systems was error-prone
- Disparate systems dealing with shared master data led to data quality issues that impacted multiple business functions
- New product introduction launches were delayed due to inconsistent data across PLM, packaging, and ERP systems
System Fragmentation
Multiple SAP environments, SAP PLM, custom SQL Server applications, and various databases created data silos with no single source of truth.
Manual Coordination
Cost updates required significant coordination effort across multiple teams and systems with no automated workflow.
Legacy MDM Limitations
Expensive legacy Master Data Management platform was doing very little in terms of actual process and data quality improvement.
The Solution
The company implemented ZMDM to address their master data challenges with a comprehensive approach spanning costing, materials management, PLM, packaging, and data quality. The solution connected cross-functional teams from Finance, Inventory Management, Marketing, Transportation, R&D, Packaging, PLM, and Master Data Management.
What We Designed
- Unified master data governance workflows spanning SAP S/4HANA, SAP PLM, and custom applications
- Automated cost synchronization between Manufacturing and Order-to-Cash SAP systems
- Cross-functional workflows for SKU dimensional and packaging data management
- Comprehensive data quality rules running within and across all systems
- Error-proofing workflows incorporating Poka-Yoke principles to prevent errors at the source
What We Deployed
- Integration with SAP S/4HANA, SAP PLM, and SQL Server-based custom applications
- Finance team review workflows with automated updates to multiple SAP systems post-approval
- Automated data quality monitoring using SAP InfoSteward and ZFlow for complex cross-system rules
- Correction workflows combining automated fixes with manual review steps for cross-functional teams
- Global rollout to 100+ stakeholders across all regions and business functions
"The ideal number for Master Data errors is Zero. There are two ways to achieve this: error-proofing and error correction. Error-proofing is infinitely better than error correction. ZMDM helps us do both."
The Pursuit of Perfect Master Data
The company adopted a dual approach to achieving zero master data errors: preventing errors from occurring in the first place, and quickly correcting any that do occur.
Error-Proofing
Preventing errors at the source through intelligent governance is infinitely better than correcting them later.
Error Correction
Continuous monitoring and automated correction for any issues that slip through validation.
The Ideal Number for Master Data Errors is Zero
With ZMDM, this global healthcare company is systematically eliminating data errors across their entire enterprise landscape.
The Results
Within months of implementation, the company achieved measurable improvements across all their master data pain points, while significantly reducing costs.
Before ZMDM
- Cost synchronization took significant coordination and effort across teams
- Annual cost updates were a 3-month effort with multiple teams involved
- Packaging and dimensions data required many teams and system updates
- Data quality issues handled manually with periodic data loads
- Expensive legacy MDM platform with limited business value
After ZMDM
- Finance teams review data in workflow, with multi-system updates automated
- Annual cost updates minimized to less than a month with minimal effort
- Cross-functional workflow simplified coordination and automated updates
- Data quality issues automatically captured and resolved using workflows
- Saving $400-500K yearly by decommissioning legacy platform
Quantified Business Impact
- Annual cost update cycle reduced from 3 months to under 1 month (67% reduction)
- $400,000-$500,000 in annual savings from legacy MDM platform decommissioning
- 100+ global stakeholders now working from a single source of truth
- Cross-functional teams (Finance, R&D, Supply Chain) collaborating in unified workflows
- Automated data quality monitoring across SAP S/4HANA, SAP PLM, and SQL Server systems
- New product introductions accelerated with consistent SKU data across all systems
Key Success Factors
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Implementation Details
The implementation spanned multiple business functions and systems, with ZMDM serving as the unified governance layer for all master data processes.
Scope
- Costing and financial master data
- Materials management
- PLM integration
- Packaging and dimensional data
- Data quality management
Systems
- SAP S/4HANA (multiple instances)
- SAP PLM
- Custom SQL Server applications
- SAP InfoSteward
- ZFlow workflow engine
Cross-Functional Teams
- Finance
- Inventory Management
- Marketing
- Transportation
- R&D
- Packaging
- PLM
- Master Data Management