How Promising is the SAP MDM Career Path?
I probably field as many questions about SAP Master Data Management (MDM) as any other emerging area of SAP. There are two ways to assess the viability of an SAP skill. One is to consider a tool like MDM as part of a broader SAP skill set. The other way is to consider MDM as a possible consulting focus and specialty. In this SAP career blog entry, I’ll consider both aspects of MDM in terms of its "skills marketability." Our bottom line is: how good does SAP MDM look on a resume?
SAP MDM, now officially called SAP NetWeaver MDM, has a pretty typical history for an SAP add-on product. Its initial releases were unimpressive. However, SAP kept at it, and fueled by the 2004 acquisition of a Product Information Management (PIM) product called A2i, SAP gradually built on its MDM functionality. The most recent release, MDM 5.5, is considered the most robust version of this product yet released. I’ve heard of more than one major SAP account that took the plunge into MDM once the 5.5 release came out, as it has the functionality they were looking for.
A Dice search of this kind is imperfect, as some jobs are repeats, and we don’t know how many jobs are MDM-focused versus just listing MDM skills as a "nice to have." However, this gives us some basis of comparison. So, let’s compare that with SAP BW, MDM’s closest relative in the SAP product line. A search of SAP BW yielded 920 jobs on its own, and that doesn’t count however many would come up if we searched on BI. A search on SAP XI yielded 454 jobs and SAP PI 152 more. So, even in comparison to another emerging area like XI, MDM lags behind.
So what can we make of this data? Well, we know that with 150 jobs coming up involving MDM, it is starting to get some play in the market. However, it’s not yet invoking the kind of demand that will reward a broad base of MDM specialists. The thing about MDM is that while it does ship with NetWeaver, my understanding is that it does cost additional fees to "turn the lights on" and implement it. And of course, cleaning up master data within an enterprise is not an easy undertaking.
In the end, consulting opportunities almost always break down to a simple question of supply and demand, and if a product is not embraced by the SAP customer base, then the demand will be limited. And when I say "embraced by the SAP customer base," I’m not just talking about a handful of deep-pocketed flagship customers. That is not enough to fuel demand. So will MDM remain a niche product, or will it eventually break out and create a broad base of skills demand?
I believe that over time, MDM will become a very high demand area within SAP. The reason? MDM is crucial to SAP’s vision of Enterprise SOA (eSOA). Only a minority of SAP customers are pursuing eSOA projects now, but I expect that to change as more and more complete their core ERP 6.0 upgrades. We hear a lot of talk about how MDM is crucial to eSOA, SAP’s SOA initiative. The reasoning is this: you can’t build successful web services without a standardization of data types (SAP often calls this "one version of the truth"), so as usage of eSOA heats up, then the popularity of MDM should increase also. I buy into that line of thinking, but that doesn’t necessarily boost the MDM consulting market immediately.
We have to consider the role of ROI in all this as well. Simply put, those SAP products that deliver a strong ROI case have a better future. One thing I can tell you is that starting at SAPPHIRE in 2007, and continuing at TechEd last fall, I began to hear from more customers who are seeing a positive bottom line result from MDM. At TechEd, I sat in on a very well-attended presentation on MDM that demonstrated how an SAP customer could use MDM to identify and eliminate duplicate customer records. This may sound like a small thing, but cleaning up master data can be a very big deal.
In the example I watched, the end result of cleaning up the customer master data was the ability to truly track who the highest revenue customers were. Before the data was cleaned up duplicate customer data was really distorting this information. And without good, "actionable" information, companies cannot make good strategic decisions.
So where does that leave an aspiring MDM consultant? Well, as a long term career path, I like SAP MDM a lot. I believe it’s here to stay and that it will only gather more momentum for the reasons I just described. But I’m not sure that MDM has generated enough consulting demand to justify a specialization in MDM right now. I’m sure that some consultants will find a way to pull this off, but for now, I’d be tempted to combine MDM with a core bread-and-butter skill set.
The obvious choice, to me, would be the NetWeaver BI and MDM combination. BI is arguably the hottest area of consulting in SAP today, and when you combine the two, you have two related products, one proven (BW/BI), and one emerging (MDM). That fits in well with the "career best practice" advice I give all SAP professionals, regardless of their experience level, which is to combine a core, marketable skill area with an "emerging skill" that fits in well with your core skills.
To me, that’s the ideal combination for now, and as MDM gains more acceptance from SAP end users, then I will like it more as a primary skills focus. So to return to our original question, I like MDM as part of an SAP skill set right now for a variety of consultants, in particular BI consultants who are looking to broaden their skill set. I don’t like MDM as a core specialty for most SAP folks right now, but I do see it being an area that will support a broader base of consultants in the future. I don’t ever expect SAP MDM to be the hottest area in SAP consulting, but I do expect it to be a factor.
In fairness, what I should have done is add SAP MDM to my "SAP Skills You Want to Have" list. This is a list of skills that are nice to have today, but are perhaps more important to have tomorrow. That’s how I see SAP MDM currently. I’ll add updates to this blog when I get more perspectives on the future of MDM.
April 9th, 2008 at 4:29 pm...
Nice article Jon.
What do you think about XI/PI and MDM as a combination of core and emerging skills? I am interested to know why you feel MDM won’t ever be the hottest area in SAP consulting? Do you feel the same will hold true for XI/PI even though it is pivotal to SAP’s eSOA strategy just as MDM is?
April 10th, 2008 at 5:49 pm...
Hey Philip.
Good question.
What we know right now is that based on searches of Dice.com, there are four times as many XI jobs as MDM jobs, and that’s not even counting the PI jobs which are a bit harder to search for (NetWeaver PI being the new name for NetWeaver XI).
So, XI seems to pass our test of being “in demand” now. Therefore, I do like the XI/MDM skill set combination, though I haven’t seen it on resumes as much as BI/MDM.
We like to think of XI/PI as being pretty fancy stuff, but in the end, it’s just a very sophisticated form of middleware, an integratoin hub if you will, and SAP customers have other middleware options besides XI.
Having said that, it does seem like companies that are heavily invested in SAP and more and more likely to go with XI/PI for the NetWeaver stack integration. The number of XI jobs bear that out.
The different I see between XI and MDM is that XI is a “must use” for any number of SAP project rollouts, whereas MDM looms as more of a “nice to have” for companies pursuing eSOA. Right now, only a minority of SAP customers are pursuing eSOA aggressively.
It’s hard to use MDM without really getting clear on your enterprise-wide data strategy - not an easy thing to do on the fly. XI, on the other hand, can be used in smaller projects on the fly. In other words, it’s easier to dabble in XI than MDM, if that makes any sense. I believe that’s why there are four to five times as many XI as MDM jobs out there currently.
I don’t have a crystal ball, so who knows, but I’m grown a little wary of the SAP products that require major organizational change. APO is an example of a product that had a huge amount of buzz and is still relevant, but never delivered on its consulting promise, and I believe that’s partially based on the complexity. The value proposition may well be solid, but companies get cautious when it comes to organization overhaul.
Having said that, MDM is so central to SAP’s eSOA strategy that I do believe it will eventually be a great consulting focus. I like the idea of adding it now but not as a focus, and then moving into it when/if the demand really starts to build.
- Jon Reed-
April 14th, 2008 at 10:59 am...
Hi Jon,
“MDM is so central to SAP’s eSOA strategy that I do believe it will eventually be a great consulting focus.”
Master data management is the cornerstone to SOA, without consistent data you lose agility and business advantage.
A couple of years ago just prior to SAP MDM 5 going GA I spent some time putting together expertise putting together collateral, proof of concepts and prototypes for the consultancy I work for. I did this with very good help from SAP and their local RIG team, this was a whitespace we both wanted filled and we wanted to be ahead of the competition. My focus was very much from a technical point of view and other colleagues focused on modelling, business benefits and marketing, together we worked out how the different modules pieced together and how they integrated SAP with non SAP products.
Like any acquired product released early the marketing was heavy on vapor, strategy and positioning. Having been through this exercise with other SAP products I knew the key is to demystify marketing, work out limitations, determine strengths and weaknesses and focus on the positives. I have to tell you I find data management really boring, however the webservices, JAVA and ABAP API’s along with the CRUD content wizards for the portal made me believe that companies who like bleeding edge would love this product suite as it shows real promise.
So why hasnt SAP MDM taken off?
We had a lot of interest and a few a projects which ran way short of any real delivery. I dont believe the problem was the product or technology. After talking with colleagues who work in TIBCO and Oracle (Fusion) technologies one thing resonates - MDM like SOA is a long term strategy based on architectural patterns and best practice.
We went in saying SAP MDM consolidates, harmonizes and centrally manages your master data.
After listening to the podcast with Ken Sanders I believe he hit the nail on the head. IT managers are concerned about the maintaining their existing systems and their process colleagues are focused on business value, both look at the bottom line and the time to deliver promises. The MDM projects we started only got as far as consolidating and harmonizing data. To centrally manage data you have to have concrete business rules, this takes a long time, effort and expense. With another system to maintain and support, no quick wins to show off the project to date was viewed as an expensive data cleansing excercise and put on hold.
I think if we had of taken a different direction and say an iterative approach starting small, focusing on showing the capabilities through a composite business process for say provisioning customer, material or account data accross many systems the buy-in may have come a lot quicker. As you put it - “The value proposition may well be solid, but companies get cautious when it comes to organization overhaul.”
In summary I view my experience with SAP MDM like any work I have done with the new Netweaver technologies as adding another feather in my cap. In my eyes you add the most value if know how the architectural pieces fit together, are aware best practices and understand what SAP and others are doing in the new technology spaces.
Cheers
jsp
April 14th, 2008 at 1:11 pm...
JSP, Thanks for the fantastic comments. I know readers will appreciate your insights and this does help to give more context to the MDM “buy in” challenge.
I agree with you when you say, “I think if we had of taken a different direction and say an iterative approach starting small, focusing on showing the capabilities through a composite business process for say provisioning customer, material or account data accross many systems the buy-in may have come a lot quicker.”
The SAP products that are doing the best in today’s market are either absolutely essential to business function (like financials) or they offer an immediate, tangible benefit (like Talent Management in HR, perhaps, or BI work that results in better reporting).
Perhaps the MDM challenge is that companies don’t generally think of it in terms of smaller rollouts that could gain ROI momentum for something bigger. They tend to see MDM as a corporate-wide data overhaul, and that is where the buy-in gets to be more of a challenge.
It will be interesting to see if/how this changes once more companies are fully running on ERP 6.0 and are then ready to get more serious about eSOA initiatives, where MDM best practices are crucial to success. That’s why I remain somewhat optimistic that MDM will gain more momentum over the long haul.
I guess we’ll find out soon!
- Jon Reed -
April 18th, 2008 at 3:59 pm...
Jon,
Im interested to know how you think SAP NetWeaver MDM will fair against MDM products from other vendors?
In particular IBM’s InfoSphere MDM Server that was launched earlier this year? IBM is marketing their MDM product as a competitor to SAP’s MDM product especially in environments where SAP ERP is used, slowly trying to chip away at that market share. They have done this with their middleware product as well, how do you think the two will fair in the market and what does this mean for SAP MDM and middleware consultants?
April 21st, 2008 at 3:18 pm...
Hey Andy - good question!
To a degree, this question of competition applies to virtually every SAP product, from its core ERP product to its various NetWeaver components, all of which, from BI to Portals to MDM to XI/PI, all face competition from other vendors. In fact, I would go so far as to say that some competition is a good thing, because it validates the market space of a particular product.
I don’t know much about the IBM MDM product offering at this point so I can’t offer a lot of information on that. I do think, however, that when it comes to Master Data, that the ERP vendors (Oracle and SAP in particular) will have the inside track on landing MDM project and accounts. Because so much corporate data resides in the ERP landscape these days, it just makes sense for those vendors to get that business - not unlike how most SAP shops will eventually go to BI to slice and dice their transactional data, rather than a third party product.
Another way of looking at that is - no one knows SAP’s data types like….SAP! For a major project like a big MDM initiative, it’s nice to have one vendor you can call and yell at that can’t pass the problem off to another third party.
Having said that, I do think that companies that are heavily invested in IBM technology and middleware might be more inclined to use IBM’s MDM product, and some IBM and SAP customers are more invested in IBM technology fundamentally. At that point, IBM MDM becomes more of a factor. But my feeling is that companies that haven’t implemented such a product yet and who are already running on SAP will lean towards SAP’s products more often than not.
Contrast that to IBM WebSphere- WebSphere really beat XI/PI into the middleware market, so in that case, I don’t expect companies already running on WebSphere to quickly move to XI/PI, though it will happen more over time.
- Jon Reed -
May 16th, 2008 at 8:33 am...
Hey Jhon!
Do you think ABAP with MDM a good career option?
May 19th, 2008 at 4:34 pm...
Hi Sukumar. My short answer to you is “yes.” I would say that the answer above also applies to technical MDM roles. MDM is definitely an emerging area, but for now, I like MDM better in combination with a skill that has broader acceptance.
So, for example, I like the ABAP-BI + ABAP-MDM combination better than just ABAP MDM on its own. Remember also that when you talk about NetWeaver components like MDM, you want to start thinking about Java-based skills also. You may not need Java to work with MDM to begin with, but many of the eSOA-based tools that leverage MDM may well involve some Java aspects, so keep that in mind.
- Jon Reed -
July 1st, 2008 at 7:36 am...
Hi ,
I personally feel that MDM is going to be the hot topic in discussion.Every Company has to implement SAP MDM today or tommorow just because of it’s multi Dimensional Data view for all platforms (SAP and NON SAP).
July 1st, 2008 at 7:45 am...
I Personally feel that SAP MDM is going to be the best suite of Product in SAP NW.This is just because of the Multi dimensional View of Master Data across all platforms which enable business(SAP and Non SAP).
July 1st, 2008 at 10:37 pm...
Hi Sainaith.
I agree that NetWeaver MDM is going to be very successful in the long run. For the reason you mentioned, and two others:
1. MDM, from what I have heard so far, is going to be important in the BI/Business Objects merger scenarios.
2. MDM is also a key ingredient to successful eSOA projects, which more and more SAP customers will be trying.
However, I can’t agree it will be the most successful produce in NetWeaver, for a couple reasons.
One, my understanding is that companies do have to pay extra right now to turn the lights on with the MDM functionality. That is a bit of a disincentive.
Second, remember that there are some very popular products in the NetWeaer suite. I don’t see any way MDM will every be more popular than BI, and the combined BI/BO product is going to be pretty incredible.
Also, NetWeaver Portals is going to remain a very strong product in the future.
But for the most part, I very much agree with you.
- Jon Reed -
September 15th, 2008 at 7:42 am...
Hi John,
I must thank you for this wonderful insight.
I have more than 2 years of SAP MDM expereince with more than 1 year on bench. It seems there are very less projects considering weak economy.
My company wishes me to upgrade to IDM or Duet.
It will be great of you to suggest which is better of those 2 since I dont have knowledge of Java. However Duet will open the AS world. IDM is also on the security front making it better for basis people.
Please give your insight.
Amit
September 17th, 2008 at 6:52 am...
Thanks Amit.
I just got back from TechEd, and I continue to believe, from everything I can learn, that SAP MDM will be a good long term career path. The catch is that right now, MDM is still developing the level of consulting demand that will really fuel a consulting niche right now. So, the challenge for someone like you will be to keep your hands in MDM until the demand for these skills intensifies.
One option might be to add some BI skills to your MDM skill set, as that is a nice overlap between a more general skill and a niche offering.
Both IDM and Duet are interesting, but there’s really no competition in terms of consulting demand: IDM and security in general is much more in demand than Duet. If you don’t believe me, trying doing a keyword search on Dice.com and see how few Duet jobs are in there.
- Jon Reed -
September 23rd, 2008 at 7:46 am...
Hi John..
Thanks for a wonderful article giving pointers to the future of SAP MDM .
I have some queries about my career path and will appreciate if you can guide on same.
I am basically a MBA management graduate with 2 years core sales experience and in IT since 7 years (presales , datawarehousing (reporting /etl) as business analyst, functional requirement gathering and client interaction (ETL n BI reporting tools).
Recently got a direct opportunity to get into SAP and at present assigned to a live SAP ECC implementation project involving COTS(non sap) + SAP ECC 6(MM/HR/FICO) + New Dimension products (BI 7.0 /MDM/EP/DMS/XI) which suppose to start in coming Oct..
My role being program lead for SAP BI and SAP MDM modules (SAP BI I did self study and easier to picked up owing to my previous datawarehousing knowledge ) MDM just learning through all the materials available on sdn site.
My quest is with my above above scenario, what shold be the possible steps i shld be taking to make a long term career in SAP MDM with my business cum functional n datwarehousing background? Do i alsoneed to learn SD or CRM module because what i read across most discussions SAP MDM seems to be a more technical tool.( I may be wrong because I am yet to see the software). Personally I am inclined to a consulting career in SAP in future .
Thanks in advance for keeping patience in going through my long query.
Looking forward to your valuable inputs.
Best regards,
Nitin
September 24th, 2008 at 6:25 am...
Thanks for the kind words Nitin.
It seems to me like you are on the right track, and well positioned to get that all-important hands-on project experience. It’s true that both BI and MDM work can veer towards the technical, but there will definitely be room for a techno-functional BI/MDM person. I think the most important thing for an MDM person is to understand the MDM and BI tie ins, and to be familiar with the Business Objects product line as well going forward.
But, if you also master some functional areas, such as SD/CRM, or particular industries as well, then that will add even more value to your BI/MDM focus. The hands-on project experience is the key, so if that works out for you on your project, that should be great for you. The rest you work on as you go. Once you get that hands-on project work, the rest of skills enhancement is a continuing education process, always integrating new concepts with your project work as much as you can.
- Jon Reed -
September 29th, 2008 at 1:01 pm...
Hi Jon,First of all Great Job! for the continued insight and the I am sure you’d mastered every formula of slick ERP and It’s our pleasure to view this content.Thanks for the Great Work and Thanks for the Podcasts too, they were very Helpful, coming to the crux of my comment, I’d like to ask a sincere question about influence of web 2.0 on SAP CRM, Since Iam into CRM since 3 years and implemented 2 full life cycle Projects and ready for my next venture, I want to make sure how is it going for SAP CRM guys rite now in the market, Excuse me this is Irrelevant to your Topic but for me ” I need to find my Niche in this Business Process! So please Guide me is there any thing serious like changing the module to MDM is Necessary,Please comment on position of SAP CRM(funtional) Briefly…Thank You Very Much For Reading The Long mail..have a nice day
regards,
Raja
September 29th, 2008 at 10:41 pm...
Thanks Raja for the kind comment. I’ve never been called “slick” before, I put out some of the more underproduced podcasts in terms of bells and whistles you can find out there. My focus is always on getting the most useful SAP career content I can find out there to you. I do try to put out honest and useful content and I won’t stop doing that! So, thx.
I continue to like the CRM area as a concentration. Interesting developments, like SAP info on BlackBerry, continue to keep a bit of buzz on CRM. True, many companies are more focused on core upgrades right now, but CRM does have some demand. When I write up my list of demand for SAP Business Suite products, I’ll put CRM first of the four - though that depends on how you define the SCM product.
Either way, it is either first or second. SAP is certainly trying to add “Web 2.0″ features to CRM to make it more user friendly. We know that salesforce.com and even SAP’s own on-demand CRM solution make the market more competitive for on-site CRM.
For this reason, my feeling is that focusing on CRM integration points is important for most SAP CRM consultants. After all, the companies that are heavily investing in the use of SAP CRM are certainly taking this back end integration into account strongly in their own CRM investment. So, CRM-SD integration points, or CRM-BW integration points, are very interesting. I haven’t heard much on the connections between CRM and MDM, but a Dice.com search on “SAP CRM MDM” did generate about 70 listings. Not a huge amount, but some modest indication this may be useful.
The best approach to SAP careers is NOT to worry about which area of SAP is hottest. The best approach is to find the hottest demand within your area, and look to combine core competency and know-how with a push towards something more cutting edge. So, a core CRM plus MDM skills combination could be very interesting to pursue. Leaving CRM for MDM, on the other hand, is more questionable, as you are leaving behind some of your key know-how and moving into an area that is not yet fully established.
I hope this is of help.
- Jon Reed -
September 30th, 2008 at 12:38 am...
Hi Jon,
I sincerely Thank you for the promising Comments,they help us a lot.
Regards,
Raja
October 15th, 2008 at 6:09 pm...
Hello Jon,
It was a really nice blog and insight into the emerging market for SAP MDM. I have been working on SAP BI for 4 years now and this is my second day researching into the prospects of MDM in the coming years and I’m glad I got to your blog. I am trying to venture myself into SAP MDM and after reading this article I’m glad to know that BI/MDM would be the way to go. Good to find myself going in the right direction.
I was wondering if you could elaborate more, when you say SAP MDM being more of a Techno/Functional kind of a role.
I understand SAP BI being more of a techno/functional job where as a BI Developer you do have to write routines for transformations and extractions..
As far as SAP MDM is concerned, does the technical aspect come interms of using ABAP ? JAVA? and to what extent do you have to use them ? or are the roles clearly defined as in being an SAP MDM functional person or SAP MDM technical person to take care of technical developments ?
I would appreciate if you could elaborate on this.
Thanks,
Kamal
October 16th, 2008 at 2:24 am...
Hello Kamal.
I’m glad you liked this SAP MDM comment thread. SAP MDM is certainly popular amongst SAP folks looking to expand their careers - perhaps even more popular than the demand itself.
I don’t like to get in the position of being the expert on what MDM jobs will look like in a field that is still emerging. I recommend you go onto Dice.com and search on “SAP MDM” and browse through the variety of jobs. I think you will see that there are many roles to consider, even at this stage.
From what I can see so far, I see some technical MDM roles, some functional MDM roles, and some that combine the two. MDM has functional relevance because defining Master Data types for an entire company is not just a technical exercise, it involved business logic and business user buy-in to be effective.
I saw a number of MDM jobs that required ABAP, and some that involved Java using the Java API. My understanding is that MDM is primarily ABAP-based in terms of customization, but a number of folks seem to be using Java APIs for it as well. This would hold true for NetWeaver in general, which tries to provide both ABAP and Java development options whenever possible.
Have a look at these two job roles from IBM for current MDM openings on Dice.
The first is a functional opening:
“IBM Global Business Services is seeking SAP MDM consultants for our Distribution Sector SAP Consulting Practice. The SAP MDM Lead consultant will be responsible for SAP MDM process design, fit /gap assessment, configuration, development, testing and training activities. This consultant will perform as a key member of project teams through all phases of the project lifecycle.”
This next role is more technical:
“The MDM consultant will be responsible for technical data conversion and interface analysis, design and development at a client engagement. They will be working across business workstreams garnering collaboration to define data responsibility and ownership. Must have experience in Master Data managemet working on one of the following technologies is a plus: IBM webshpere, Ascential, Kalido, TIBCO or Hyperion. IBM Global Business Services: Join a Leader. Consult with us.”
A year of ABAP programming was required for the second one. I hope this gives you a better idea of the range of MDM positions around. If I were pursuing MDM, I’d probably try to be as close to the techno-functional intersection as possible. Data management, after all, is technical, but aligning business strategies around a “single source of the truth” is a functional undertaking. To me, it seems obvious that those MDM consultants who have a handle on both sides of that will be most in demand and most effective on project sites.
I hope this helps!
- Jon Reed -
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:32 am...
Hi Jon,
Nice article…I am starter in MDM field. I am basically SAP SD certified and started working in SAP MDM filed.
I would like to ask ” What will be role of MDM Functional Consultant i.e. What he is expected to know and which activities he is supposed to carry out if he is working in SAP MDM implementation.”
Request your views on the same.
Regards
Rahul
October 24th, 2008 at 3:50 am...
The role of the MDM functional person is not going to be the same on each project. I basically just answered this question immediately above your comment in the comment thread. The issue with MDM is that it’s so new, that best practices around different roles are still coming out. I personally think there will be more technical than functional MDM roles for the near future, as is the case in BW/BI. That’s because so much of the “rolling up sleeves” work in MDM involves integration with BW and SAP systems.
I found a pretty nice MDM functional job description on Dice.com that should give you some pointers. I am sure Adventa won’t mind me posting their opening here as long as I include their contact numbers and email for applying, so here it is below my name:
Jon Reed (MDM job descrip follows)
“JOB DETAILS:
The SAP MDM Functional Consultant is responsible for interacting with senior business and IT client contacts to provide functional expertise. This role will drive Master Data Strategy, Data Governance/Standardization, Master Data Process Design, High Level MDM Architecture and the Implementation Roadmap defined by the business case.
7+ years hands-on SAP experience including 3 full lifecycle implementations based on structured methodology with hands on configuration.
3+ years experience with Master Data Management
2+ yrs hands-on experience with SAP MDM (Master Data Management) including 2 full lifecycle implementations
Developing short and long-term master data management strategies for the client
Gathering functional and technical requirements as inputs into the overall solution design
Performing fit/gap assessment of SAP MDM to the future state vision
Supervising process and functional design activities
Supervising application design, build, test, and deploy activities for SAP MDM and all integrating applications
Responsible for overseeing the SAP MDM data model design and development
Need All Inclusive rates only
call me at 281-306-1204 or mail me at ksreedhar@adventglobal.com”
April 6th, 2009 at 1:59 am...
can someone tell me, how will the combination of SD/MDM/BO goes. suggestion are highly appreciaated
jagz
April 14th, 2009 at 9:15 am...
Hello Jon ,
First of all thanks a lot for bringing lot of insights into SAP Mdm Consulting. I am looking forward to get into MDM consulting. I have knowledge of SAP ABAP, SAP related Java , Java Webdynpro, SAP AutoID ,SAP Enterprise Search, Business objects (Xcelcius), DUET 1.0.
If you notice, I worked primarily on integration projects. I am now looking forward to have something really concrete in my Profile and MDM seems to be the thing which I can easily pick up. What would you suggest to a person with my kind of integration profile ?
Specially in this tough business climate how would you rate my decision to foray into a domain like MDM.
Regards,
Ravi
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:15 am...
Hi,
as an MDM consultant (been in this area for the last 3,5 years), I can feel that this topic is getting bigger and bigger. MDM should be considered as the center of master data management with its typical functionalities like consolidating & harmonization. In no other SAP system you have the possibility to do data cleansing that easily and without any coding!
A typical scenario could be that BW/BI receives cleansed data from MDM for its global spend analysis reports. XI/PI comes as a middleware into place which connects various systems (MDM XI BW).
More reasons for MDM:
- no transaction
- data modelling doesn’t base on a relational schema;
inuitive and not DBMS oriented
- easy modelisation of hierarchies
- easy definition of specific attributes based on taxonomies
- mass modification without any query
- etc …
With MDM 7.1 there is a release that proviedes better functionality and efficiency.
BR,
Erdal
February 14th, 2011 at 11:12 pm...
I think SAP MDM is a better product oriented MDM than other kinds of master data. It lacks more sophisticated data cleansing algorithims. For the success of MDM projects, its most important to have people who understand the data oriented process flow and the data itself from the enterprise level perspective. But I find it quite annoying that MDM does not have better native methods to push and pull data from at least other SAP systems.