Having entity data authored and stored across separate source systems creates a barrier for achieving a unified and trusted view of customer or supplier data. When data has multiple sources, it can become inconsistent, inaccurate, outdated, and cause conflicts.
ACME Company has multiple source systems from which entity data originates.
The flow of data for ACME Company begins at these points of entry, each of which is associated with a variety of channels. These channels include: the company website, phone direct, in-store, etc. (shown in column 1 of the image above). ACME contains the source systems (column 2):
- E-commerce system for consumers who place their orders and self-registers via the company’s website.
- ERP system for suppliers from whom ACME currently procures their raw materials and finished goods.
- CRM system for driving seasonal marketing campaigns and financial data, which drives in-house financing as well as managing consumer loyalty programs. CRM may also manage existing distributor profiles as well as direct and in-direct B2B customers.
To understand how data flows into STEP and between applications, refer to the consolidation and coexistence implementation methodologies as defined in the MDM Solution Overview topic of this documentation
Data enters MDM through external channels where customers / suppliers provide their information. In the B2C example image above, channels can include a telephone order, a web order, a consumer signing up for a loyalty platform, or buying in a store.
After the data is captured, it is saved to various source systems, which are the systems that store data to be delivered to the MDM solution. In this use case, the source systems are the CRM, ERP, and E-commerce platforms (column 2 in the image). Once data is within the MDM application, it is standardized, matched with existing records, and then golden records are created / maintained. Data is then stored in a data store / data warehouse.
For more details on what happens in MDM solution (column 3), refer to the Transaction Examples for Consolidation and Coexistence MDM topic here. Also, refer to the Matching topic (here) and the Loqate topic (here) of this documentation for more information.
In a coexistence implementation, the data matched and merged in the MDM solution (column 3) is synchronized to the source systems (column 2) as well as downstream solutions (column 4).