GlueData Master Data Solutions, the leading SAP Data Solutions company in South Africa has developed multiple methodologies, accelerators and approaches to managing data quality with SAP.

We have invested heavily in developing and fine tuning our content and approach to enable us to rapidly deliver value to customers, achieving both quick wins and long-term management of data quality. We leverage SAP functionality for the delivery of real benefits to the customer at a fraction of the costs associated with similar solutions.” states Malan Barnard, Director at GlueData.

The companies’ latest solution, Simple Data Management (SDM), uses SAP Standard functionality to validate master data quality at point of data entry into SAP ECC 6 or SAP S/4 HANA. In addition, the solution is capable of workflow for the master data creation process, allows for field content to be dynamically derived and provides customers with the ability to fix data errors via exception reporting – all based on business rules.

SDM is a subscription solution that is constantly enhanced from both a scope and functionality perspective to allow customers to control key master data objects across their enterprise. These include master data as materials, retail articles, customers, vendors, pricing conditions, equipment and bill of materials(BOM).

Consol has been a pilot customer for GlueData in implementing the SDM solution. The first master data object activated was Material Master in November 2016:

What was the issue / problem statement for material master?
Inconsistent data with no rules to validate data at point of entry

How many rules did GlueData implement?
25 validations and 3 derivations

How long did it take?
2 months

What improvements have been achieved?
Data is verified at SAP point of entry so no inconsistent data is allowed into SAP. Weekly exception reports identify historically incorrect or inconsistent data in SAP that the business can correct.

GlueData is now in the process of activating rules for the Pricing, BOMs and Routings objects. As with Material Master, Consol is experiencing inconsistent data with no rules to validate data at point of entry for these objects. GlueData estimates 30 rules for these three objects.

“GlueData is a dynamic, innovative and highly professional company with exceptional niche skills in data services for ERP systems. They pride themselves in the quality of their work as much as in the quality of data they deliver to their customers. They assist companies to not just clean up data but have methodologies, processes and systems, like BRF+, in place to maintain transactional- and master data quality which helps protect the investment in good quality data so critical for any successful enterprise operation “ states Johan du Plessis: Senior Executive Information Systems and Technology / CIO.

ABOUT CONSOL
Consol is the largest glass manufacturer in Sub-Saharan Africa and through service excellence, quality and product innovation is able to deliver value creation and world-class glass packaging solutions. A company with a rich heritage – it celebrated 70 years of manufacturing excellence in 2016.

As a Group, Consol’s capacity in 2017 was approximately 850 000 tons of glass per annum. Consol has four glass operations in South Africa, comprising 11 furnaces and 29 production lines. These sites produce a range of glass packaging for the food and beverage industries inclusive of the beer, alcoholic fruit beverage, spirits, wine, fruit juice, soft drinks and mineral water markets.

In Africa, Consol has 2 operations located in Kenya and Nigeria, comprising of 2 furnaces and 4 production lines. These sites produce a range of beer, spirits, soft drinks and food markets.

ABOUT SIMPLE DATA MANAGEMENT (SDM)
SDM provides the following key benefits to SAP customers:
• Validate data at point of entry
• Workflow master data changes
• Prevent duplicate master data
• Cleanse data systematically
• Reduce input errors through screen simplification
• Improve business process efficiency

SDM includes rapid implementation per master data object over four weeks with up to 20 pre-defined rules per object.

Ongoing subscription offers a flexible number of support hours per month for changes and exception reporting.

New rules added when needed with no additional implementation cost, and additional objects added at a reduced implementation cost.