Managing Disorganized Data across the Enterprise

Organizations and enterprises should start across the world for the development of a bottom-line for future state functionality required to efficiently manage and cultivate the growth of unstructured data. The conclusion was endured and toted out at the peer incite research meeting where major well known four practitioners working in the key renowned regulated industries including healthcare, finance and energy discussed and shared their viewpoints on the primary barriers of deploying successful and promising IM initiatives. The final decision demands action and response from both users and vendors end to build, specify, test and deliver a future state information related functionality and management architecture. The right tactic is to analyze and think about the automation and functionality requirements across diverse technology platforms including messaging, storage, file servers, desktop, policy engines, content repositories, user directories, cloud and portals in the substance of a strategic information management framework. There are approximate nine major categories of functionality that must be considered and thought of at a minimum level.

1.       Policy and rules management – No matter whether imposed by internal policy, jurisdictional law and regulation, processes and business agreements, the functions are defined for creating, maintaining and enforcing information management policies. Acted as the central post of the information management, rules management and policy must operate across technological platforms. The best examples of them involve disposition, policies for retention, use, information assurance and distribution.

2.       Content management – The functions are available for enabling policies for building, templating, storing, capturing, retaining, version managing and holding, collaborating and preserving information.

3.       Configuration management – Along with building custodial and ownership responsibilities and business application dependencies, the functions are configured for maintaining the overall prototype and sketch of the information management environment.

4.       Classification and declaration – The functionalities for enabling policies needed for the classification and the declaration of the data involving the capability to distinguish in between business records and non-business data and categorizing it according to the policy attributes.

5.       Collection and crawling – The functions needed and apt for gathering and locating unstructured form of data dispersed across the information management environment.

6.       Information access and discovery – The defined and apt functions needed for unified indexing, searching and discovery purposes.

7.       Copy management and creation – The functions that enable rules authorizing and governing the development of data, copies required to be maintained and the redundant or single instancing of information.

8.       Information assurance – The functions that enable policies for information authentication, identity management, privacy control, access management, auditing and use management. Just for an example, the functionality let the users to determine the authenticity and reliability of business records along with establishing and maintaining policy based relationship in between the data and users.

9.       Analytics and reporting – The functions that enables for alerting, monitoring and real time reporting on key information management events including configuration changes, policy updates, classification events, security anomalies and hold requests.

In addition, sometimes you don’t wish to outgrow your MDM Pharma system. You simply do not require requesting for extra funding, grabbing knowledge about another new system or agitating the entire IT environment simply to master a new subject arena or domain. The multi domain MDM solutions avoid the same simply by enabling you to access master data and all other key subject areas. In addition, you can actually use such prestigious relationships in between the data domains to improvise your business. For example, think of your MDM system is handling both customer as well as product information. With multi domain MDM solutions, it would be easy for you to see the products along with up selling and cross selling those to respective customers. In all, the leading service providers of MDM solutions are IB Technology , Informatica, Sigma Systems, Abiogen and Trinity Software Solutions.

Multi-domain MDM – A Superior Solution

These days, one of the most common terms you used to hear is big data and master data management. Though, among them MDM is still a bit of concern and the topic of discussion among medium and large sized organizations. In sectors like life sciences or pharmaceutical industry or health care or financial services, which used to be early adopters now firms are actually going through their second or third trial period of their MDM initiatives. With the upheaval of internet and technology and its reach to prevailing status, other enterprises have also started deploying their first master data management solutions. 

Master data is the key asset of most of the firms and companies worldwide. They can’t operate and work on their day to day business operations without basic understanding and records of products, customers, employees, suppliers, assets, locations etc. In almost every industry possible, the volume and capacity of operational information is increasing at an exponential rate in terms of both complexity as well as size. On the other hand, in most of the firms, such operational data is redundant and duplicated and distributed across multiple networks, systems and applications. As it emerges independently, it becomes error sensitive and susceptible and keeps decision making people from having a combined view of operational intelligence. The scattered information prevents users from getting the timely and precise information they require to make and think of while buying decisions. In one or other ways, most of the transactional data is associated in some way to master data. Thus, low quality data, missing information and imprecise or irrelevant data lends a drastic impact on productivity, revenue, compliance, costing, decision making and agility. And managing the master level data proactively and efficiently as it flows within and throughout the organization is mandatory to optimize business performance.  

Multi-domain master data management as the name suggests is a software solution that handles and manages multiple forms of master data in a single repository. In a single domain master data management, every single type of master data including product information, customer data and supplier records has its own unique business logic and data store. It’s the basic fact that that in order to create a single version of the truth, multi domain MDM solution would definitely get you there quicker. If you are gathering and pulling altogether related master data across the different processes of the company, it would be comparatively less costly and easier to store the records on products, customers, employees, suppliers, locations, assets including people, places and master data things at a seamlessly technology stack. Though there is a complete different process in the evolvement of the multi domain MDM process. The foremost implementations of MDM were popularly known as CDI (Customer Data Integration) solutions dealing and managing effectively the customer data as well as product information management (PIM) that manages product data. 

In a decade, technology has evolved a lot and most of the recent master data management platforms have multi domain capabilities and potential and firms are eventually shifting in aforesaid direction. Adding more, firms are juggling to be at the same pace of change as others in today’s business world. Mergers and acquisitions are a constant fact of life, and new technologies evolve to disorganize existing business models and increasing competitive encumbrances to grow revenue and lower down costs putting senior management in a tough situation. MDM pharma and multi domain master data management service providers like IB Technology is helping companies worldwide to react to the pressures to simplify, automate, eliminate and standardize the processes and regain competitive benefits.

The Basics of Master Data Management

If we talk about MDM i.e. master data management at a basic level, it is simply the data and information used and accessed by more than two applications/systems in an enterprise. There could be varied forms of data such as employee data, customer data, asset data, product data and location data. Effective management of the master data is mandatory to handle in order to assure whether the universal master data is same everywhere and wherever it is accessed across the enterprise. The ultimate truth is that master data do exist in every organization though it can be named in different companies by different names and no matter whether it is managed in an organized or unorganized manner. MDM is basically an approach taken forward by organizations and companies worldwide to create and maintain accurate, well defined and structured lists of master data. This process is not at all as it seems like; it is much more complicated and tedious to manage because of the following reasons.

•Master data management is not only about tools and technology but also about processes. The deployment of MDM solutions need analysis of how and why data has to be collected and used across the company and might command for changes in the existing defined processes.

•MDM is not as such a methodology or a product implementation process. There are umpteen numbers of vendors and third parties selling MDM tools and other advisory solutions. In fact, some of the MDM potentials and capabilities have been aggravated to some of the best-in big data management tools for better performance. But, there is no as such perfect size that fits all especially when it comes to MDM.

•The platform demands high level enterprise wide commitment, dedication and support. The initial investment and the costs incurring in the same including efforts as well as money are frightening and the initiative could fall at the curb particularly if it is poorly represented and underfunded.

•MDM solutions could be complete waste and useless if there is no apt and well defined data quality procedures and data governance checks. The entire master data management infrastructure should be mature and defined enough in order to get it implemented and deployed.

There are many reasons behind showing interest in MDM Pharma in the last few years. Few of them are mentioned in below.

•Master data is one of the most precious and useful assets an organization can have. Moreover, oftentimes an organization can be acquired only because of its data. This leads to the important fact that it’s mandatory and must to care of your data assets to remain in a lucrative business.

•Over the years, strategies and practices like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and EDW (Enterprise Data Warehousing) have been promising and engaging in fulfilling some of the business needs instantly though in many of them such investments have not resulted in an affiliated and linked view of the data across the organizations. Master data management is one of the other approaches been extensively successful in meeting those desirable and expected goals.

•The demands and pre-acquisitions needed in regulatory compliance, the rising fame and popularity of SaaS (Software as a Service), the significance of consistent and unified reporting and the increasing number of mergers and acquisitions have all made the platform more than a mere necessity rather than luxury specifically among globalized firms.

MDM is an interesting concept and it is not directly linked with cost savings or revenue generation. Though, it is an integral part of the foundation that makes businesses and firms data more useful, beneficial and reliable. As per the promotional stuff related to master data management summit, the process is not a single project task in fact is an ongoing journey. Among all the obstacles and challenges on this path, individual organizations are integrating and blending the MDM approach with the data using conventional business intelligence practices. And, there are many leaders pioneering in the same line amongst which one of the reckoned names is IB Technology.

Managing Pharma Regulations with MDM

The pharmaceutical industry has treasured and gleaned more than its fair share of media captivation and attention following headlines revealing the recent Vioxx drug reminiscence, in which older American patients buying drugs from Canada face the accusations and allegations of drug manufacturers and the related prices hiking up impacting the face of AIDS epidemic and Fen-Phen anti obesity drug norms and defined lawsuits. Apparently deliberations and contemplations have been made to mount the federal government following the lead of top five American states and again authorize and constitute new regulations on the physical marketing and respective spend. In spite of facing critical and severe public relation crisis, the pharmaceutical sector continues to yield strong and profitable benefits and fighting against a hail of new regulatory and administrative threats in what has been already is one of the most highly managerial and governing industries.

Muddling to Find Solutions – At such an uncertain and ambiguous environment, IT managers and compliance professionals are juggling with each other to find beneficial solutions to address existing as well as forthcoming regulatory prerequisites. After priory investing zillion of dollars on Sarbanes Oxley agreement, pharmaceutical firms have made appropriate investments to affirm and ascertain privacy management, product recall requirements and marketing preferred solutions for both physicians, patients along with the spend management reporting solutions. Undoubtedly, all such regulatory issues share one common thing that is the utmost requirement for reliable and trust worthy control of master data or key business data associated with products, customers and locations. Having precise and accurate expertise related to user demographics for patients as well as physicians and their marketing preferences with the firm are no longer efficient and profiting tools for generating and yielding new business though needed for managing regulatory compliance and reporting, MDM pharma is a strategic and cardinal business driver enabling firms and companies to affiliate and aggregate the data about their users, products and firms fragmented and scattered across varied systems. By developing a centralized master data hub, firms can render the most candid and determined views of key business data available within their defined existing business procedures and most significantly browse such small and big data sets within operational business processes to remain in conformity adhered with simplified reporting and different privacy requirements.

Constituting a Regulatory and Authorized Framework – Along with the common data integration issues spanning across compliance management and the defined agreement, companies all over the world are choosing to invest time and effort in a technology platform capable to support their different and critical compliance initiatives now and in the long run it is must to address every regulatory mandate with an end to end solution. In all, nowadays it is must for organizations to consolidate and streamline data processes and secure reliable data in order to apparently fulfill state compliance mandates related to associate sales spend. And, MDM pharma is the new battle ground fighting not only against the diverse complex regulations as well as enabling firms to efficiently manage the entire data cycle of employees, physicians, product information and patients. In addition, master data management solutions builds a foundation for good compliance management system that efficiently lower down the cost of managing new regulations and create an ongoing and extraordinary competitive advantage.

Mastering Data Management in Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

Oftentimes it has been stated that there are only two things that remains in and out with the system especially in healthcare domain that is data and patients. With the brief and sudden rise in the digitized resources in life sciences, healthcare and pharmaceutical domains, scientists and researchers all over the world find themselves at the focal point of both challenge as well as opportunity depicting to create the usable and beneficial information systems along with efficiently managing the flux and downpour of data. Recently while attending a SAS life sciences and health conference, the managing director John D. Halamka stated and shared his views about the role of IT in healthcare and life sciences verticals and how the databases are growing more and more beyond one such capacity to use them in a meaningful and relevant manner. Considering the fact that suppose there is no one else who can tackle the challenge, assume and conclude for a moment that we can and yes we will handle the data. It becomes out need of the hour and responsibility to take what is important and significant from that data and make it more purposeful and useful. That thing is called and well known as the ‘thinking data’ that is more accessible, coherent, useful, beneficial and for sure accurate and predictive.

At the prominence and cutting edge of that challenge, the critical issue lies in the data integration. Though there are many other strategies and approaches to consider and handle in a technical manner including data marts, data warehouses, federation etc. and the major focus shifted on contextualization and consolidation of the information.

A Brief about Master Data Management and Opportunities in it

Before we drill down more into the acumen of master data management as applied to life sciences, healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, let’s take a moment to think and talk about what exactly MDM is. Think of master data management as a way to manage reference data to get a clear and better idea and understand the context of our transactions. According to Ralph Kimball’s terminology, master data management solutions assist to consolidate and blend the facts with dimensions. Helping firms and enterprises by providing processes and procedures to collect, cleanse, summarize and augment the data efficiency and with sheer consistency, MDM provides apt governance and command in the ongoing maintenance and usage of data. Considering and thinking from the data perspective, the world of life sciences, health and pharmaceutical domain is frightening and alarming. With MDM pharma focused on research, drug discovery, manufacturing, operations, sales and marketing and more, there are many untold and indescribable examples of the same where firms have successfully and promisingly used data along with the technology to support decision making and preciseness. In healthcare industry, there is more complex situation in which payers, researchers, providers and patients having their advocates dealing in both public sector as well as government arena highlights the attributes and examples from health outcomes as well as clinical research of a wide range of users available for primary use of patent data.

MDM solutions is all about drafting a consistent and rational version of the truth, data and information that can be shared across the firms and organizations and used for both strategic usages as well as tactical or operational purposes. In healthcare, linking the data purposefully to patient care will undoubtedly help to perform analysis and determination and improvise patient safety and outcomes. In all, master data management solutions in pharmaceutical domain could be used for providing companies and organizations worldwide operational support and performance for conducting clinical trials more efficiently and effectively. And once you got a well defined plan, you can move further with a unifying plan for your data and could draft a roadmap for growth and success that will involve operational processes, data stewards and governance for effective implementation of master data management program.

Ifs and Buts of Master Data Management

According to a recent conversation on SOA (Service Oriented Architecture), SaaS (Software as a Service) and mergers and acquisitions have made the creating and maintaining of a precise and apt master data a business acute and insistent. In this post, you will come across many reasons behind adopting master data management solutions and how the process of building a solution can help in the technological implementation and efficiency of the solution. The mere truth is that firms and organizations have been experiencing these days around regulatory compliance, consistent reporting, and a strong deviation towards SOA and SaaS has ignited a great interest in MDM Pharma . Explaining and depicting the importance of MDM, it will help in identifying some of the basics of master data management patterns and the best practices that are evolving. Drilling down into the technical as well as procedural issues involved in master data management, most of the software systems have huge lists of data used, accessed and shared by varied applications that makes up the system. Just for example – a typical ERP system has a customer data, an account master and an item master. Been one of the major assets of any company, master data is not unusual for an enterprise to be obtained primarily to have access to its related customer master data.

Need for managing MDM

As master data is used by multiple applications, a flaw in it can really cause errors in all the applications that use it. Example, an incorrect thing could represent flaws in bills, orders and marketing literature in customer master, all being sent to the wrong address. Even if the master data has no issues, most of the organizations still use just one set of master data. Many firms and enterprises grew through mergers and acquisitions. Each firm you obtain comes with its own master data, item master, customer master and so forth. In many cases, part numbers and customer numbers are addressed by the software that builds the master records, so that the chances of same product or customer having similar kind of identifier in both databases is private and outlandish. Item masters could be even hard to consolidate, especially if the varied parts are bought from different vendors having different vendor numbers. Integrating and merging of master data lists could be a troublesome job to do. The same customer could have different names, addresses, customer numbers, and phone numbers in different databases. Normal database searches and joins would not be able to solve such differences and demands a very diligent and advanced form of tool that acknowledges nick names, typing errors and alternate spellings. The tool must have to reckon and admit that different name variations need to be resolved even if they all are having the same phone number and address. Cleaning up an entire master list can be a baffling job but still there are many positive advantages rendered to your bottom line from a common master list.

·         A unique, single and consolidated bill improves user satisfaction as well as save money.

·         Sending up the same marketing strategy to all customers from multiple customer lists not only irritates the customer but also waste money.

·         Stocking up the same item under distinct part numbers is not only a waste of money along with the shelf space, but could highly drive to artificial shortages.

The recent discussion towards SaaS and SOA makes master data management a severe issue. And, for all such reasons, maintaining a consistent and premium quality set of master data for your enterprise is instantly becoming the need of the hour. In addition, the processes and systems needed to maintain such data is highly well known as master data management. Moreover, MDM phar006Da acknowledges different tools and techniques for using and managing master data covering single copy approach, multiple copies approach needing single maintenance, and continuous merge approach. And, all such things could be easily planned out and dealt with making customers life easy and simple at the expense of a more critical infrastructure to sustain and work for data stewards. And, it could be an acceptable and favorable trade-off that should be done and addressed consciously.

The Need for Data Management and its Confidentiality

One of the most secretive, vital and confidential aspects of any business is data management. The sensitivity, character and nature related to the information make it a highly challenging and demanding job. Likely to data management, data resource management is the creation and implementation of policies, procedures, practices and architectures effectively managing and handling the full data cycle demands and requirements of an enterprise. Master data management covers a broader meaning and encompasses a wide number of opportunities that may not have any direct links and associations with lower level demeanors such as inter and intra relational database management. One of the most famous saying regarding data management is that it is the development, implementation and administration of programs, plans and policies that safeguard, control, boost and render the value of both – data and information assets. There are plenty of opportunities and jobs in data management field including posts could be related to data governance, record, document and content management, data analysis and design, data architecture, data quality management, database management, data security management, business intelligence management, data warehousing, reference data management, master data management, contact data management and Meta data management. In addition, there are few listed units too grouped and consolidated by data management framework.

In management and supervision process, one needs to distinguish and analyze the normal trend of the given data in the compound nomenclature within the knowledge and expression information while assisting in non technical and methodological concept. It not only exists in jobs but also has a strong presence in knowledge management and information management. By somehow, it could be the traditional form of data that is processed and managed overly from the second looks. Along with processing, the main part is left to keep up the extreme apt distinction in between data and derive values at the information scale. Data is always kept secretive so that all the employees whether working for information or data management always pursue the jobs in private channels. It is mandatory for them to maintain their jobs for a longer term and sustain them till their employer’s exit. The vital role of a data manager is to trust and keep a track of the desirable database that contains the data gathered from research and initial operation actions. Research initiatives could be different varying from an enterprise to another, may be in clinical, pharmaceutical, life sciences or health care domains. Though, they all require to be assured of about the basic magnitude and extensiveness including reliability, accuracy and precision of the data so that it can fulfill the values of the expected enterprises. Keen responsible for processing data and applications, data manager also takes care of a wide range of computer applications and database systems to hold up and clear out, compilation and analysis of the parent source and subjective data.

The rapid growth and development in the quantity of the data has raised the chances of risks associated to insufficient processing due to inaccuracy and low quality of the data. Financial creations and endowments need to find ways for the same to effectively distribute the relevant, accurate and valuable information all over the enterprise to their varied processes, members and applications at any time and whenever required. This scenario made a lot of firms put more emphasis on reference data management especially for its targeted and potential ones to transform raw data into valuable information. It is actually this valuable data that a firm needs to improvise its operations.

MDM pharma helps in understanding more the standard definitions of the data and can actually use it to minimize operational risks. Embodied with a data based object and a categorization scheme, each value should be quadrate in terms of analysis and interpretation. The data management is both crucial and vital in observing acquiescence with regulations that brings about better exposure to a given business as well as to market segment and firm. 

MDM Transforms Multiple Data Sources into Single Unit

Master data management process accumulates data and all business information collectively from multiple sources. It then stores all the information gathered into a depot, also known widely as master data. In between these procedures and processes, there is a proclamation and disclosure of the fact that how messy and conjured your workflow could become. The usage of this application will drive you towards the mere fact and truth that some of the existing and new bugs could cause problems in your business actually occurred by inaccurate, inconsistent, irrelevant, and incorrect enterprise data and information. Your data assets are dispersed and sprinkled across varied domains and verticals including people such as employees and management personnel either situated at the main office arena or nearby locations and applications involving enterprise resource planning and customer relation management.

Just think about all the source of information these sources used to keep and gather. Inaccuracy and irrelevancy of records and data is likely to be there especially is there is no as such single system to keep all gathered data all together and on the same hand could filter all the information depicting what stays is consistent and accurate across the entire value and information chain. Conflicting and mismanaging business data will for sure affect business operations, their efficiency and performance and lead to disputes, customer loss, miscommunication and misinterpretation. Master data management software and solutions is in real what exactly are your needs and what you aim for data quality improvisation.

Data quality and source is a significant constituent for the success and progress of this application. Its blended functionalities and capabilities will be of no worth without assuring high quality standards of information. If your firm is about to deploy the system, the prior and foremost thing to do is to determine, evaluate and consolidate all of your data assets. The major purpose is to rectify the wrong stuff, determine what is valuable and unnecessary and remove the chances of redundancy and duplication. This is from where master data management solutions take it a step higher. It’s mandatory and essential to consider few things mentioned in the post. One is to hire an expertise who can take entire responsibility and authority to control and access the company’s data and information, along with safeguarding and preventing business information confidentiality and security at all times. The other reason is to go for proactive data governance to address not only the existing flaws in the system but to annihilate new issues to arise. As a business oriented and centric solution, MDM pharma handles and manages data to smoothen the business process and workflow.

Allowing the sharing of accurate, correct and consistent information through a well defined and systematic approach, master data management solutions are applicable in varied domains including life sciences, health care and pharmaceutical sectors. In general, MDM solutions not only create a good recognition and reputation value for companies at a global level but also are helpful and beneficial in raising efficiency, productivity, and lower down costs and most importantly avoid misunderstanding. All in all, all such factors help firms and organizations achieve a good customer satisfaction rate and for sure high profits and revenues. There are many online firms catering and maintaining proactive data governance and clearing erroneous and incorrect data that creates existing problems and hindering other issues to arise in the long run. And few of them are IBM, Informatica, IB Technology, Oracle and Cognizant. 

Significant Elements of a Quality Master Data Management

A good quality and efficient master data management system in a pharmaceutical firm can significantly improvise the superior quality medicines for patients, net profit status, less recall and rework that can save not only a huge amount of money but also provide a good working environment and norms as per national and international regulations and authorities. Quality management is like a philosophy and it takes thorough understanding, commitment and engagement to introduce as well as deploy the concept. Once acknowledged and applied a good quality and efficient quality management system creates or reshapes a sustainable firm culture that pays off instantly and within less time period.

Some key and significant elements of quality assurance to be taken care of while managing MDM pharma applications are mentioned in the post.

·         Standard operating procedure – Along with preparing forms, manuals and templates, they should be used for keeping a track record and a routine of people.

·         Documentations – It is mandate to build qualitative and sound master files and documents to have a good master data management system for your websites. There should be proper documentation, approval and retention requirements defined for effective communication in between varied processes.

·         Quality management and change control – There is a need to create procedures depicting how to generate new quality documents, review of the documents, change control of existing ones, approvers, document control officer, role of document author and satellite file administrator. In such defined system, the numbering has to be done of different quality documents including templates, audit files, SOPs, manuals, forms, QA agreements, training files, project files and their respective archiving system.

·         Preparation, maintenance and change control of documents – Procedures and processes to be defined entirely focusing on the management of master file documents including control methods, specifications, finished goods, raw materials and packaging specifications like stability files, test reports and formulation to generate during the product registration in the marketplace.

·         Deviation report system – Been a regulatory and authorized requirement to grab all the deviations needed to be in your system in respect to maintain the continual improvisation of your processes and systems. Procedures have to be build describing how to segment the deviations in between audit, production, technical deviations, quality improvements, environmental and customer complaints, safety and health deviations.

·         Selection and Evaluation – During the vendor evaluation and assessment, procedures should be followed for buying raw materials, laboratory supplies, both critical and non critical packaging constituents, engineering supplies and imported finished goods.

·         Vendor certification – The procedure focuses to describe the process and services by which a vendor may be certified to supply materials and services.

·         Product compliant procedure – There should be a strong and sound procedure to cover all facets including logging, receipt, evaluation, reporting and investigation of all complaints received from customers for the advertised and promoted products. The procedure should involve step by step edifications to be followed involving registration and numbering of complaints, evaluation, determination and implementation of preventative activities, handling of counterfeit products and trending of complaints.

·         Rework procedure – Procedure is needed and followed step by step especially when the rework of an in process or finished goods is demanded.  

·         Annual product review – It is must to do annual product review along with evaluation of key trends, data and identify corrective and preventive actions leading to product quality improvements and reporting them to management respectively.            

·         GMP audits – Procedure should be created to describe the procedure of planning, reporting, performing and follow up of different audits for your systems including environmental health, internal quality audit, safety audit, vendor audit and EHS workplace inspection.

There are firms offering and following all norms as mentioned while integrating MDM pharma solutions in small, medium and large sized organizations. Helpful in enhancing productivity and performance of your business, master data management solutions are the need of today’s technological and advanced era.

MDM Solutions for Data Synchronization

With the major focus drifted towards assuring consistent regulatory and reporting compliance, promotion of SaaS (Software as a Service), SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and company growth through mergers and acquisitions, firms and enterprises all over the world have evolved at a consistent pace. A flawless and well defined master data is created, sustained and maintained because of its major and essential role it is playing in business growth as well as success. This need for an authoritative and effective system to look after all the enterprise data aroused the adoption of MDM i.e. Master Data Management framework.

Unlike the consistently moving transactional information, master data is a fixed reference data describing products, customers, vendors, employees, materials and other information properties to be shared, exchanged and distributed all throughout the entire work system process in an organization or a line of business. In fact, it is an integral asset of a business adhered by different departments or units that could support transactional operations and processes. Usually, firms worldwide used to deposit and store data in separate data systems across an enterprise and may not be addressed centrally. With an absence of central reference platform, data moves to systems independently heading to faulty, unsynchronized and inapt information distribution causing an immense problem on business efficiency and performance. In availability of error free and de-synchronized information, master data management solutions serve as the much needed and desired solutions.

Along with acting like a centralized filter used to cleanse and consolidate the data saved, shared, stored and distributed, MDM assures that all the components of your business are presented accurately, consistently and in a well represented manner so that the flaws, errors and discrepancies could be avoided. MDM solutions grants for a smooth and consistent flow of business operations that in return saves huge amount of money including both costs and expenses. MDM is basically a system that assists to synchronize and aggregate all the information from multiple business processes into a central place also known as master life. This well known master file enables all units, employees, suppliers, departments and decisive makers to make a single and cohesive view of all their data, information and assets gathered without forcing every department, division, staff or external companies to use the similar data format and system if not necessary. The system annihilates the requirement for individually managed data archives along with assuring a single copy of the data across the supply chain information management system. Leaving a less room for misinterpretation of data, the feed of the information is consistent and at all time precise and accurate. The use and significance of MDM systems has had an outstanding impact on business productivity, efficiency and performance. In addition, it has improvised the capability to integrate, analyze and distribute information on both national and at a global level resulting to enhanced profit, user satisfaction, regulatory compliance, and improvised market share and inter dependent uniformity. Being an efficient tool for drilling down unstructured data, MDM Pharma solutions for pharmaceutical, life sciences and healthcare domains helps in rendering the following advantages mentioned below.

·         Enhance the accuracy and preciseness of the data

·         Effective consolidated collaboration of the data from varied sources

·         Deliver a generic kind of model for management

·         Follow data centric strategy to management and handling of the data

The aggregated and consolidated information can be further used for SCM, CCRM, HRMS, and ERP modules. The resulting outcomes could be used as source or master for other systems. MDM solutions provides great source of power in the hands of operator to get deep insight about the patterns so that favorable and beneficial information regarding business dynamics could be fetched and utilized in the long run. The information in return can be used to enhance business processes and operations effectuality, making sure businesses is heading towards the right direction with reasonable certainty whether or not a specific move can bring out the desirable changes in the bottom line. 

Pharmaceutical Firms Blend Master Data Management Solutions to Improve Compliance

Deliberation and contemplation continues to arise regarding the federal government following the lead of American states and make new regulations and norms specific to the pharma and healthcare industry on physician marketing spend. Following the footsteps of recent Vioxx drug recall, elderly and senior citizen belonging to American are buying drugs from Canada and other drug manufacturers, heading to hike in prices along with the facet of Fen-Phen anti obesity and AIDS epidemic drug lawsuits. Though the pharmaceutical sector continues to yield favorable and strong gains in spite of the public relation crisis, the sector is chasing off a hail of new regulatory risks and flaws in what is already one of the highly overrated and regulated verticals.

After investing like millions of dollars on Sarbanes Oxley conformity and compliance, pharmaceutical firms worldwide have made essential investments to affirm privacy management, product recall requirements and marketing solutions for both physicians, patients and none but the spend management reporting solutions. The existing and uncertain environment, IT managers and compliance executives strive to battle to find solutions to address existing and new regulatory needs and prerequisites. Outstandingly all such regulatory issues share one thing in common and that is the requirement to control master data and other prime business information related to users, products and locations. Existing and precise knowledge of client demographics for patients and physicians and their marketing priorities and communications with the enterprise are no longer efficient tools for reaping and building new business, but also needs the data required for critical reference for handling regulatory reporting and compliance.

Master Data Management Solution Hubs – Apt Regulatory Framework

Pointing and addressing to the common data integration issues spanning compliance management, firms and organizations are thinking to invest at a technological platform, which is not able to support complex and multiple compliance initiatives but also could address in the long run each and every regulatory mandate with an end to end solution. These days, firms need to consolidate the available data and information and safeguard more authentic and relevant data to adequately fulfill state compliance mandates associated with sales spend. The similar kind of requirements also apply to other strategic actions and punches including marketing opt-in, pedigree compliance and product recall for handling both product master data as well as customers.

The new realm for chasing and fighting the umpteen complex regulations and standards within the pharmaceutical industry is master data management and MDM solutions enable enterprises and companies to effectually manage the entire lifecycle of employees, physicians, patients and product information. Master data management solutions for pharmaceutical and healthcare industry establishes a foundation for legal and trustworthy compliance management that on one hand efficiently lowers the cost of managing new and existing regulations and on the other creates an ongoing and substantial competitive benefits. Creating a foundation for handling regulatory compliance is one of the instances where it needs to have a sensible investment having the potential to garner mandatory and ongoing financial and business advantages in the long run.

Master Data Management Success and Progress – ROI

The increasing demand and overture of next generation MDM Pharma arenas is that they can be randomly deployed with flexible and robust data models could be tightly integrated with emerging and evolving technologies and cost factor can be justified with proven reliable return on investment. One of the very good examples of a MDM success could be of a pharmaceutical firm that determined $12 million annual revenue boost from improvisations in data quality feeding their CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. Return on investments outcomes grab the attention of senior executives and people and can be utilized to build an aggressive and compelling business case for a master data management platform that can address more than only just compliance, as it is also reckoned and well known for addressing other strategic and well defined business initiatives of an enterprise.