Product Master Data Management (MDM): the foundation of reliable product data.

Product Master Data Management is the central and controlled management of the core data with which products are identified and organised within an organisation.

This can include, for example:

• internal article numbers;
• EAN and GTIN codes;
• brand and manufacturer data;
• product classifications;
• relations between products;
• suppliers and sources;
• lifecycle statuses;
• market- or price-related base data.

The goal is not simply to store as much data as possible in one place. The goal is to ensure that systems and processes give the same meaning to the same product.

Because if ERP identifies product A differently than a supplier feed, while the web shop and PIM again use other structures, you do not get a reliable product data flow. Then the problem merely shifts from system to system.

Master data is something else than commercial product information

Master data mainly describes the structural identity of a product.

Commercial product information makes that same product understandable and sellable for a customer. Think of:

• product titles;
• descriptions;
• USPs;
• images;
• features;
• translations;
• channel-specific content.

Both belong to the same product data flow, but fulfil a different role.

A correct GTIN without a good product description sells little. But a perfect product description linked to the wrong article is at least as problematic.

That is why master data and commercial product information must ultimately meet in the same product.

Learn more: Product Information Management

A small assortment can still be corrected with spreadsheets, manual checks and knowledge in the heads of employees.

With tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of products, that no longer works.

More suppliers means more data sources. More brands means more structures. More channels means more requirements for the same product information. And every exception creates extra manual work.

That is why the bottleneck often already arises before product data reaches PIM.

There you see, for example:

• the same product under different article numbers;
• multiple suppliers for one article;
• missing identification codes;
• deviating classifications;
• different names for the same features;
• uncertainty about which source is leading;
• products that have a different status in different systems.

If you only try to resolve those differences after import, you make PIM responsible for problems that arose earlier in the chain.

That scales poorly.

Learn more: Supplier Data Onboarding

1. Linking multiple suppliers to the same product

The same product can be offered by different suppliers. Each supplier can use its own article number, data structure, description or classification.

By linking products to a stable product identity (for example based on EAN, GTIN, OEM number or your own identification structure), different sources can be brought together under the same product.

That means you do not have to treat every supplier feed as a new assortment.

You manage one product with multiple sources.

That is essential when supplier data has to be able to arrive automatically, without duplicates and inconsistencies spreading further through the chain.

2. Product Lifecycle Management

A product changes during its lifecycle.

It is created, completed, checked, released, published and eventually possibly phased out. Sometimes that status is determined from ERP, sometimes from a supplier source and sometimes from a process within the product data platform.

With Product Lifecycle Management you record which status a product has and what that status means for the following steps.

That way an employee does not have to determine anew each time what should happen with a product. The product data flow can respond to recorded statuses and rules.

A product that is not yet complete, for example, does not yet have to go to all sales channels. A phased-out article should instead be removed from those channels in a controlled way.

This makes lifecycle management part of the data flow instead of a separate administrative action.

3. Managing price rules and market data

Prices can also depend on master data.

Think of different recommended retail prices per market, customer groups, tiers or promotional rules.

What matters above all is that it is clear which price belongs to which product, which market and which context.

As soon as such relations are maintained manually in different files and systems, the risk of errors increases quickly.

By managing the underlying structure and rules centrally, downstream product information can be built and published more consistently.

4. Reference data and product relations

Some product data only exists in relation to other data.

A part, for example, fits a specific engine type. An accessory is suitable for certain models. A variant belongs to a specific product family.

Those relations are crucial for search functions, filters, compatibility and product selection.

Reference data ensures that such connections are not only stored as free text, but as managed relations within the data model.

Learn more: Import & Onboarding

MDM and PIM are sometimes set against each other. In practice they complement each other.

MDM determines the reliable product base. PIM makes that product data usable for processes and channels.

You can view it simplified like this:

Sources and suppliers → identify → structure → manage → enrich → check → publish

MDM mainly plays an important role in the first half of that chain: what is the product, how do we identify it, and which source or structure is leading?

PIM builds on that: which information do we need, how do we enrich it, when is it complete, and to which channels may it go?

When these worlds are insufficiently connected, double work arises. Data is imported, then corrected, and then mapped or enriched again.

When they are connected, product data can move much more freely through the organisation.

Learn more: Discover the PIM platform

A common thought is that implementing PIM automatically solves all product data problems.

But PIM can only work well with the data it receives.

When suppliers use different structures, product identities are not unambiguous, or classifications run through each other, that complexity ultimately also ends up in PIM.

That is why at ConnectingTheDots we do not only look at what happens in PIM.

We look at the entire product data flow:

where does product data come from, how is it recognised and structured, where is it enriched and checked, and where does it ultimately have to go?

It is precisely in that connection between sources, data model, PIM and sales channels that scalability arises.

Not by adding more and more manual checks, but by solving problems as early as possible in the flow.

Learn more: Control over product data

ConnectingTheDots brings different parts of the product data flow together within one platform.

Pull in data from different sources

Supplier feeds, ERP data and other data sources can be imported and processed before they enter the rest of the product data flow.

Create a joint product model

Different source structures can be translated into a manageable data model in which products, attributes, classifications and relations are recorded unambiguously.

Apply rules, workflows and checks

Next, it can be determined which data is mandatory, which steps products have to go through, and when product information is sufficiently complete for the next step.

Publish from the same base to different channels

If the base is correct, product information does not have to be built from scratch for every channel.

The same managed product data can be used for web shop, marketplaces and other destinations, with the specific structure each channel needs.

Learn more: Import & Onboarding

Not every organisation needs a separate MDM programme.

The need arises especially when the complexity of product data becomes greater than what employees and separate systems can still reliably absorb.

You see this, for example, when:

• multiple suppliers deliver the same product;
• assortments grow quickly;
• different brands or product structures exist side by side;
• ERP, PIM and e-commerce use different definitions;
• many corrections take place manually;
• product relations become increasingly complex;
• new sales channels repeatedly require new mappings;
• errors from source systems are carried further and further into the chain.

The question is then not only: where do we store our product data?

A more important question is:

where in our product data flow do we determine which data is correct?

That difference determines how much manual work you need later.

Product Master Data Management is ultimately not about yet another data system.

It is about a reliable base.

If it is clear which product you manage, which source is leading, how products relate to each other, and which structure is used, everything that follows becomes simpler.

PIM can then do what it is intended for: manage, enrich and make product information available for all places where that information is needed.

The better you organise the product data before and in PIM, the fewer exceptions you have to solve afterwards.

That means less manual work, more control, and more room to scale assortments, suppliers and sales channels.

See how ConnectingTheDots works or plan a demo.