Data is at the heart of nearly any business. Being able to rely on the consistency and reliability of data is key to improving performance and reducing costs in numerous areas, from sales and marketing to manufacturing and the supply chain. In an era where many consider data to be the basic fuel for innovation and growth, many organisations still struggle to use their data to their best advantage.

1. Data is at the heart of nearly any
business. Being able to rely on the
consistency and reliability of data is
key to improving performance and
reducing costs in numerous areas, from
sales and marketing to manufacturing
and the supply chain. In an era where
many consider data to be the basic
fuel for innovation and growth, many
organisations still struggle to use their
data to their best advantage.
Ensuring consistency and working
towards higher data quality is vital if
It’s not just about a new concept, it’s about bringing real value to the business
Master Data Management
the full potential of business’ data is to
be realised.This is where Master Data
Management (MDM) comes in. MDM
aims to make master data consistent
across an entire organisation. At a basic
level, MDM brings an end to multiple
(potentially inconsistent) versions of the
same master data in different systems
and/or business units.
More and more organisations believe
that MDM can bring significant value
to their business. In fact, once they
have taken the first successful steps
in harmonising data using MDM, they
often need no further inducement.
Its value is immediately apparent.
On 4 June 2013, KPMG facilitated
experts in this field to share their
valuable experience in a roundtable
discussion.This document provides
a brief overview of the discussion,
which was fuelled by presentations
from Anwar Mirza (TNT Express) and
Gert Jan Huisman (Heineken).
ADVISORY
© 2013 KPMG Advisory N.V.

2. Before presenting a problem to senior
management, it is important to truly
understand all aspects of MDM – from
its definition; to the different types; to
its ownership and, most importantly,
how it impacts the business in tangible
and practical terms. Practitioners
should know how Master Data
governance fits into the company’s
overall data governance approach and
“MDM is boring.
Let’s start talking business”
Master Data Management is currently highly underestimated; it can bring significant
value to many organisations and just needs to be presented in a manner which appeals
to the business. It all starts with identifying real-life business scenarios where, perhaps,
management is not aware that the root cause of an issue is poorly-managed Master
Data. In Anwar Mirza’s view, placing a financial value on the cost of rectifying these
business issues paves the way to establishing an MDM programme within a company.
framework. “In my experience, it takes
time to get to this stage, but this
investment is essential before trying
to proceed further.”
Mirza stressed the importance of
not using IT jargon when creating
awareness of the issue and also the
importance of awareness being spread
to all levels of management. “The
2 | KPMG Master Data Management
Anwar Mirza
© 2013 KPMG Advisory N.V.

3. A ‘single source of truth’ is of utmost importance to Heineken, and there remain
opportunities for improved leveraging of MDM on a global scale. Gert Jan Huisman
gave the audience an intriguing glimpse into how Heineken is working on MDM as
an integral part of its transformation programme, aimed at giving the company better
insight into its yearly spend of €6 billion.
business is simply not interested in
the opportunity to deploy technology.
Nobody cares because MDM, in
itself, is boring. Instead, you need to
convince management of the business
advantages. If you can tell a manager
that his company didn’t invoice
customers to the value of thousands
of euros, you are far more likely to
get their attention than talking about
customer master databases. A single
view of the customer will always
be more convincing than trying to
persuade them of the need for
data consistency for its own sake.
“You need to relate your MDM
programme to the business or you
risk failure!”
One of the real challenges is knowing
where to start on the MDM journey.
3 | KPMG Master Data Management
Mirza considers a formal and
comprehensive business case an
important instrument to enable a
company to focus on the right elements,
but also stressed a number of other
things. One of these was intensely
pragmatic. “Improvements
to Master Data do not necessarily
require capital expenditure from the
outset.You should consider the
possibilities of regular (non-capital)
budgets to get your company started –
this a far easier way of obtaining funds.
You should also map the tools that are
currently available in the organisation.
Make use of operating budgets and
readily available tools for as long and for
as many governance components as
possible.”
The MDM business case must be
presented from several perspectives.
The cost of fixing a known business
issue should be demonstrated while
also showing the risk of not having
MDM in place. “I wish I could say
that MDM investments are driven by
revenue-generating opportunities.
In reality, most funding will be won
through the need to fix a problem or
avoid risk.” Mirza pointed out that
requests for capital expenditure are
never popular but once process
timelines are slashed and quality is
improved the overall gains will be
abundantly clear. “When the business
can clearly see the value of better data,
then you have achieved your target of
making MDM a core business process
and at the heart of your company’s
decision-making.”
Get clean - stay clean
Gert Jan Huisman
Huisman has set up a team that is rolling
out MDM throughout Heineken’s
country organisations. So far, the team
has delivered MDM to six countries and
is working on another eight. In three
years time, MDM will be in place in
27 countries. The tools being used are
Business Objects Data Services and
Xcelsius. However Huisman has found
that, more important even than the
tools, is the right approach to get things
up and running. Huisman elaborated on
the guiding principles of the approach
being used at Heineken:
• Data ownership in the business
• Data production at the source
• Master Data strategy is owned by
function
• Respect for segregation of duties
• Centralised control function in IT
• Support processes organised by
workstream
• Application of ‘continuous
improvement’
These important principles contribute
to Heineken’s successful method of
approaching the roll-out. One of its
success factors is the step-by-step
approach: “We really spend time
thinking about where to start, based
© 2013 KPMG Advisory N.V.

4. KPMG Master Data Management | 4
on our knowledge of how countries
have performed in the past. In this way,
we’re able to roll out on a piece-by-piece
basis, in a controlled manner.” Another
aspect of this step-by-step approach
is that Heineken isn’t targeting a ‘big
bang’ in terms of achieving MDM for
all processes at once. “We deliberately
started on the procurement side. It gave
us the opportunity to earn significant
money for the business – amongst
others factors, by being better informed
in contract negotiations with global
suppliers – and this has contributed
to the awareness of the potential of
MDM.This strategy has worked well to
convince people in the business who
may have been slightly reluctant. HR
and sales are now knocking at our door.”
Another important element in the
success of the roll-out has been the
conviction that the end result has
to look good. Huisman showed the
audience the attractively designed
dashboard that provides insights into
the various aspects of data quality that
is adjusted on a weekly basis. “This
dashboard has really won over with the
business.” Responding to a question
from the audience on the possibility of
translating the dashboard into financial
values: “Ultimately, we’d like to see
the monetary advantage of the scores
on the dashboard. For now, that’s not
possible. However, the dashboard
is a major driver of awareness.The
business really sees the advantages
of MDM now, with the result that
© 2013 KPMG Advisory N.V.

5. Data cleansing may also lead to the
occasional debate at local level, where
management sometimes feels they
would prefer a more tailored approach.
As an example: “One business stated
that it would be helpful to distinguish
the Canary Islands as a separate
country.Which of course is not the
case, as it forms part of Spain.They
may have had a good argument for
their position but there are even more
compelling reasons not to make such
exceptions. Overall, this wouldn’t bring
added value for Heineken as a whole.
And making exceptions on a local
level could possibly lead to errors in
processes, for instance when it comes
to Customs paperwork. In rolling out
the programme, we always stressed
the overall Heineken interest.We expect
each business to look beyond their own
country or domain.That’s one of the
basics of the One Heineken programme.
There is still a lot of work to be done.
But MDM is starting to become part of
our company DNA.”
In addition to the presentations there
was plenty of time for discussion and
knowledge-sharing which was greatly
appreciated by the attendees. In fact
there was a clear call for a continuing
effort to bring peers together to
discuss topics and themes in the data
management arena. No doubt this call
will be answered by KPMG.
KPMG is a leading Data Management
Consultancy firm.
we sometimes need to temper their
ambitions regarding data quality. Aiming
for a score of 100% is not necessary
and probably not realistic.”
The success of the Heineken roll-out is
encouraging. Nonetheless, this success
has required a lot of work from the
data stewards in Huisman’s team and
the business, starting with initial data
cleansing: “Data cleansing is intensive
and focuses on four elements:Validity,
Completeness, Accuracy, Duplication
and Uniqueness. Regarding this last,
we have been able to reduce the
number of vendors by a factor of 10.
Duplication in the data was always
a major frustration and now that we
have better insights into our vendors,
this has translated into significant
improvements in our contractual
arrangements with them.”
KPMG Master Data Management | 5
© 2013 KPMG Advisory N.V.

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or entity. Although we endeavor to provide accurate and timely information, there can be no guarantee that suchinformation is
accurate as of the date it is received or that it will continue to be accurate in the future. No one should act onsuch information without
appropriate professional advice after a thorough examination of the particular situation.
© 2013 KPMG Advisory N.V., registered with the trade register in the Netherlands under number 33263682, is a subsidiary of KPMG
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Contact
Ronald Jonker
Service Leader
Enterprise Data Management
KPMG Advisory N.V.
tel. +31 10 453 4113
mobile +31 6 512 05 427
e-mail: jonker.ronald@kpmg.nl
KPMG
Laan van Langerhuize 1
Amstelveen
P.O. Box 74500
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