Global Procurement Conference (Archive)
October 13, 14, A Web Seminar hosted by Purchasing Magazine

The Zycus Session:
Leveraging Master Data for Global Sourcing and Visibility

Panelists:
Barry Wilderman, Sr. VP, Meta Group, Inc.

Al Iagnemmo, Director, eBusiness Division, General Services Administration/Federal Supply Service

Sandip Maiti, VP Marketing, Zycus Inc.

One of the top mandates for CXOs of global enterprises today is managing and leveraging master data to drive more savings to the bottomline. With the drive towards systems consolidation, there could be no better time than NOW, to focus on creating ONE consolidated attribute enriched master data set, of suppliers, product-items and catalogs. Without this initiative in place, the multi-million dollar investments in ERP consolidation could potentially fetch minimal returns. Analysts estimate that data alone contributes to about 50% of the total ROI.

For years, CIOs have grappled with and solved the problem of dirty customer data, using cleansing tools within a warehouse. The focus is now starting to shift to the humongous problem of dirty “spend data” – that encompasses suppliers, products and item-master data. As they begin the process of upgrading and consolidating legacy systems into one backbone, they must find a solution that deals with disparate material masters, consolidates contents, enriches them with meaningful attributes (specifications) and uploads the same, sans duplicates, into one common system of records. Historically management has preferred to ‘wash their hands’ off this dirty master data than risk meddling with it at their own peril. The reason for this abstinence: Lack of core technology and automation to cleanse, enrich & rationalize item masters.

This session invited participation from customers and analysts who are addressing master data challenges today. The panel discussed case studies and presented a first hand look at emerging core technologies and concepts in Spend Data Management such as Auto-Classification, Attribute Extraction, Product content enrichment and Knowledge Bases that enable better plant efficiency, cross-plant inventory visibility & enterprise procurement efficiencies.

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