SAP Master Data Governance, Cloud Edition FAQ

Master Data Integration is about distributing master data based on SAP One Domain Model for a harmonized view across all applications. Companies expect a broad domain coverage for end-to-end process integration. According to the SAP strategy, this is planned to be provided by SAP Master Data Integration.

Master Data Management ensures sustained high quality for trusted master data across the enterprise. Companies prioritize quality for selected domains according to business needs. According to the SAP strategy, this is provided by SAP Master Data Governance.

While SAP Master Data Governance is used to consolidate, govern and ensure proper master data quality, the SAP Master Data Integration is a complementary cloud solution that enables harmonized data consumption based on an aligned data model for the intelligent suite. The solutions can be used together or independently of each other, and already existing MDG distribution scenarios can be kept in place.

According to the Intelligent Enterprise Suite strategy, SAP S/4HANA is the digital core. Accordingly, SAP ECC is not included as generally applications must adopt to make SAP One Domain Model work, and we do not intend to invest in old releases with SAP Master Data Integration.

SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition uses SOAP as additional integration technology, because many customers have used this technology for quite a while and would like to continue to use it. This way, organizations that do not yet use SAP Master Data Integration (MDI) as their integration technology can now also benefit from SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition as it generally provides SOAP and REST-based MDI as integration technologies.

SAP One Domain Model is supposed to be the lingua franca across applications for common attributes and for overlapping attributes that are typically shared between applications. SAP One Domain Model (ODM) and SAP Master Data Integration will be evolving over time to meet this scope definition. S/4HANA to S/4HANA replications can be achieved using SAP Master Data Integration for the range covered by ODM. If attributes outside the ODM definition shall be replicated, customers need to do custom expansions to the ODM definition or use other replication mechanisms.

See the Intelligent Enterprises Are Integrated Enterprises Whitepaper outlining SAP’s Integration Plan in the Cloud. In addition, the SAP One Domain Model roadmap can be accessed via SAP Roadmap Explorer (see Suite Quality – Aligned Domain Model).

SAP Master Data Integration will become the central layer for sharing and accessing master data in any system landscape. SAP Master Data Integration provides APIs to send or to retrieve master data. The communication with SAP Master Data Integration is triggered from the applications. Create, Update, or Delete requests are sent to Master Data Integration and put into an event log, from where the master data changes can be retrieved by the consuming applications.

SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition can participate in such a landscape as one of the apps contributing to the creation or update of master data and as such can take the role of the data owner for selected master data. It will always provide master data updates to SAP Master Data Integration where master data is combined with additional master data (attributes) coming from other owners. Consuming applications can retrieve the full scope of a master data record only from SAP Master Data Integration. In SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition there will only be the limited scope of core attributes managed by this solution. It is therefore not recommendable to retrieve master data directly from SAP MDG, cloud edition. Instead, it should always be retrieved from SAP Master Data Integration.

For all business applications, SAP Master Data Integration is the single point of access to master data. In the future SAP Master Data Integration shall also provide the means to search for master data. This search interface could then also be used to allow for duplicate detection in remote master data creation scenarios, if required. Else, the applications creating new master data will just inform SAP Master Data Integration about the new master data record. SAP Master Data Integration is planned to involve SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition if this system is configured as the “owner” for that master data in SAP Master Data Integration. In the case that SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition detects a duplicate, it will merge the core attributes of the new record with the appropriate existing record and thus create an updated best record. Thereafter, SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition will inform SAP Master Data Integration about the updated (original) record and notify it to deprecate the newly created record and update the key mapping (i.e., linking the new remote key from the application that created the new record to the already existing record in SAP Master Data Integration).

SAP Master Data Integration supports REST and OData API. The previously built SAP Master Data service for business partner uses SOAP but will merge under SAP Master Data Integration and additionally adopt REST/OData. SOAP-built service interfaces are planned to be supported until further notice.

SAP intends to provide integration to SAP applications out of the box. Within the Business Technology Platform, integration with 3rd party applications is achieved through the SAP Integration Suite.

SAP Master Data Integration is the central layer for sharing master data. Communication with SAP Master Data Integration is triggered from the applications.

No. SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition extends the solution portfolio. On the one hand, it enables companies to kick-start master data management initiatives at low entry barriers, and, on the other hand, it provides a non-disruptive additional deployment option for companies that run SAP MDG on S/4HANA implementations but see a need for a federation of governance. Companies that do not opt for a federation of governance, that is, aim at or continue with managing core and application master data in a central hub simply go with SAP MDG on S/4HANA.

With SAP Master Data Governance an S/4HANA as a core data owner in federated master data governance (available since SAP S/4HANA 2023), data ownership is enabled using master data orchestration (MDO) as the design time for managing data ownership. Initially, federation is planned using SOAP. SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition is planned to be enabled as core data owner, too (according to timelines specified in SAP Roadmap Explorer).

SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition is deliberately based on SAP One Domain model and not limited to the S/4HANA data models. According to SAP’s technology guidelines for master data and SAP’s strategy for the Intelligent Enterprise Suite, data replication via SAP Master Data Integration is related to master data sharing in heterogenous and hybrid landscapes.

Roadmap information for all MDG deployment options is available on the SAP Roadmap Explorer.

• SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition is designed to govern and distribute core business partner attributes in cloud contexts, which means that corresponding application data is governed by the connected applications themselves. It is planned to enable it as core data owner in federated master data governance. For timelines, see SAP Roadmap Explorer.
  SAP Master Data Governance on S/4HANA is suited to centrally govern core and application master data attributes in on-premise and hybrid landscapes. It is also planned as a core data owner in federated master data governance. For timelines, see SAP Roadmap Explorer.
• SAP Master Data Governance on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private cloud edition is a cloud deployment which provides the same functional scope as SAP Master Data Governance on SAP S/4HANA on-premise.
• SAP Master Data Governance on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public cloud edition provides capabilities for local master data management on S/4HANA Cloud.
  

for business partner data (based on SAP One Domain Model, but no customer-specific or supplier-specific attributes included; more domains planned).

SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition is based on the SAP Business Technology Platform’s ABAP environment which provides the relevant cloud qualities.

SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition provides central governance capabilities incl. data staging and approval. The capabilities use MDG’s proven framework for mass processing, consolidation, and data quality evaluation. The framework is planned to allow for the configuration of process templates and the definition of workflow processes to involve multiple users in multiple process steps.

It is intended to provide different consumption models for SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition. In a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) consumption, the solution will, of course, provide certain extensibility capabilities – but only in a limited fashion that fits the SaaS usage model. The additionally planned Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model shall allow for broader flexibility in extending the solution with own artefacts that can only be provided in a single-tenant environment.

Initially, SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition is planned to come as an SaaS offering, but it is planned to evolve into PaaS. See also question above.

MDG is typically used by internal employees.  All versions of MDG are intended to be used inside a company’s firewall, i.e., not offering external access. External self-services for business partner self-registration or updates of own records should be provided by the respective applications wherever meaningful. This could for example be customer self-registration in a web shop provided in the SAP Customer Experience portfolio, or supplier self-registration in a supplier portal provided by Ariba. These scenarios are intended to work regardless if MDG is being used by the respective company or not. MDG would then typically act as a “gate keeper” that ensures corporate quality of new master data, after the respective application has decided that a new record is mature enough to be provided to the complete landscape. The application would then provide the data to SAP Master Data Integration, which will involve MDG as defined in SAP Master Data Integration’s ownership configuration. 

In any company’s landscape, SAP Master Data Integration is the single point of access to master data. SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition can contribute quality assurance where it is defined as the owner, but it then just delivers its optimized data to SAP Master Data Integration. Only SAP Master Data Integration will have the complete data, including the data for which MDG was not involved.  

SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition is focused on (core attributes of) master data only. We currently have no plans to provide out-of-the-box coverage for reference data. Please keep in mind that leveraging the concept of federated MDG, there should be less need for customizing harmonization as compared to a centrally-managed MDG approach. If a company nonetheless has general needs to manage reference data for the complete company and distribute this data across their system landscape, other SAP solutions will be rather suited to fulfill this need.

Core master data attributes are intrinsic to the definition of domain basics. This core data is common among all applications participating in an enterprise MDM approach. Core supplier data includes, for example, name, address, and some global attributes.

Application master data comprises a rich set of attributes that are defined differently per application and/or business unit. Examples of application-specific supplier data include, for example, purchasing organization data.

The boundaries between core and application data are not always clear between all applications, but the SAP Master Data Governance components facilitate the management of both, thus alleviating companies from making a categoric once-and-for-all differentiation upfront.

Federation of master data governance sets the right level of centralization and harmonization for effective master data management: The heterogeneity of different business units and complex system landscapes add undue complexity to corporate master data management. While core attributes can typically be harmonized across all units, application master data is diverse by nature. This results in difficulties in centrally harmonizing all application data and translating it back to de-central understanding.
The solution is to manage the data where it is best understood:

• Manage core attributes only once and centrally.
• Manage application-specific attributes in the context of homogenous business units (as centrally as possible, as de-centrally as needed). This could, e.g., apply to unit-specific ERP systems.
• Federate processes across all contributing applications, to flexibly address all corporate and business units’ needs (i.e., central and local).

Information about the planned availability of SAP Master Data Governance on S/4HANA and SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition as possible core data owners in a federated master data governance context is provided in the SAP Roadmap Explorer.

Federated governance brings faster time to value and increased flexibility that enables a broader MDM scope, due to less upfront harmonization needs. Business units which in the past opposed to central governance of master data can continue to control their data (which they understand best) and still participate in an enterprise-wide master data management approach.

Federated MDG addresses the integration of master data processes across multiple systems in the sense that it manages master data on multiple systems.

Federated MDG foresees master data processes running cross systems. Process steps can be executed on different systems, for example, when you create a new customer with core data and Sales / Financials data (S/4HANA):

1. Creation of new customer can start with maintaining core data in SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition continued by process step to complete the customer master data by Sales / Financials data in SAP Master Data Governance on S/4HANA.
2. Alternatively, creating a customer can start in SAP Master Data Governance on S/4HANA. Core data and Sales / Financials data can be maintained in this step because a UI covering all these attributes is available. The process will be completed by verifying the core data in SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition being the data owner of core data.
   
3. Creating a new customer can even start in any other application system like e.g., CX. In follow-up process steps the data being entered will be verified by the data owners being configured.
   

As part of the roadmap for SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition, it is intended to provide a central rule repository for all relevant master data management rules in a federated MDG deployment. The execution of the rules is planned to be provided de-centrally in the application-specific MDG deployments.

All SAP MDG solutions share the same key capabilities for master data management. For example, SAP MDG on SAP S/4HANA as well as SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition provide consolidation (with matching, merging, and best-record calculation), central governance (with workflows, staging, and approval), and end-to-end master data quality management (with rules management, monitoring, and correction). The difference in the solutions is the scope of master data attributes that each solution addresses. SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition covers the core attributes of a master data domain and is based on SAP’s One Domain Model. SAP MDG on SAP S/4HANA covers the core and application-specific attributes of a master data domain and is based on S/4HANA’s specific data model. SAP Master Data Integration addresses a different problem and hence comes with different capabilities. SAP Master Data Integration provides master data integration, not master data management. Therefore, it does not provide capabilities like consolidation, central governance, or data quality management. These are unique to MDG.

In an ultimate set-up, SAP Master Data Integration provides master data syndication between systems and provides a central access layer for all master data in an organization, regardless of whether this master data is managed by MDG or not. For example, SAP Master Data Integration comes with the capability of key mapping to understand the different representations of the same master data in various systems. This key mapping can be created through distribution of master data and then storing decentral IDs – if the data is created centrally and then distributed. 

When, for example,  two business partner records (A,B) are merged in a consolidation run in SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition, the information that A is replaced by B is provided to MDI, which then can adjust the key mapping information accordingly.

SAP Integration Suite provides additional capabilities to enable synchronization of master data with 3rd party applications, while SAP solutions will typically be directly connected to SAP Master Data Integration.

This means that SAP Master Data Integration is the go-to technology for data replication in the Intelligent Enterprise, but as direct replication via SOAP has been used for a long time and many organizations would like to continue using it, SAP Master Data Governance on S/4HANA and SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition also offer SOAP-based replication (at least in those domains where it is an established technology, e.g., Business Partner). Sometimes this will even help to accelerate the adoption of new scenarios. Customers have the choice to continue using SOAP and can decide on their own when they want to move to SAP MDI.

SAP Master Data Integration is not a solution to consolidate master data, this is a unique capability of MDG solutions. SAP Master Data Integration provides syndication of existing master data between systems. To enable this, SAP Master Data Integration provides the capability to create and use key mapping, which helps companies understand the different representations of the same master data in various systems. But in SAP Master Data Integration this key mapping can only be created through distributing (duplicate-free) master data and storing the decentral IDs – hence this only applies when SAP Master Data Integration distributes data that has been created locally and then replicated to SAP Master Data Integration, or to data that has been created in SAP Master Data Integration centrally. But, if key mapping needs to be created as a result of matching duplicate records in a consolidation run, SAP Master Data Integration cannot calculate this key mapping. In these cases, MDG is needed to calculate the new key mapping for existing records in MDG’s consolidation process. Thereafter, MDG can provide this newly created key mapping to SAP Master Data Integration. Accordingly, unharmonized master data from multiple sources needs to be loaded into an MDG solution where the data is matched, and for each match group a best record can be calculated to merge the existing data records. The calculation result based on the configured rules for the calculation and the result can be validated against MDG’s data quality checks to create a high-quality corporate record. Each MDG solution can provide this capability for the data model that is provided in the respective solution. For example, SAP MDG, cloud edition can provide a best record calculation for core attributes based on SAP’s One Data Model, and SAP MDG on SAP S/4HANA can provide a best record calculation for the S/4HANA-based data model. SAP’s intention for the future is to provide one end-to-end federated consolidation process across all MDG solutions. This process will use the business logic of the solutions on which each MDG solution is built to provide the best corporate result for each master data attribute. The configuration of master data ownership within SAP Master Data Integration will define which set of attributes is calculated in which MDG system in the landscape.

The guiding idea for this federated process is that it is modular, that all systems in a landscape can contribute to the creation of new master data or changes to existing master data, and that companies can chose which scope of a master data they want to put under governance, and where. The main driver of this configuration is the central definition of master data ownership (MDO) within SAP Master Data Integration. This ownership will define which system is responsible for the quality of each part of a master data domain. The trigger for a master data change or creation can come at any time from any system. As soon as this system informs SAP Master Data Integration about the change, SAP Master Data Integration informs the “owners” of all effected parts. These owners can then approve or overrule the proposed change. For example, if SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition is configured as the owner of the core data for business partners, it will process the data accordingly. That is, if it is a new record, it will check if it is a duplicate and will either carry out a best record calculation, update the existing record and inform SAP Master Data Integration about an additional key mapping entry. Or, if it is not a duplicate, it will validate the record, correct and enrich the record as needed, and provide the result back to SAP Master Data Integration for further distribution. Based on the ownership configuration in SAP Master Data Integration, other systems might be triggered for other parts of the master data. This could for example also include SAP MDG on S/4HANA systems. These would then also carry out the data quality assurance for those application-specific attributes that they “own”, meaning that replication to other applications will only start once all owners have verified their data. Please note that in such a setup of course only SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition is entitled to decide whether a record is a duplicate. The other MDG systems only enrich and validate (for new records) or carry

Cross-system workflow monitoring in a federated MDG deployment is a known demand. In the future, we intend to provide more insight into the distributed processes and their current execution status. We are currently not striving for one single design-time for all involved workflow definitions but would rather consider local definitions in each involved application, to allow for easy involvement of additional platforms. 

For organizations seeking at an all-encompassing enterprise MDM solution, we differentiate between net new implementations and existing MDG implementations. Generally, implementations will include SAP Master Data Integration and SAP Master Data Governance. For net new implementations we would recommend SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition for central management of core data.

Organizations with existing implementations need to decide whether they would like to keep inhomogeneous application master data being managed de-centrally, or whether they prioritize central management of core and application master data. Accordingly, they can choose for federation of MDG based on SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition if they would like to handle core master data centrally and application master data de-centrally or go with SAP Master Data Governance on S/4HANA when it is about managing both core and application master data centrally.

There are companies where central governance of core and application master data is an undisputed corporate directive. In other companies such an approach might rather be perceived as forced and as artificial harmonization. For these companies, a shift from fully centrally managed core and application master data to a federated approach enables them to run corporate MDG projects even across non-harmonized business units. They add SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition for core MDG and use their SAP Master Data Governance on SAP S/4HANA implementation for application MDG.

No. They can re-use the current SAP MDG on S/4HANA implementation and adjust its focus to govern application-specific data only. However, SAP MDG on ERP implementations are not planned to be enabled for federated use cases.

A prerequisite for a planned use of SAP Master Data Governance on S/4HANA (for planned availability, see SAP Roadmap Explorer) as a core data owner for business partner data in a federated MDG context is the use of cloud-ready mode.

SAP Master Data Governance on S/4HANA will continue to be the enterprise MDG solution for centrally managed core and application data. There is continued development in all capabilities (consolidation, central governance, and data quality management). SAP MDG on ERP is not planned to be enabled for federated use cases. Continued development will be delivered via SAP Notes and Feature Packs.

Currently, we support SAP MDG on S/4HANA 2023 or higher to become an application data owner. We are currently investigating if and how we can enable older S/4HANA releases and SAP MDG on ECC systems to become application data owners, too. We are planning to update this page as soon as this investigation is finalized.

Beside that we plan to enable SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud systems as application data owner in 2024 (as specified in SAP Roadmap Explorer).