What’s the most important thing in real estate? According to the old saying: location, location, location. But the sentiment can also be applied to enterprise master data.
The value of a particular data set often increases if you more closely examine the areas where it overlaps with other types of information. And the more areas we can effectively combine to assess these overlaps, potentially the more value you gain from your enterprise master data.
Location data is unique in this regard, as it can unlock valuable insight when combined with other types of information — from driving improved analytics, forecasting and business intelligence to informing larger strategic initiatives.
Consider the types of information your company produces or manages today — whether it's about your products, customers, suppliers or information about the physical assets you own — and ask what advantages you might gain by adding “where” to your analysis.
Product data can greatly benefit from the “where” dimension. If you offer products as a service, for instance, you likely have numerous ways you could apply location data to determine where your products are at any given moment and shift inventory to manage seasonal spikes in demand. You might manufacture a product that generates IoT data which triggers a maintenance call or inquiry to your customer if values fall out of a certain range. By combining information about your products and where they’re located, you can manage a subset of that IoT data and build workflows that automate the process of repair scheduling.
Or you could simply want to identify where your products are stored, have localized product assortments and catalogs, and drive analysis to make better distribution and supply chain decisions.
Location data can enhance your quest to deliver customer-centric products, services and customized offerings. Think beyond just a customer’s address to gain an understanding of which stores they frequent in order to create and deliver relevant sales and promotions. Today’s marketing landscape is filled with tools and apps that can offer richer detail using geo-location. So why not factor some of that data into your customer data management initiative to enhance your customer records? What is the typical demographic of the potential customers in the vicinity of your stores, and how will this affect the branding, marketing and products you offer?
From a B2B perspective, location data can enhance your understanding of where your vendors and suppliers are located in order to better manage your contracts and relationships.
Build a supplier hierarchy data model that displays the relationships between parent and child companies, identifies which are your active suppliers and then aligns all that information against geographic locations in order to drive supply chain efficiency.
These are just some examples of how you can add value to your existing master data by including location as an additional data domain to your data management projects. It’s no longer enough for businesses today to think about data as a static entity that exists on a server (or even worse, in a spreadsheet) somewhere by its lonesome. The companies that will go beyond their competition are the ones willing to most creatively manage that resource in new ways that unlock value and drive innovation.
By taking an integrated and multidomain approach to your master data, your organization can gain a single, unified view across various data domains. Connecting this data will not only make it easier for you to more efficiently manage your operations, but it will also give your teams the actionable insights and information they need to deliver better business outcomes.