Every software application requires setup. In the Supply Chain industry, most applications have a core data set required to get the application up and running. Some of the most simplistic data used across applications such as locations still require you to load information into multiple application tables. For example, if we wanted to create a location for the KSAP Technologies corporate office which has an address of 9925 Haynes Bridge Rd Ste 200-217, Alpharetta, GA 30022 and contact information of +1 888 627-7457 or email at [email protected]. In most systems, this location data is spread across multiple tables including Location, Location Address, Location Contact, and Contact. The fact of the matter is the process of importing a customers’ required data into a supply chain product – is most often fairly manual and the lack of automation means data onboarding falls squarely into the lap of the consultant or customers IT team. The effort and cost associated with loading data manually can be costly to a new software implementation.
One of the biggest issues consultants face when it comes to data loading is that they have no control over the condition of incoming data from the source. Data formats can be all over the place, making the data import process extremely difficult.
Many companies that need to load data regularly try to mitigate this problem by using templates to standardize the formatting of files. Unfortunately, these templates rarely work because the result is that incoming files will require manual intervention – often by a consultant or IT resource.
Another area that requires lots of effort by an IT professional is the need to handle data errors. In most cases, the software provides cryptic errors which require detailed analysis of the inbound data to find the error. Issues with files that require manual correction include inconsistencies within the data for things like formatting dates, phone numbers, currency and country codes, misspellings, missing rows or columns, and special characters.
Data consistency, no matter the task, is challenging. When it comes to importing data from external data sources, IT resources to face the difficult job of ensuring all data is clean and matches current data in the system. The more external data points there are, the more complicated data imports become, and the more headaches IT faces as they try to standardize.
How KSAP can help Supply Chain Implementers and IT
OTMNow is a comprehensive master data loading and maintenance platform that helps get to usable data faster so you can focus on the business issues that matter. OTMNow eliminates the need to reformat data from the source format. The source format becomes the only format that matters as OTMNow reformats the data, validates the data, and uploads it to your software application.
If you are interested in eliminating data formatting from your ongoing workload Contact Us to learn more about OTMNow.
