What is master data management (MDM)?

Master data management is the discipline of creating one trusted master reference (a single version of the truth) for all important business data, such as product data, customer data, asset data, finance data, and more. MDM helps ensure businesses don’t use multiple, potentially inconsistent versions of data in different parts of business, including processes, operations, and analytics and reporting. The three key pillars to effective MDM include: data consolidation, data governance, and data quality management.

How does master data management support a business data fabric?

The key is to first preserve the value and quality of mission-critical master data, leveraging a solution like SAP Master Data Governance, and then to share access to this data in a decentralized way with a flexible business data fabric, leveraging solutions like SAP Datasphere. This allows you to also join your trusted, governed master data with other SAP data and third-party data to accelerate your ability to derive value and gain insights from that data.

How does master data integration differ from master data master data management?

The purpose of master data integration is to distribute master data to enable a harmonized view of master data across all applications. Master data integration allows for end-to-end process integration across the enterprise. Master data integration does not change the quality of master data, but always distributes master data in its current state. Instead, integration provides a distribution layer that gives your line-of-business applications a consistent view of data. Ultimately, a master data integration should increase the effectiveness and reduce the cost and effort of data sharing.

What are the differences between SAP Master Data Governance on S/4HANA and SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition?

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How do I prepare my master data for my move to SAP S/4HANA?

After your move to SAP S/4HANA, many business processes will be familiar to you from your existing ERP system; but you will also be implementing new, more automated processes to match the demands of the digital marketplace. You may find yourself implementing processes for automatic replacement of parts inventory, IoT processes, really the sky's the limit. These processes will rely more heavily on clean and correct master data, and if your master data is not up to the task, you will lose much of the value of SAP S/4HANA. To avoid this, we recommended that you curate your master data early and well before the actual implementation begins. The SAP Master Data Governance application offers in-built integration to SAP’s data model and underlying technologies (for example, SAP Business Workflow), and helps you consolidate and actively govern master data for SAP and third-party applications.

SAP Master Data Governance

Name: SAP Master Data Governance
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Improve the quality of your business-critical information with a central hub for master data management and governance.

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Maximize the value of all your data with SAP Business Data Cloud and SAP HANA Cloud.

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What is SAP Master Data Governance?

A unified, trusted view of your business enables you to work more efficiently and make better decisions. The SAP Master Data Governance application helps you pull together master data and manage it centrally using a master data management layer based on SAP Business Technology Platform.

SAP Master Data Governance on SAP S/4HANA

Establish a cohesive and harmonized master data management strategy across your domains to simplify enterprise data management, increase data accuracy, and reduce total cost of ownership.

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SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition

Kick-start your corporate master data management initiative in the cloud with a minimal barrier for entry and an option to build additional master data governance scenarios at your pace.

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On-premise, private, and public cloud deployment
Support for all master data domains and implementation styles
Prebuilt data models, business rules, workflows, and user interfaces
Enablement of SAP and third-party systems on a hybrid landscape

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Unify and govern master data across the enterprise

Drive consistency and clarity across every line of business

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Simplify your data landscape with a business data fabric

SAP Business Data Cloud and its open data ecosystem is the foundation for a business data fabric. It equips any organization to deliver meaningful data to every data consumer – with business context and logic intact.

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Key features

Consolidation

Create a single source of truth by uniting SAP and third-party data sources and mass processing additional bulk updates on large volumes of data.

Central governance

Allow various teams to own unique master data attributes and enforce validated values for specific data points through collaborative workflow routing and notification.

Data quality and process analytics

Define, validate, and monitor established business rules to confirm master data readiness and analyze master data management performance.

Take a journey through the evolution of Master Data Management

From foundation to future: Master Data Management as the fuel for gen AI

October 15th, 2025 at 11 AM EDT

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Tackle the master data challenge with SAP Master Data Governance

Meet your company's needs for high-quality master data with SAP Master Data Governance – using a public-cloud, private-cloud or on-premise deployment

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SAP Master Data Governance is recognized as a leader

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SAP is named a Leader in master data management

Find out why SAP was positioned as a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Master Data Management Solutions, Q2 2025 report.

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Uncover the benefits of modern master data management

Discover how to get more complete, accurate, and compliant enterprise data with a modern master data management (MDM) system. Explore what makes up an MDM system and what its role is in data fabric and AI initiatives.

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Frequently asked questions

: Master data management is the discipline of creating one trusted master reference (a single version of the truth) for all important business data, such as product data, customer data, asset data, finance data, and more. MDM helps ensure businesses don’t use multiple, potentially inconsistent versions of data in different parts of business, including processes, operations, and analytics and reporting. The three key pillars to effective MDM include: data consolidation, data governance, and data quality management.
: The key is to first preserve the value and quality of mission-critical master data, leveraging a solution like SAP Master Data Governance, and then to share access to this data in a decentralized way with a flexible business data fabric, leveraging solutions like SAP Datasphere. This allows you to also join your trusted, governed master data with other SAP data and third-party data to accelerate your ability to derive value and gain insights from that data.
: The purpose of master data integration is to distribute master data to enable a harmonized view of master data across all applications. Master data integration allows for end-to-end process integration across the enterprise. Master data integration does not change the quality of master data, but always distributes master data in its current state. Instead, integration provides a distribution layer that gives your line-of-business applications a consistent view of data. Ultimately, a master data integration should increase the effectiveness and reduce the cost and effort of data sharing.
: Take a look at our product comparison.
: After your move to SAP S/4HANA, many business processes will be familiar to you from your existing ERP system; but you will also be implementing new, more automated processes to match the demands of the digital marketplace. You may find yourself implementing processes for automatic replacement of parts inventory, IoT processes, really the sky's the limit. These processes will rely more heavily on clean and correct master data, and if your master data is not up to the task, you will lose much of the value of SAP S/4HANA. To avoid this, we recommended that you curate your master data early and well before the actual implementation begins. The SAP Master Data Governance application offers in-built integration to SAP’s data model and underlying technologies (for example, SAP Business Workflow), and helps you consolidate and actively govern master data for SAP and third-party applications.

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