Master Data Management App
As part of QAD's Adaptive ERP solution suite, a Master Data Management (MDM) solution was internally designed and developed to be part of the core QAD ERP functionality. This work was first released with the March 2023 Adaptive ERP version.
Project Type
Application design & development
Role & Responsibilities
UX designer, user research, prototyping, customer design reviews, product launch
Duration
April 2021 - March 2023
Watch this 15-minute video to view the MDM product launch demo I put together
for the first release QAD MDM solution.
Problem
In ERP software, master data management (MDM) is important to achieve data standardization, quality control, and reduce the risk of duplications leading to other problems during billing and financial reconciliation. There are many third-party MDM solutions available in the marketplace, however, these tools are often too generic and costly to implement and maintain within the QAD ERP landscape.
Solution
QAD designed and built its own MDM solution that is embedded as part of the core ERP product. The solution is built on top of the ERP data model and enables integrated data governance, auditing, built-in workflows, and approvals for the most important master data such as customers and suppliers.
Understanding the Users
Product managers and functional experts were interviewed to gain a better understanding of who is involved and how our customers are currently managing their MDM processes. This was further discussed and validated with customers during user research sessions that were conducted later.
User Roles
-
MDM Stewards: Responsible for the data entry and quality of the MDM records. Often belong to different functional areas and are only responsible for a subset of the master data.
-
MDM Approvers: Responsible for approving the completion of new MDM records and data changes.
-
MDM Manager: Responsible for the whole MDM process including how the workflow is set up, ensuring processing occurs within a reasonable amount of time, and looking for opportunities to streamline the workflow overall.
Current Process Findings
-
Depending on the master data, 3 to 10+ individuals are involved in MDM governance
-
Multiple departments are needed to complete and manage a single MDM record
-
Current MDM processes are manual and managed outside of the ERP
-
Excel spreadsheets or custom forms are passed around to the MDM stewards to gather the initial data or change requests
-
MDM approvals are completed via email or phone calls
-
Once all inputs are collected and approvals made the MDM manager enters or updates the record in the ERP
-
Storyboards
I created Storyboards for the primary roles to illustrate the business scenario the user would be working in and the primary tasks they need to complete in their user flow. These were shared with the primary stakeholders and development team so they could learn about the different types of users, their needs, and the primary workflows the solution needed to support.
Workflow Diagrams
To begin the design process, product managers completed competitor research of the MDM solutions currently available in the marketplace. The market research findings were discussed along with the user needs and translated into design requirements. Using this as a starting point, I created MDM workflow diagrams to visualize and communicate the expected end-to-end solution and various MDM capabilities.
Phase 1: MVP Workflow
Phase 2: Extended Workflow
Prototype Designs
I created Axure high-fidelity interactive prototypes leveraging the existing ERP UI patterns and approval solutions already in place. This enabled development to begin immediately without dependencies on other teams to provide new components or functionality. The prototypes were used to review the solution design with management, key internal stakeholders, and customers to validate or iterate on the design according to the feedback.
Customer Design Reviews
Using the high-fidelity prototypes, I reviewed the UX designs with 7 customers. Each customer was asked a series of questions at each step in the workflow to discover their:
-
application landscape
-
current MDM processes
-
optimal MDM business requirements
-
validate whether our initial designs would meet their needs
UX Design Review Study
Discovery & Design Review Findings
Analytics for MDM Processing
As a secondary design requirement, MDM Managers need a way to track and analyze the MDM workflow processing so they can identify bottlenecks and work to continuously streamline the processes as a whole. I designed an MDM Action Center that included KPIs that would be needed to understand the current MDM change request processing and historical trends for process completion.
​
Note: The MDM action center has not yet been released so I can't show the design sketches I created for this part of the project. However, I wanted to include this section to illustrate that design spans more than how to enter or process data in an application and should also include how users can analyze the data enabling them to make better business decisions and process improvements.