Mastering master data is no small feat. Because master data sits at the core of business operations, even small adjustments can create lasting and far-reaching impacts across systems, processes, and reporting. The changes to master data don’t just affect the present; they ripple through current transactions and reshape historical records as well.

The Backstory

During my tenure as a Data Governance consultant for Finance, I was engaged in a use case in which the organization faced significant challenges in controlling Cost Center changes. Any update to a Cost Center, especially those tied to organizational entities, required formal approvals, yet the process often lacked visibility and discipline. Without clear insight into Cost Center hierarchies, the reporting teams found it difficult to fully trust their financial reports or assess the true impact of hierarchy changes on financial results.

Master data management depends on full auditability of changes to ensure traceability, transparency, and accountability. Data integrity is foundational.

Key Challenges for Data Leaders

• Cost Center Silos in SAP & PeopleSoft: Cost Center data is maintained across multiple systems, including different instances of SAP and PeopleSoft. Each system relied on its own manual processes, creating a fragmented approach that drives up operating costs.
• Manual Work Pressure: Frequent, unplanned updates forced employees to scramble, leading to stress, reduced productivity, and declining morale. Over time, this constant disruption not only impacts individual well-being but also increases error rates and operational inefficiencies.
• Data Validation & Trust Issues: The absence of robust validation checks, combined with inconsistent processes and naming conventions, leads to data errors, duplicate records, and misaligned financial reporting. This inconsistency undermines trust in the data, complicates decision-making, and increases the effort required for reconciliation and correction. Beyond managing current updates, maintaining historical accuracy is critical to ensure financial integrity and consistent reporting.
• Organizational Restructuring Impacts: Restructuring drives complex changes that demand significant effort to update systems, processes, and reporting accurately.
• Lack of Workflow: The current SAP master data module lacks integrated workflow automation and approval controls, resulting in reliance on manual coordination and offline tracking. This reduces visibility, slows down approvals, and makes it harder to track responsibility and review changes.

Strategy Delivered

To me, Data Governance begins with organizing metadata, policies, procedures, defining roles and responsibilities, clarifying data decision rights, and enforcing accountability for the effective management of information assets. It is a principle-driven discipline, not merely a procedural one.

The first step involved interviewing stakeholders on how they managed Cost Center master data changes. The following sections outline the strategy that was implemented.

1.     Empathy Drives The Process

The MDM Lead served as my primary point of contact. Through interviews and requirements gathering, significant inconsistencies and a lack of common standards across teams were identified. Active listening and asking thoughtful questions made it all possible to streamline the requirements and align them with the overarching master data strategy.

Unifying three distinct processes requires stakeholder buy-in.

Before addressing process design or technology, priority was given to aligning with the people involved. Understanding frustrations with manual processes and data issues, and asking focused questions, uncovered key process blockages. Empathy and active listening–principles that remain central to responsible conduct–built trust and drove the initiative..

2.     Informed Decisions

Logging and approving changes required clearly assigned responsibilities, defined SLAs, and structured escalation paths. Frequent last-minute critical requests had created frustration and instability in the process. With the appropriate stakeholders engaged, we established two formal channels for Cost Center change requests:

• Standard Change Request
• Emergency Change Request

Each change request type followed distinct workflows, SLAs, and escalation paths. Emergency requests required business justification and manager approval. The transparent, SLA-driven lifecycle with clear task assignments enabled leadership to recognize measurable progress.

3.     Driving Consistency with Standards

During the requirements and design phase, a clear priority emerged: the change request submission process needed to be frictionless while enforcing validation of critical data fields.

To achieve this, enumerated value lists were implemented to standardize inputs and reduce data entry errors. Emergency change requests required a manager’s approval email as a mandatory attachment. The form was intentionally designed to be intuitive and easy to complete, minimizing dependency on specialized expertise while preserving strong controls and data quality. Common sense dictated that all three systems use a single standardized change request form.

4.    Change Requests with Audit Trail

All requested changes were clearly highlighted against existing Cost Center data, showing proposed updates, submitters, and, for emergency requests, justification and approvals. This significantly reduced back-and-forth email follow-ups. Changes were applied only after full approval, with rejected or canceled requests retained for complete auditability and traceability.

5.    Accelerating Adoption via Automation

Automation was central to the new Data Governance approach. From data entry to approval, workflows, task assignments, and periodic reminders were fully automated. Once the approval cycle was successfully completed, the changes posted to the SAP systems with an integrated platform. Previously difficult-to-track monthly Cost Center updates were now fully transparent, with each request monitored across its entire lifecycle. The smart, automated workflow made the process steps execution effortless, driving the user adoption of the change management process.

Deliverables & Outcomes

Voice of the Customer

Ravi Sutar was specifically brought in for his skills working with the Collibra platform and to support us with the buildout of our various projects.  His keen eye for governance, coupled with a strong working knowledge of the Collibra platform, allowed him to communicate very effectively with our business users with regard to how they will embrace governance and the application. 

He made significant contributions to many initiatives around master data management and governance, as well as numerous initiatives with our Finance and Supply Chain organizations.  Ravi’s value add was enabling our business community to see the need for governance, how it can be fulfilled, and then to ultimately lead the delivery of that fulfillment.

Sr Manager, Finance