SaaS everywhere!
In the expanding IT business ecosystem, who doesn’t want to enjoy scalable infrastructure, on-demand services, continuous application availability, seamless operations and more translation into business benefits like cost savings and business continuity?
Yes, SaaS made all these possible and emerged to become a top pick for enterprises across the globe.
However, to achieve the goal of a successful SaaS transition, any organization needs to focus on data management, as data stands at the core of any digital transformation.
With due attention to data management in its strategic move towards SaaS, VMware has realized the need to create a solid, reliable data foundation and devised the Unified Data Program.
The much-awaited VMware Unified Data Program (VUD) has been launched as a holistic approach to managing critical data assets to support analysis, decision-making and operational efficiencies.
Why VUD? Key Business Challenge
The customer and prospect data records have been stale, siloed and fragmented across various eCommerce channels and multiple sources of truth.
This situation caused friction in the commerce lifecycle affecting the operational velocity and created complexities in analyzing data required to form actionable insights, ultimately limiting the overall organizational ability to make informed data-driven decisions.
VUD as a Solution: Data Foundation at the Core!
To address the data challenges, the VMware Unified Data (VUD) program has been planned as part of the organizational-level Master Data Management (MDM) transformation project.
The program aims to strengthen basic data management capabilities for customers, partners, and employees by ensuring the right information at the right time.
This is envisioned through the creation of a trusted, centralized single data foundation called “Single Source of Truth (SSOT)” to support a range of core business requirements, primarily the following:
3Es Enable, Ensure and Empower!
- Enable transition to SaaS
- Ensure seamless experience across RTMs
- Empower customers, partners and colleagues with the right information at the right time
From an architectural viewpoint, the VMware Unified Data (VUD) program is composed of five different modules/components, which form the core building blocks and serve as workstreams for the entire program implementation:
1. Party MDM
The Party MDM is a common data foundation defining relationships for parties such as organizations and people. The Party MDM classifies parties by roles: customer & partner. The latter is further sub-classified by stage (Converted, Prospects and Whitespace) and sub-roles (Reseller, Distributor, Global OEM, etc.)
2. Product MDM
This program aims at building fundamental as well as core capabilities. The resultant will ensure scalable capabilities to enable the SaaS product line and lay down the path to enable
value-oriented business processes for effective data consumption at the transaction and experience layers.
3. Purchase History Hub
The Hub creates a reliable purchase history data foundation to drive seamless transactional and analytical experiences. The program presents a unified view of all customer purchases made across all types of purchases and entitlements, thus avoiding revenue leakages and enhancing transactional velocity.
4. Customer Discovery Tool
The exact identification of the right customer at the right time stands at the core of this program, which directly impacts deal velocity and user experience. The Tool ensures a self-service capability for sales users in determining the exact customer information during the opportunity lifecycle.
5. Reference MDM
Inconsistency in data usage due to a lack of proper standards leads to data inaccuracies and process inefficiencies in an enterprise. This program addresses that core challenge by establishing VMware Data Standards, ultimately driving consistency in business operations and ensuring certified reporting.
6. Data Market Place
The Data Market Place develops data ownership and operational structure to ensure effective management of corporate data as a critical asset and implementation of that data in an effective, standardized, and sustainable manner. The module’s core focus remains on ensuring matured data governance process to facilitate easy onboarding of data products.
Overall, the VUD solution is expected to handle the most critical data sets underpinning VMware commerce processes and ensure validated data navigates through the core business process.
Certified, trusted, and centralized customer-partner data adds to the transactional, analytical, and reporting-at-scale capabilities, driving effective decision-making and contributing to the overall business performance, efficiency, and security.
The VUD program is poised to serve as a simplified, holistic data model and ease orchestration by reducing manual touch, serving multiple ID consolidation needs and improving the overall ability to transact seamlessly with the customer and report at scale.
The Way Forward
With a solution like VUD in place, customers and partners have the right information at the right time supported by real-time data exchange across various ecosystems.
With technologies and innovative features on one side and the VUD program ‘transforming the customer & partner data management internally and transactions at the execution level’ on the other, VMware is all set to witness a seamless movement in its SaaS journey and enjoy a competitive edge in the new digitally-connected world with its data potential.
Data for Good, Data is Everything! It’s time to bring the best to get benefited the most!
Stay tuned for more interesting stories about VUD and VMware journey!
