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DATA HEALTH ASSESSMENT™

UNDERSTANDING THE DHA

The Data Health Assessment™ (DHA) profiles and analyzes the quality and integrity of your master data (e.g. materials, customers, vendors, financial, etc.). The DHA visualizes the existing, “as-is” state of your data quality against four dimensions: Completeness, Consistency, Conformity to Standards, and Duplicates. The report then summarizes the impact that poor data has on your business and recommends next steps to achieve measurable improvement in business processes.

The purpose of a DHA is two-fold:

Establishes a baseline and foundation relative to the integrity of your data
Illustrates how your business initiatives are compromised due to poor data

The DHA report provides a clear, real time view of your company’s data.

	TYPICAL CASES FOR A DHA

	According to the Data Warehousing Institute, “poor data quality is costing U.S. businesses more than $600 billion annually.” Customer Masters Incomplete with duplicate records Contacts rolling up to the correct department, locations and titles Material, Supplier & Vendor Masters Contain incorrect attributes and non-standardized taxonomies Incomplete bills of materials Ineffective spend management decisions being made Poor data quality leads to ineffective decision making which hampers your company’s inability to leverage spend effectively. It also compromises your maintenance and compliance with federal rules and regulations. A DHA is the first step in gaining an understanding of your problem areas and lead you to developing strategic solutions.

	THE DHA BENEFITS

	Assessing the impact of data against your business process execution and metrics Clean data is the fuel that powers a business. The DHA helps you uncover data issues and more importantly: it identifies how your data is compromising your business processes, reporting integrity and your goals. Utopia leverages the SAP BusinessObjects Information Management applications and reporting tools to help diagnose and illustrate data limitations. A Root Cause Analysis: Connecting your data to common business and IT challenges Commonly identified drivers are: Inventory Optimization • Global Spend Analytics • Optimizing Supply Chain Logistics • Timely and Accurate BI/Analysis • Global Reporting Integrity • Data Quality & Data Governance Initiatives • IT Systems Consolidation • Supplier and Trading Partner Collaboration The following are examples from a typical DHA report:

	CONSISTENCY	DUPLICATES



	METHODOLOGY

	The process involves identification and mapping of data elements, data quality scorecards, graphs and statistics highlighting the integrity of your data.





	APPLYING ENTERPRISE DATA MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES

	The Second Step Included in the DHA is an onsite workshop that will review and share Enterprise Data Lifecycle Management (EDLM) best practices, frameworks and data governance models to manage your enterprise data. Typical sessions include: Share best practice strategies in the area of EDLM that have been compiled and learned from hundreds of companies’ experiences. Gather critical information about your current business operating issues, pain points, strategic goals and objectives, and vision around data management. Meet with management to deliver our observations, findings from the Data Health Assessment™, review the business and IT impact of your data on your corporate objectives.

		Best Practices: depicts the Enterprise Data Management (EDM) best practices endorsed by the Americas SAP User Group. Companies that incorporated all five EDM dimensions had better results than those that emphasized only one or two dimensions.


	Utopia’s EDLM Maturity Model: used to establish benchmarks, set future goals and measure progress towards targets.


	Sample EDLM Maturity Evaluation: states where you rank within each subsection pertaining to people (i.e. data stewards, business metrics/value, etc.), processes (i.e. business processes, archiving, governance, etc.) and technology (MDM integration, security, recovery, etc.).

	SUMMARY
	Understanding the integrity of your data is the first step to optimizing your applications and securing reporting integrity. Ultimately, if an enterprise is struggling to identify the ways in which efficiencies can be gained through ERP, Data Warehouses or M&A activity, it is Utopia’s position that the foundational master data is a logical starting point. Achieving an optimized landscape demands that people, processes and information are all in sync, and this includes your extended supply chain and business partners. The reality is that without the right data and information your best efforts and decision making abilities are often compromised. Simply stated, your ability to meet business goals and metrics are often jeopardized due to the integrity of your data. The Data Health Assessment™ provides you the insight and foundation necessary to identify the precise data issues.