Scenario 1: Reference data entities are not maintained consistently.

Example instance: Retail and Internet sales channels are 2 separate channels in North America; Latin America does not distinguish the sales channels; Asia includes internet sales in Retail sales but excludes Convenience Store sales and tracks it as a separate channel.

Result: Overall Retail sales number is not a complete picture of the organization.

Scenario 2 : Assignment of reference data entity values to the master data set is accurate and consistent across the organization.

Example instance: Sales channels are consistent across the organization, but the rules for assignment during creation of a customer are not clear or not all value options are available to choose from. Customers where the sales channel is not clear are assigned Retail as a default. In Asia, they are not tracked under any channel. In Latin America, the customers show up under “Unknown” sales channel.

Result: Overall Retail sales number is not a complete picture of the organization.

Scenario 3: Multiple master data sources.

Example instance: To report Top 20 stores of 10 customers - If the SKU master is across two systems that are mutually exclusive across lines of business, the top 20 store sales cannot be consolidated until the SKU master is consolidated.

Result:Unable to report automatically. Manually, can come up with tentative results - may not be accurate.

Scenario 4: Consistent Identifier but attribute mismatch

Example instance: Sourcing generates its own customer id’s and stores the details/address of the person negotiating the contract in their master data. Supply Chain generates its own customer id and stores the address of the warehouse. Accounts receivable might use the same customer id as the supply chain system but the address is for the finance group.

Result: Able to link the customers together, but which address is valid.

Scenario 5: Definitional inconsistency