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All the pages published by the 4MDG team that aren't part of the site's fixed sections.
A golden record is the single trusted record of an entity — a customer, a supplier, a material — built from every version of it scattered across systems. It is not the newest or the most complete copy: it is the result of rules that state, field by field, which source prevails.
The terms that come up in every master data programme, explained in one sentence and without unnecessary jargon. Each entry states what the term means, what changes in practice, and where to go when the subject stops being a definition and becomes a decision.
Service description standardization is the practice of describing every contracted service the same way: same verb, same unit of measurement, same set of characteristics. A service has no physical dimension, so what gets standardized is scope — what is included, how delivery is measured, and what characterizes execution.
If you answer for master data quality, the problem is rarely the tool: it is rules without owners, exceptions without records, and indicators nobody measures. 4MDG works on the process — who registers, who approves, what blocks — and makes the rule hold in the system.
Duplicate purchases, rejected invoices, idle stock and negotiations without consolidated volume share one cause: the same item registered in several ways. Governing master data is not an IT project — it is what gives comparability back to purchasing and pricing decisions.
Supplier qualification is the process that verifies whether a company can be contracted before the first order exists: registration and tax data checked at the source, valid documents, regular standing, and approval by whoever owns the risk. The supplier enters the system already able to receive an order.
Contracting starts from an assessment of your master data, not from a price list. Scope depends on how many domains are in play, on the current state of the data, and on how many systems consume it — and that is what defines platform, services and timeline.
The MDM Readiness Test shows, in a few minutes, whether your company's material, customer and supplier records can support decisions and integration — or still depend on parallel spreadsheets and manual fixes. You answer objective questions about how your process works today and get a score per area, with what to prioritize first.