ObjectiveAs a worldwide logistics company, DB Schenker has to ensure that cargo reaches its destination safely and securely. To do this, it must be guaranteed that employees can reliably access data from a single, authorised source.

Approach DB Schenker set up a Master Data Management (MDM) system in which all master data is held, maintained and distributed centrally, in real time, to the transport management systems connected to it. As a prerequisite for this, HP compiled a master plan, containing the organisational restructuring, project framework, desired data elements and roadmap.

IT improvements• All transport management systems have access

to a central MDM system.

• Globally-defined criteria ensures high data quality.

• Centralised data testing and validation, which is automated wherever possible.

Business benefits• The logistics provider benefits from efficient,

interdisciplinary reporting.

• The MDM system enables improved legal compliance, for example, in following sanctions lists for various countries.

• High data quality leads to faster and more exact order processing and therefore an improvement in customer satisfaction.

• DB Schenker anticipates savings as a result of the high data quality, particularly with address master data.

• Savings are also made simply by the transport management systems being supported by the central service that is now available, without having to develop their own individual capability.

DB Schenker uses the HP Master Plan as a template for Master Data Management

Logistics companies must ensure that a dispatch arrives at the correct address in the shortest possible time, even if it is transported around the globe. For example, if a delivery has to be made from Australia to Brazil, from the very start a valid address of the recipient in the country of arrival must be available. Every wrong address costs money, whether through lack of knowledge of how to formulate an address in a certain country, typing errors or the recipient having relocated. If the goods cannot be delivered, they go all the way back to the distribution centre and have to be stored there. That means additional labour time, transport costs and storage capacity. This does not just apply to addresses; the same rule applies to other important data such as exchange rates, sanctions lists or billing codes. They all have to be uniform across the world and centrally administered so that the transaction runs smoothly.

HP customer case study: With the help of HP, DB Schenker has introduced an enterprise-wide Master Data Management system. High data quality leads to faster and more exact order processing and therefore an improvement in customer satisfaction

Industry: Logistics

“The most important argument and criterion for selecting the consulting company was that HP had already introduced

a global Master Data Management (MDM) system in their own company. Our thinking was that as a result of this, more practical and realistic ideas, procedures and proposals would be brought in, as opposed to using any other consulting company, where they would be working purely on a theoretical basis. This has proven to be right.” Peter Schumann, IT Chairman, DB Schenker

“The most significant contribution from HP in working out the MDM master plan was in the engineering process – HP Global Method. The consultants brought in their own, tried-and-tested Governance Frameworks, coupled with the understanding that it needed to be adapted to the organisation. Furthermore, the established relationship with DB Schenker and the understanding of how the company operates helped to efficiently fine-tune the Governance Frameworks and the master plan with the specialist departments.” Peter Schumann, IT Chairman, DB Schenker

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German logistics company, DB Schenker, is faced with these very challenges. With over 91,000 employees in around 130 countries, the haulier also combines the transport and logistic activities of German rail company, Deutsche Bahn. With a turnover of over €15 billion, it is amongst the leading logistics companies in Europe and the world. In the past ten years, DB Schenker has grown through acquisitions and built up a tight-knit network of sites in air and sea freight, European over-land transport, contract logistics and Supply Chain Management. Due to the acquisitions, a decentralised business intelligence landscape had emerged, which made data inconsistent and often redundant, and responsibilities for master data were unambiguous. This led to compulsory data comparison being carried out manually, which was time-consuming and costly.

Central Master Data apply to all transport management systemsA comprehensive data analysis concluded that the logistics company not only needed a new architecture for data warehousing, but also needed to initiate new transport management systems – an international one for air and sea freight (TANGO) and three for transport over-land (regional or multinational). The systems will control haulage flows between the various countries and organisational units.

To be able to formulate a transport chain, it must be ensured that all those involved can rely on accurate data from an authorised source. “Therefore, setting up a Master Data Management (MDM) system was critical for the new systems to be able to operate. Only then can we ensure that the master data is held and maintained centrally, as well as distributed in real time to the connected systems,” explains Jaroslav Bláha, Project Manager for the MDM, Blaha Executive Consulting GmbH.

“The efficiency gains from a central master data administration are so apparent that we only needed to present the project concept for the Chief Information Officer and the Chief Financial Officer to fully support and sponsor it,” said Bláha.

The project needed a master plan in order to proceed. This marks out the framework of the MDM plan and determines the strategic steps including roadmap.

Master data administration primarily involves the business users. “Business has to take the lead,” reports Peter Schumann. “At the start of the project, one of the main preconditions was that IT is solely responsible for the technical definition and implementation, as well as developing the master plan. However, the business areas are responsible for the adaptation of the business processes as well as introducing suitable data management while controlling the life cycle.”

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Another reason for the master plan at DB Schenker was to strategically bring together the independently functioning national units. “The master plan and the organisational restructuring, as a prerequisite for the project, were the most significant reasons for the success of the entire project,” emphasises Bláha.

HP compiles a strategy for MDMHaving compiled the MDM strategy, DB Schenker engaged the Business Intelligence Solutions department of HP, which was already working on a related project (data warehousing) in the company, so the synergies were apparent. “The most important argument and criterion for selecting the consulting company was that HP had already introduced a global MDM system in their own company,” confirms Peter Schumann, IT Chairman at DB Schenker. “Our thinking was that as a result of this, more practical and realistic ideas, procedures and proposals would be brought in, as opposed to using any other consulting company, where they would be working purely on a theoretical basis. This has proven to be right,” he adds. “The most significant contribution from HP in working out the MDM master plan was in the engineering process - HP Global Method: The consultants brought in large parts of their own, tried-and-tested Governance Frameworks, coupled with the understanding that it needed to be adapted to the organisation. Furthermore, the established relationship with DB Schenker and understanding of how the company operates helped to efficiently fine-tune the Governance Frameworks and the master plan with the specialist departments.”

Workshops were set-up, where the partners, together with the specialist teams, initially formulated the requirements for the MDM. “One of the greatest challenges in this was the joint identification and prioritisation of the desired master data elements encompassing all areas of the business,” recalls Dr. Lutz Neubert, Business Intelligence Solutions Project Manager at HP. “However, this anticipated difficulty was then worked through in a surprisingly cooperative and efficient way.” The 97 data areas that would come under the MDM were prioritised in the master plan and implemented in four blocks. Furthermore, the plan defines the organisational structures (data stewards, data owners, programme manager), with clearly-defined roles and responsibilities for the governance of the master data management.

HP Services• MDM Master Plan - a service from HP Business Intelligence

Solutions• Application of the HP Global Method for Business Intelligence• Usage of Best Practices• Development of processes and tools• Evaluation and prioritisation of various master data areas• Definition of the master data governance processes• Establishment of responsibilities for who owns the master data• Administration of master data in the “MDMcore” system• DB Schenker’s internal development of the TANGO transport

management system

Customer solution at a glance

Data stewards monitor data maintenance“The master plan is now helping DB Schenker implement the recommendations made, including an organisational restructuring, optimisation of procedures and guarantee of data quality,” explains Markus Arenskötter, Vice President Solution Design & Development at DB Schenker. In the next part of the project, the challenge would be to establish and ensure a global Data Steward Organisation so that the agreed data maintenance processes were carried out in all corners of the world.

His department is currently integrating the transport management systems, which are currently in the development or introduction stage, with the MDM core system. “At this stage, with the systems at an early level,” says Arenskötter, “an operational or monetary benefit cannot yet be quantified. However, the first actual savings have already been made, in that the individual transport management systems do not each have to be developed, tested and introduced for a master data component, but are supported free of charge on the central service that is now available.

“There are also indirect benefits in the change of awareness in the specialist departments,” confirms Arenskötter. Even now, when a transport management system is activated, attention is paid to ensure that the data content in the MDM is cleaned up. That has already benefited the old systems and operational processes.

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© 2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

4AA2-2383EEW, Created August 2010

MDM enables automated, interdisciplinary reportingThe logistics company also expects major advantages through the MDM in interdisciplinary reporting. “Core information for us is the customer’s address, so that is our first line of attack,” reports Arenskötter. “Customer reporting requires individual addresses to be available. Without a central customer ID (particularly with global assignments from local companies) there is no real-time information, which is necessary to control the business.” For reporting, there are also further standards such as billing codes, which have to be uniform across the national organisations, and need a binding solution at the centre to do this. Where billing, and therefore the business efficiency in reporting, had previously been ‘interpreted’ manually and at high expense, this can now be done automatically and precisely. Furthermore, sales can be optimised if the key accounts are detailed within the national organisations in the master data administration. Finally, the MDM system allows improved legal compliance, for example in following sanctions lists for various countries.

As a complete provider of company-wide Business Intelligence Solutions, HP brings in sector and business expertise, which allows customers to transform their decisions into competitive advantages, and investments in Business Intelligence are fully exploited.

The reasons customers have chosen HP as a partner for their individual challenges vary. Nevertheless, there are four key factors that make HP stand out as a strategic and reliable partner:

A globally-acting consulting organisation with more than 2,400 consultants, the successful implementation of BI in their own company, the technological leadership of the HP Global Method for BI and honed communication skills, with the help of which, the requirements of business areas in IT can be successfully implemented.

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