SAP AG plans to develop a new collaborative master data management product that will integrate data from multiple systems, locations and vendors, and then use this data to support e-business processes in heterogeneous IT systems, the company said in a statement released Thursday at its Sapphire customer conference and trade show in Lisbon, Portugal.
Several large companies, including Dow Chemicals Co., Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp. are advising SAP in the development of the product, called SAP Collaborative Master Data Management (SAP CMDM).
With the proliferation of data and systems, plus ever-changing business environments, companies are looking for ways to integrate and consolidate master data, trapped in multiple systems, while using their existing infrastructures, SAP said.
The company claims its CMDM product is the first standardized offering that allows companies to establish a cohesive environment, ensuring that consistent data is used in all business processes.
Compared to pure enterprise application integration (EAI) engines, SAP CMDM offers both the ability to integrate the data and the applications needed to support business process around collaborative master data management, SAP said.
Users can easily access the unified data through the personalized mySAP Enterprise portal.
SAP CMDM will be based on mySAP.com technology, an open standards and Web-based system. In addition to SAP Exchange infrastructure, the system will consist of a master data server, a content integrator and adaptors.
The product is scheduled for customer shipment in the third quarter of 2003. It will not require companies to have other SAP software products, the company said.
