Leveraging SAP’s Enterprise Data Management tools to enable ML/AI success
Background
In our earlier weblog publish, “Master Your ML/AI Success with Enterprise Data Management”, we outlined the need for Enterprise Data Management (EDM) and ML/AI initiatives to work collectively in order to ship the whole enterprise price and expectations of ML/AI. We made a set of high-level recommendations to improve EDM maturity and in flip enable better price from ML/AI initiatives. A graphical summary of these recommendations is confirmed beneath.
Figure 1 – High stage recommendations to deal with EDM challenges for ML/AI initiatives
In this publish, we’ll present a specific instantiation of know-how for bringing these concepts to life. There are quite a few examples that will very properly be confirmed, nonetheless for the wants of this publish, we’ll present a solution contained in the SAP toolset. The end outcome’s an implementation setting the place the EDM utilized sciences work hand-in-hand with ML/AI tools to help automate and streamline every these processes.
SAP’s hottest platform for ML/AI is SAP Data Intelligence (DI). When it comes to EDM, SAP has an infinite suite of tools that retailer, change, course of, harness, and visualize data. We will take care of 4 tools that we take into account current basically an important impression to grasp ML/AI initiatives utilized on DI. These are SAP Master Data Governance (MDG), SAP Data Intelligence (DI) – Metadata Explorer component, and to a smaller extent, SAP Information Steward (IS). SAP Data Warehouse Cloud (DWC) can also be used to convey all the mastered and cleansed data collectively and to retailer and visualize the ML outputs.
Architecture
As with one other enterprise data reply, the issue is to efficiently mix a set of tools to ship the needed price, with out together with the worth overhead of knowledge being moved and saved in a lot of places, as well as to the added infrastructure, utilization and assist costs. For enterprises that run on SAP strategies, a high-level construction and descriptions of the tools that will receive these benefits is confirmed beneath.
Figure 2 –High-level MDG/DI construction and knowledge motion
1. SAP MDG (Master Data Governance) with MDI (Master Data Integration)
SAP MDG and MDI go hand in hand. MDI is provided with the SAP Cloud Platform. It permits communication all through different SAP capabilities by establishing One Domain Model (ODM). It permits a relentless view of grasp data all through the end-to-end eventualities.
SAP MDG is obtainable as S/4 HANA or ERP-based. This software program helps assure top of the range and trusted grasp data for preliminary and ongoing capabilities. It can change right into a key part of the enterprise MDM and knowledge governance program. Both energetic and passive governance are supported. Based on enterprise desires, certain domains are prioritized out of the sphere in MDG. MDG provides the capabilities like Consolidation, Mass Processing and Central Governance coupled with governance workflows for Create-Read-Update-Delete (CRUD) processes.
SAP has these days launched SAP MDG, cloud model. While it is not an alternative choice to MDG on S/4 HANA, MDG cloud model is deliberate to embody core MDG capabilities like Consolidation, Centralization and Data Quality Management to centrally deal with core attributes of Business Partner data. This is a useful “very quick start” chance for patrons who under no circumstances used MDG, nonetheless it could properly moreover help shoppers already using MDG on S/4HANA to assemble out their panorama to a federated MDG technique for greater balancing centralized and decentralized grasp data.
2. Data Intelligence (with Metadata Explorer component)
SAP IS and MDG are the pathways to make enriched, trusted data obtainable to Data Intelligence, which is used to actually assemble the ML/AI fashions. We can reuse SAP IS pointers and metadata phrases immediately in SAP DI. This is achieved in DI by utilizing its data integration, orchestration, and streaming capabilities. DI’s Metadata Explorer component moreover facilitates the motion of enterprise pointers, metadata, glossaries, catalogs, and definitions to tools like IS (on-prem) for guaranteeing consistency and governance of knowledge. Metadata explorer is geared within the route of discovery, movement and preparation of knowledge property which might be unfold all through varied and disparate enterprise strategies along with cloud-based ones.
3. Information Steward (IS) – Information Steward is an optionally accessible software program, useful for profiling data, notably for on-prem situations. The data prime quality effort is likely to be initiated by creating the required Data Quality enterprise pointers, adopted by profiling the data and dealing Information Steward to assess data prime quality. This might be the first step within the route of preliminary data cleansing, and thereby data remediation, using a passive governance technique by means of top quality dashboards and experiences. (Many of these choices are moreover obtainable in MDG and DI). SAP IS helps an enterprise deal with fundamental data prime quality factors, prior to using specialised tools like SAP MDG to deal with grasp data factors. It is likely to be an optionally accessible part of any ongoing data prime quality enchancment initiative for an enterprise.
4. Data Warehouse Cloud (DWC) – Data Warehouse Cloud is used on this construction to convey all the mastered and cleansed data collectively into the cloud, perform one other data preparation or transformations needed, and to model the data into the format needed by the ML fashions in DI. DWC can be utilized to retailer the outcomes of the ML fashions, and to create visualizations of these outcomes for data clients.
Figure 3 – Summary of Functionality of SAP tools used for EDM
While there are some overlaps in efficiency between these tools, Data Intelligence is additional focused on the automation parts of these capabilities. DI is primarily supposed as an ML platform, and due to this truth has efficiency corresponding to the facility to create data fashions and arrange the data in a format that facilitates the ML/AI course of (ML Data Manager). This construction permits for capitalizing on the EDM strengths of MDG and IS. This might be consistent with the strategic route of SAP, that is, providing full “Business Transformation as a Service” technique, major with cloud corporations. Together, these tools work in a complementary method (for hybrid on-prem plus cloud eventualities), and the combination of these tools work hand in hand to make trusted data obtainable to AI/ML.
Conclusion
In summary, the SAP ecosystem has a lot of EDM tools that will help deal with the data prime quality and knowledge prep challenges of the ML/AI course of. SAP tools like MDG and DI Metadata Explorer component have choices and integration capabilities that will merely be leveraged all through and even sooner than the ML/AI use situations are underway. If used along side the general EDM maturity recommendations summarized above, these tools will help to ship the whole enterprise price and expectations of ML/AI use situations.
In our subsequent publish, we’ll proceed our dialogue on EDM tools, a number of of their newer choices, how they’ve developed, and the way in which ML/AI has been part of their very personal evolution. As a reminder, whenever you missed the first publish on this sequence, you might discover it proper right here: “Master Your ML/AI Success with Enterprise Data Management”.
Inspired Intellect is an end-to-end service provider of knowledge administration, analytics and utility progress. We work together by way of a portfolio of selections ranging from strategic advisory and design, to progress and deployment, by way of to sustained operations and managed corporations. Learn how Inspired Intellect’s EDM and ML/AI method and choices could assist convey bigger price to your analytics initiatives by contacting us at promoting@inspiredintellect-us.com.
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Editor’s Note – I co-authored this weblog with my colleague, Pravin Bhute, who serves as an MDM Architect for our affiliate group, WorldLink.