About Us
Welcome to Autonomists, specialists in eProcurement Software and Master
Data consulting.
Autonomists is a company that specialises in the implementation of
procurement software, specifically eProcurement solutions such as Ariba
Buyer, Oracle iProcurement and SAP SRM. Another key area of expertise
is master data, its collection, validation and transformation.
With twenty years systems implementation experience, skills include
business process analysis and design, development and customisation,
system testing, master data collection and maintenance, end-user
training development and delivery, supplier enablement and catalogue
content creation.
Specific examples of the above skills can be found on this site, if you
need further details or have a query feel free to contact us.
Customers
Global Pharmaceuticals &
Healthcare Company
As part of a global finance initiative, this client is centralising
their Accounts Payable functions at a shared service centre in Prague,
Czech Republic. The project, with an initial scope of 88 sites across 9
European countries, involves the deployment of two main systems, namely
SAP and Ariba Buyer. The Ariba Buyer system is being used to provide
sites with a desktop browser based solution, for controlling the
processes of indirect goods and services procurement. Meanwhile, the
SAP R3 system enables the shared service centre to match, reconcile and
pay invoices, not only for the indirects captured by Ariba, but also
for the direct materials procured through existing local systems.
Autonomists were engaged to assist in the design, development and
implementation of a master data strategy, along with its accompanying
processes and systems.
Deploying to each of the 88 sites involves the collection of data
describing financial accounting, procurement logistics and workflow
approval rules, along with user and role information. Once the data is
gathered, it is validated and merged with the data of other sites, for
acceptance testing, and ultimately, deployment in the production
systems.
This client is now successfully using a scalable and repeatable
methodology along with an associated tool kit, developed by
Autonomists, to rollout across Europe.
H.J. Heinz
As part of a continuous cost reduction exercise and a global systems
standardisation programme, this client is implementing SAP SRM to
capture and control indirect material and services spend. The
operational data gathered by system, enables the Procurement Team to
identify and control common areas of spend. In simple terms,
aggregating spend, with fewer suppliers, allows the client to leverage
economies of scale and to drive down their costs.
Autonomists were engaged to perform system testing, develop and deliver
end-user training as well as perform supplier enablement.
System testing included test script development, the execution of
integration testing, support for business acceptance testing (BAT) and
working alongside the technical team to regression test bug fixes.
End-user training involved the development and review of materials,
following this a training plan was developed and courses ranging from
hands-on PC based tuition through to seminar based introductory
sessions, were delivered to hundreds of end-users across multiple sites.
Supplier enablement and catalogue content creation steps included a
spend analysis exercise, followed by a supplier selection and adoption
process. Ultimately, catalogues for both indirect good and service
suppliers have been produced, with the aim that over 80% of orders
should be catalogue based.
Autonomists Master Data Tool (MDT)
All transactional systems require good quality and high integrity
master data in order to function correctly. Examples of master data
include vendor details (name, address, payment information etc.), user
data (names, roles for authorization etc.), financial data (chart of
accounts, projects, budgets etc.). Typically, master data remains
relatively static once established, unlike transactional data, such as
orders, invoices, stock movements, which are a record of day-to-day
activity.
When implementing a transactional system, master data goes through
various stages before it can be loaded into the target system and
utilised. The main stages include collection, validation, merging and
transformation. The Autonomists Master Data Tool (MDT) has been proven
in the field to help control all these activities both during and after
a systems implementation.
In most cases MS Excel is used to collect and communicate master
data. The majority of PC users require little or no training, in how to
utilise spreadsheets to enter and manipulate raw data. Spreadsheets can
easily handle large amounts of master data, when necessary and are also
easy to communicate via email, or to store in eRooms.
Master data teams tend to define template spreadsheets when collecting
data, these give a structure to be followed and try to ensure all the
necessary information is captured. A template will typically give each
column a heading and some comments about the data that is required
along with its format. Unfortunately, spreadsheets are not very good at
checking data syntax and this is the first stage at which the
Autonomists Master Data Tool (MDT) can help in the process.
Within the MDT, definition files are used to describe the layout of the
master data spreadsheet templates and the syntactical rules for each
column of data. The MDT can utilise these definition files, in
conjunction with the spreadsheet templates, to check the data syntax.
Checks include;
- Column names and
column order
- Column field data type
Text (any combination of letters, numbers and
punctuation)
Number (valid combinations of numbers and separators)
Date (any valid format, see column field mask, for
further refinement)
Boolean (flag indicating a value of TRUE or FALSE
only)
- Column field length
- Column field mask
(utilises powerful regular expressions), e.g.
^00[0-9]{4}$ (first two digits always 00, then any
digit 0 to 9 exactly 4 times)
^(([A-Z]{1,2}[0-9][0-9A-Z]{0,1})\
([0-9][A-Z]{2}))|(GIR\ 0AA)$ (for UK post code check)
- Column field required
- Column field unique
key
The ability to state that values in this column
(plus when optionally combined with other columns) should be unique on
every row
- Column field lookup
The ability to lookup the value in another template
to check if it exists
- Column multiple field
lookup
The ability to lookup several fields in another
template to check if they exist in a single row
The MDT will report errors, if data in the spreadsheet templates does
not conform to the syntax described in the definition file. It is
interesting to note that definition files are also used to validate
data when it is merged and when it is transformed. There is even a
definition file that defines the syntax for definition files, however,
that is probably a subject for another time.
If you are collecting the same spreadsheet templates from multiple
sources, e.g. perhaps multiple sites or divisions within your business,
then they will ultimately require merging into one combined unit. The
MDT achieves this with its merge functionality, loading all validated
templates into database tables, one per spreadsheet template. In order
to avoid duplication and other issues, the MDT will utilise the
definition files to validate merged data and will report errors if any
are found.
Once merged into the MDT database, data can effectively be ‘checked-in’
or ‘checked-out’ on demand. This feature allows for some limited form
of master data version control, similar to that found in the software
development arena. For full version control, the MDT can be used in
conjunction with a tool such as Subversion (SVN), the result being
complete historical template trace-ability.
The final function of the MDT is to transform master data into the
appropriate format for loading into the destination system. The
structure of database tables in many transactional systems bares no
resemblance to the spreadsheet templates used to collect the data. The
MDT utilises Sequel (SQL) to slice and dice the master data into output
files matching the destination system requirements. Once again
definition files are used by the MDT to validate that the
transformation does not break any syntactical rules and hence cause
data load failures.
Although this is only a brief overview of the Autonomists Master Data
Tool (MDT), it is hopefully enough to give an indication of its
powerful nature and potential scope. For one client, the MDT is used
not only during the initial data gathering process, but also after
go-live as a mechanism to maintain master data on an ongoing basis.
If you are interested in finding out more, feel free to contact us.
Contact Us
To contact us simply send an email to info 'at' autonomists.co.uk
Credits
Andreas Viklund - For the website template