Setting Up CDM Mappings in MDM
Importance of CDM mappings
Common Data Model (CDM) mappings play a crucial role in the Master Data Management (MDM) process, serving as the backbone for data integration and synchronization across various systems. By establishing a standardized data model, CDM mappings ensure consistent and accurate data exchange between disparate systems, reducing complexities and eliminating data inconsistencies. This standardization facilitates efficient data management, enhances data quality, and supports seamless interoperability, ultimately driving informed decision-making and operational efficiency.
Setting up the CDM mappings
Setting up CDM mappings involves defining the relationships between the data fields in your system and the standardized fields in the Common Data Model (CDM). This process is essential for ensuring that data flows correctly and consistently between systems during synchronization processes. Here are the steps to set up CDM mappings:
- Identify Common Data Entities: Determine the common entities that are present across your systems, such as Contacts, Opportunities, or Products.
- Define CDM Properties: For each entity, define a set of standardized properties in the CDM that represent the data fields commonly used across your systems.
- Map System-Specific Properties to CDM: For each system integrated into the MDM, map its specific data properties to the corresponding CDM properties. This mapping ensures that when data is synchronized, it is correctly translated into the standardized format.
You may set up CDM Mappings in the MDM UI as well.
| Name | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| System | Name of your system or third party app you want to create CDM mappings for | Salesforce |
| Entity | Name of the common entity the properties refer to | Contact |
CDM Mapping: A key-value pair of your application's property and the common property it refers to.
| Name | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| API Property | Your application's property | Salesforce uses mobilePhone |
| CDM Property | The common property it refers to. Applications will map the value of their API Property to this CDM Property and vice versa during syncing. | phone |
Required Property and Value: Property requirements differ between applications. For example, in an Opportunity/Deal, the stage property may be mandatory in one application but optional or nonexistent in another. Empty required values during syncing can hinder successful synchronization. To address this, key-value pairs are used to provide default values for empty required properties during mapping and syncing in MDM.
| Name | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Required Property | The name of the required property | stage |
| Default | The default value to assign this property if the property is empty. This could occur when other systems don't have this property or this property is only optional. Check the application itself for the correct default value. | "New Deal" |
Foreign Keys: For when a record being made in a target system/API being synced, has a foreign key, or an associated ID that belongs to a different record of another entity. For example, an opportunity/deal record may be associated with a contact. Hence it would have a contactId property, which would contain the ID of the associated contact.
| Name | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Origin Entity | The entity the foreign key property originally belongs to | Contact |
| Foreign Key Property Name | The name of the foreign key id property | contact_id |
Importing and exporting CDM mappings
MDM provides functionality to import and export CDM mappings, facilitating easy migration, backup, and sharing of configurations across different environments or MDM instances.
Exporting CDM Mappings
To export CDM mappings:
- Navigate to the CDM Mappings section in the MDM interface.
- Select the mappings you wish to export.
- Use the export function to download the mappings as a JSON or CSV file.
Importing CDM Mappings
To import CDM mappings:
- Navigate to the CDM Mappings section in the MDM interface.
- Choose the import option and select the file containing the CDM mappings.
- Map the imported fields to the correct entities and properties in your MDM setup.
- Complete the import process to update your MDM with the new mappings.