Hello - This question is to those with experience in database managment and best practices.
I am convinced our sys admin is not properly maintaining our ERP database, and it greatly affects and needlessly complicates what I try to do in Power Bi. Specifically, my question relates to Customer IDs, unique values, and cutomer names. He also does not use "offical" customer names such as the formal name of a company you would find in their 10k or other financial document. Instead he allows for derivatives of that name. So, instead of Widget World, Inc he uses (or does not disallow via better governance) a name like Widget World. And if that entity has a branch in another state, he allows for Widget World - Florida, for example. For example, if Widget World - Florida place a purchase order with us, this is the name on the order line, versus the parent company Widget World. I can understand that, but it seems to me there should be a master customer record for Widget World, Inc that ALL orders get placed under, regardless of what related entity places an order.
Our customer table also has dozens of examples of duplicate customer names...but under different customer IDs. And in cases, it could look something like this:
ID Name Channel
C-01245 Widget World Retail
C-01369 Widget World Wholesale
C-01245 Widget World (blank)
I would love to hear any feedback on the best way to handle master customer data. And especially issues around what if the customer changes their name, what if they get acquired, what if the same customer sells to two different channels (and we want to categorize them as such). Thanks for any thoughts on this!
