Häufig gestellte Fragen
What is a Single Source of Truth in simple terms?
A Single Source of Truth (SSoT) refers to the principle of keeping every piece of business-relevant information exactly once in a central, authoritative location that all systems and reports access by reference. Instead of maintaining the same customer address, the same item price or the same bill of materials several times in parallel, each record exists only once and is linked via unique keys. When a value changes, the update happens in a single place, and all dependent processes immediately work with the current state. The SSoT is not a product you can buy, but an architecture and governance principle for data management.
What are the benefits of a Single Source of Truth in ERP?
The central benefit is freedom from contradictions: purchasing, production, sales, warehousing and financial accounting all draw on the same data foundation, so divergent stock figures, duplicate customer records or inconsistent prices are avoided. Because data is maintained only once, reconciliation effort and sources of error decrease while data quality rises. Reliable data is also the prerequisite for robust reporting and forecasting as well as for regulatory evidence, since contradictory sources would otherwise lead to misinterpretations. Automated and near-real-time processes such as just-in-time control likewise only work reliably when all departments access the same master data.
How does SSoT differ from Master Data Management (MDM)?
The Single Source of Truth is the goal, or architectural principle, of keeping each piece of information authoritative in exactly one place, while Master Data Management is one of the central organisational and technical disciplines used to achieve that goal. MDM consolidates master data such as customer, item or supplier data, defines data owners, maintenance processes and quality rules, and makes them usable via a central point of reference. An SSoT can thus be understood as the target state, and MDM as the method and toolset on the way there. Without functioning master data management, a Single Source of Truth usually remains little more than an aspiration in practice.
Can there be several Single Sources of Truth?
Yes, but only one per data object, so that for every piece of information it is unambiguously defined which system is authoritative. It is common for the ERP to be the SSoT for finance and logistics, a CRM for sales contacts and a PIM for product data. What matters is a clear, documented division of responsibilities so that the authoritative sources do not overlap. Other systems then access the responsible source by reference instead of maintaining their own copies.
How does an SSoT differ from a data warehouse?
A data warehouse aggregates data from operational systems for analysis purposes and is generally not the source where data is edited. The Single Source of Truth, by contrast, primarily concerns operational data management and prevents redundancy at the source, instead of merging several data sets after the fact. A data warehouse can, however, constitute an authoritative basis for analysis within its own domain — a kind of “Single Source of Reporting Truth”. The two concepts therefore complement each other but serve different purposes.
How do you implement a Single Source of Truth?
The starting point is an analysis of the existing data landscape, defining which system should be authoritative for which data object, together with a uniform definition of key terms and metrics. Next, responsibilities, maintenance and approval processes as well as rules for duplicate checking and data validation are defined, often supported by central Master Data Management. Technically, integrations should rely on references rather than new copies via open interfaces such as a documented API, complemented by an audit trail for traceability. Since overcoming data silos is above all an organisational task, clear governance and involving the affected departments early on are usually just as important as the technology.
Is a Single Source of Truth a single point of failure?
No, the two terms must be kept clearly apart, even though they sound similar. A Single Source of Truth describes logical data integrity — meaning there is only one authoritative version of a record — and not necessarily a single physical server. The underlying data storage can be technically distributed, replicated and operated in a fault-tolerant manner, so that no single point of failure arises. A more realistic risk lies in data quality, since faulty entries have a centralised impact, which is why validation, clear responsibilities and monitoring remain important.