Overview of Master Data Upload

The Master Data Upload feature allows an Enterprise Administrator to upload certain system data for their organization in a bulk or batch mode format. This facilitates the process of loading large amounts of data onto the system in an efficient manner and avoids the need to manually enter the details of each entity type (also called as upload type) into the system, especially if the entity type contains a large amount of master data.

With this feature you can upload the following entity types and the corresponding data:
  • Customer - Use this entity type to upload details of business and consumer customers
  • Customer Price List - Use this entity type to assign customers to price list
  • Item List - Use this entity type to upload master data for items including attribute and asset details
  • Item Category - Use this entity type to assign items to categories
  • Item Price List - Use this entity type to assign items to price list

An Enterprise Administrator can upload master data in IBM® Sterling™ Business Center by first downloading the sample template file corresponding to the required entity type. The sample template file is available for download in .csv format. Modify the sample template file to your requirements, enter the master data, and submit the updated file for upload. You can view the status of the uploaded records, and any errors that occur during upload. If required, you can also stop the file upload. By default, an uploaded file is purged after five working days from the date of the corresponding file upload. Also, the files stored temporarily in the file system are deleted at the end of the session.

Each uploaded .csv file represents an upload job with one or more upload job records. Each upload job record represents a single upload data operation for the corresponding entity type. When a .csv file is uploaded, it is parsed into job records and processed by the system in the order the records are defined in the .csv file. For each upload job, each of the job records is processed and the operations associated with that entity type are executed.

For example, a .csv job file containing five customers will be parsed into five separate job records. The system will execute the appropriate operations on the customers in the system, depending upon the operation type (create, manage, or delete). Each job record will have an outcome (success or failure). A count is maintained for all successful and failed jobs. For failed jobs, the corresponding records and the failure reason can be retrieved and viewed in the Upload Status panel.