Data Maintenance in the Invend CribMaster Database

Background

After a recent review, we discovered that:

• More than 40k unused MDM's in CribMaster:  Many of which were no longer valid and we are being pushed by the Group Data Team to remove from CribMaster, if it is not longer in use. This is because if an item is in CribMaster then it is protected from deletion or changes in the MDM database.  Also, the MDM>CribMaster integration has been one direction for many years, meaning items added in ICPD are sent to CM, but they are never removed, and so the product data keeps growing (never reducing).  
• 100k active users not logged into a vending machine in over 3 months: This has now been updated to 6 months. There are potential security and personal data risks associated with never deactivating unused accounts. We rarely (if ever) are notified that users no longer need access to vending machines. Typically, users are only removed, once the vending machines are removed. 

We have decided to approach this with some automated housekeeping, to reduce the need to require our teams to take on added workloads. The result has been the following processes being created;

 

Vending Users

Points to note;

• Users are only deactivated (they are not deleted). Users are only deleted once they have been inactive for two years, or a specific request is made from the customer under data protection policy.
• Customers with access to the VMI portal can reactivate any inactive user at any time
• A user need only log in to the vending machine twice in one year. They do not need to dispense an item, so it will not cost the customer any money. 
• New users imported by Group Support Team or manually created in CM Client or CM Web will not be made inactive until after 6 months from their original created date. 

MDM 

• Vending data will be cleared from ICPD (images, Invend description, test data etc)
• Protection flag lifted from MDM, allowing the group data team to delete/amend/supersede as needed 

Points to note;

• A one-off clean-up was recently carried out and all MDM's not currently active in vending machines were removed. some of those MDM's will be added back in, where we still have transaction records. This is to make the reporting clearer and was a result of your feedback. 
• Going forward, the process above will be implemented. 
• If an MDM needs to be added again in the future, the usual item creation process can be carried out in ICPD. The benefit of this is that we then have the opportunity to re-test the item, to pick up any changes to the product, such as packaging/sizing/images etc.

As always, please reach out to discuss any concerns you might have however, please take some time fully to understand any nuances or use cases that do not fit with these rules, as there will need to be very strong evidence demonstrated, to make changes to them; for example, providing some useful insight as to how the changes might otherwise negatively affect customer operations . 

It should not be acceptable to simply leave accounts active or let the products database grow indefinitely.