The importance of product information

Citation

(2002), "The importance of product information", Work Study, Vol. 51 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2002.07951daf.003

The importance of product information

The importance of product information

Full Degree Inc., an enterprise software and services company that claims to be reinventing the way enterprises manage, distribute and publish detailed product information, recently carried out a market research survey to assess the product information management requirements for manufacturers and retailers. The survey (luckily for Full Degree!) determined that the efficient management and centralisation of product information for the enterprise lie at the heart of successful e-commerce and multi-channel marketing and retailing.

The survey, conducted by Research and Marketing Strategies on behalf of Full Degree, sampled a cross-section of IT, brand management, merchandising and "creative services" executives at manufacturers and retailers in apparel, sporting goods, office products, educational products, consumer goods and others. Additional interviews were conducted with leading industry analysts as well as technology consulting firms.

An overwhelming majority of survey respondents voted product information management "a top priority for 2002" for successful marketing and selling. Manufacturers and retailers face great challenges managing detailed product information in today's multi-channel environment. To date, making product information available across the enterprise value-chain has been a drain on resources, time and money, as various users duplicate effort in the manual re-creation, management and re-purposing of data.

Jupiter Media Metrix estimates that $1.7 million a year is spent gathering and re-purposing information to create and update Web site content, sales brochures, product catalogues and other marketing collateral, and 35 per cent of IT resources is spent moving data among enterprise applications (IDC, 2001). When product information efforts are then replicated across each sales channel (direct, catalogue, OEM, VAR) and 85 per cent of product data must be recreated, product information management inefficiencies can seriously hinder productivity and undermine overall market competitiveness.

With multi-channel commerce expected to exceed $830 billion by 2005 (Jupiter, 2000), manufacturers and retailers are actively investing in solutions that streamline an enterprise's product information management processes. These solutions improve employee and partner productivity, reduce product life-cycle times, build channel loyalty and generate incremental revenue opportunities.

The survey additionally found that 75 per cent of respondents would prefer a system specifically designed for handling product information as opposed to a general-purpose data management system. A total of 88 per cent would like a product information-specific management system that supports multi-format publishing capabilities, and 90 per cent expressed a need to define business rules in order to maintain product data integrity and accuracy. A total of 90 per cent of respondents cited an immediate need to centralise product information for greater administrative control, to avoid duplication of effort, to eliminate multiple versions of data and to facilitate access and use.

According to survey participants, a successful product information management system must have the following critical features and functionality:

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  integrate seamlessly with CRM applications and other enterprise systems, such as catalogue content management and ERP systems;

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  be easy to use to facilitate rapid adoption and minimal training requirements;

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  have ability to handle all product-related assets, including specifications, product images, pricing and marketing messages, among others;

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  support product data across the entire product lifecycle from product development, marketing and merchandising through sales and support; and

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  automate product data updates across all online and offline channels simultaneously and in real-time.