Distributor Solutions


Creating a multi-vendor distributor catalog is a daunting task. Each supplier has their own product formats, classification and standards.

For example, one supplier may refer to a UOM (Unit of Measure) as 'inches', whereas another abbreviate it to 'in'. Aggregating these two into a common format will result in inconsistent data, that is not searchable or comparable in the sales channels.

This simple example illustrates the complexities distributors face when aggregating supplier product information.

This aggregation is further complicated if the distributor is managing product information with loose manual processes and disparate systems.

Consider the process of a supplier introducing a new MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for an existing product sold by a distributor. By the time this MSDS is made available to the distributor company, channeled through the various departments and finally made accessible to customer touch-points, there could be a long delay. This poses serious legal risk for the distributor who is legally bound to sell products with complete and stipulated safety documents.

Similarly, a product specification change by a supplier may only reach the distributor's various sales channel catalogs after many months delay. In the mean-time the distributor's sales team will be selling outdated products, and the customer service team providing customer support with old product information. This situation typically results in very dissatisfied customers, who ultimately take their business elsewhere.

In essence, a distributor faces three areas of data and process inefficiency with respect to the management of their product information and catalogs:

Aggregating Product Information from Multiple Suppliers
Collating multiple supplier product information, each with different formats and standards, is a slow manual process, riddled with errors and inaccuracies.

Cleansing and Enhancing the Aggregated Data
The aggregated data is passed through each department for cleansing and enhancement. For example, the marketing department adds company-specific branding and copy, whereas product specialists maintain the product specifications.

In the absence of a catalog management system, each department creates it's own storage of the same product information, with the master repository not really being evident. Over time, this data is passed from department to department with 'manual' and uncontrolled processes. The end result is tremendous inefficiencies and inaccuracies creeping into the catalogs that are produced.

Disseminating Data to Multiple Customer Touch-Points
Similar to the aggregation of the supplier product information, the dissemination to customer touch-points (e.g. Web, print catalogs, sales and customer service) in turn involves multiple different formats and systems. Manually creating and updating each touch-point with the latest product information is slow and inefficient.


See how Apsiva addresses these problems