The
creation and management of a catalog involves
multiple people and products. Inefficiencies creep
in due to the intricacies of each process:
People Processes
Catalog management involves the collaboration
of numerous departments within and externally
to an organization.
In the case of a distributor, suppliers provide
product specifications, internal product specialists
clean up and enhance the data, marketing add copy
and an external production-house shoots images
for the products.
Each stakeholder in the process has a different
role and responsibility. In the absence of a system,
inefficiencies are abound when these stakeholders
interact in an ad-hoc way. They each create their
own repository of the same product information,
there is little control of sensitive data like
pricing and security of the data is hard to control.
Product
Processes
Products evolve through a life cycle specific
to the organization.
During the design process, a manufacturer would
consider product information to be in a pre-production
or draft stage - not ready for sale. During the
final stages of design, a product manager may
lock down the product specifications and want
to prohibit further changes from occurring by
other departments. And finally, when management
give the authorization, the product information
may be certified for sale.
Defining and managing these product life cycle
stage are key to accelerating products to market,
while at the same time ensuring data integrity
and security.
The problem is further complicated when post certification
is taken into account. How is a product discontinued?
If a product specification change is made, what
happens to the current certified product? Which
copy is master?
Inevitably, catalog management involves the mingling
of both people and product processes - they are
not mutually exclusive. This results in various
issues. Islands of the same data get created.
There is departmental overlap in responsibility
due to the manual nature of inter-departmental
interaction. There are no clear responsibilities.
There is poor control
over product information security and integrity.
This
two-dimensional process perspective illustrates
the importance of a world-class catalog management
system to optimize processes and data.
See how Apsiva
tackles people and data processes
