Following any data
cleansing project, the challenge becomes maintaining ongoing integrity and
consistency of the item master as new records are created and existing ones are
modified. There are several strategies and solutions available for catalog
management, yet the most common question companies ask themselves is, “Should
we manage the catalog internally or outsource?” At first, it may seem more cost
effective and realistic to manage the catalog internally, however, there are
many factors that need to be considered to truly determine, “is internal
catalog management really more cost effective?”
Let’s take a look at some
of the pros and cons of internal catalog management versus outsourcing.
First of all, at the risk
of sounding like a broken record, manufacturing companies specialize in producing
finished goods, not in data cleansing. This statement is not intended to be an
insult to manufacturing companies; it is simply a fact, just like a data
cleansing company does not specialize in manufacturing finished goods. For this
reason, internal catalog management can often yield poor results and ultimately
end up costing companies more money in the long run.
But how, data cleansing
seems so straightforward right? In some ways yes, but if that were truly the
case then why would any company need to cleanse their data in the first place? If
data cleansing were so easy then every manufacturing company would have
perfectly standardized and formatted data, yet this is absolutely not the case.
When left up to internal
resources with limited part knowledge and cleansing expertise, the naming
convention, contents, and format of item descriptions are at the mercy of user
interpretation. In addition, manufacturing companies do not have access to the
automated cleansing tools that a service provider would; therefore the entire
process requires manual sorting, researching, validation, and formatting. As
you can imagine, this can be extremely laborious and potentially generate
inconsistency and inaccurate information. Without the proper tools to enable
accuracy, consistency, and efficiency, maintaining the catalog internally
suddenly became a much more costly and time-consuming task.
To capture the best of
both worlds, here’s a suggestion… First select a third-party service provider,
preferably the company that completed the original data cleansing project, to
assume the daily catalog management activities. Next, since every company wants
ownership of their data, establish an internal data governance team, which will
act as the gatekeeper to review and approve all cleansed data and catalog
updates before they are entered into the live ERP system. Using this
methodology, you should only be paying for the catalog updates that are
actually processed, and can rest assured that each item meets the pre-defined
project standards, is rich with validated attribute enhancements, and is
consistent amongst product groups. By doing so, you will ultimately reduce
internal cost and effort, while maximizing data quality and return on
investment.
So as you plan your next
data cleansing and catalog management project, be sure to consider all your
options. Are you looking to manage the catalog internally, purchase an
automated software package, or contract a third-party service provider? Do you
have adequate internal resources that can be allocated to the catalog
management role? Do these resources have sufficient part knowledge and
cleansing expertise? Do you have access to the necessary tools and software
applications to capture required information and properly format descriptions?
Remember time is money and…well, poor results are just wasted money.
For more information on data cleansing and catalog management services, please visit www.imaltd.com or contact info@imaltd.com.