24 SCS:DATA SYNCHRONISATION
system data for a product is entered through one point
only, which ensures a higher level of accuracy.
The big ERP vendors, such as SAP and Oracle, now
have PIM solutions as part of their master data
management programmes – because it’s not just product
data that needs to be sorted out but there are
discrepancies with customer data and financial data too.
GS1’s Besford is also acutely aware of the data quality
issue – as Besford puts it, “there’s no point in exchanging
bad data”. GS1 has launched an industry forum, co-chaired
by Sainsbury’s and Britvic, with the objective of developing
practical means for industry to improve its data quality.
Traditionally, each retailer has its own new product setup
forms with different definitions, descriptions and data
requirements. Between now and Christmas the group is
looking to standardise these forms. “This is a quick win
for them,” says Besford. “Suppliers can fill out these forms
faster and when they take
the next step of moving to GDS it’s
a matter of just automating the process. Hopefully, in the
New Year we are expecting to have two retailers
implementing the new standardised lines form.”
One company that is migrating to the GS1 UK Data
Pool to exchange product information with its suppliers
is pub restaurants operator, Mitchells & Butlers. The
company has around 2,000 businesses offering food and
drink in the UK, including leading brands such as
Browns, Vintage Inns and All Bar One.
“It’s work in progress,” says Richard Pratt, commercial
director of Mitchells & Butlers. “We are just about to
move from using a dedicated Mitchells & Butlers new
lines form for gathering data, across into using the GDSN
standard.” Within the next 12 months Pratt believes he
will have moved everything across.
“We want to build the interfaces so that we can
automatically import information from GDSN directly
into our data warehouse – at the moment this is still
done manually.” He believes the benefit will be in
NOVEMBER 2008 SUPPLY CHAIN STANDARD
www.supplychainstandard.com
reducing confusion. Already he sees benefits in, “only
paying for things we receive, paying the right price for
the right product, improved availability, and fewer wrong
products being delivered”.
Pratt offers his views on why the wider adoption of
GDSN is taking so long. “The problem lies with legacy
systems that people have in their businesses already. Their
product codes and data are imbedded in multiple systems
in their organisations.” According to Pratt, this requires
the use of translation tables on top of the system which
complicates the issue. He believes the software vendors
hold the answer, “the way to crack this is to embed the
ability to use GS1 standards within the software”.
Nihat Arkan, chief executive of SA2 Worldsync, a data
pool with a global reach, gives his reasons for the
apparent disparity of interest in GDSN between retailers
and manufacturers. “The business values are much more
easily proven to manufacturers than retailers despite the
fact that, in my opinion, retailers benefit equally well.”
He sees retailers working in international markets being
more likely to get involved than retailers acting just
locally, “because consolidation of the master item
information at the global or regional level has huge value
If you can immediately take a
new item introduction and
implement it into your
ordering system and have your
buyers order it and thereafter
manage that into your
inventory and track it, making
the billing against that, and
managing your overall supply
chain, you can create amazing
value for your organisation.
for global players, such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Metro.”
He adds, “slowness comes about because at the
headquarters it’s easy to see the value, at local level this
is more difficult. The real value comes not just in
synchronising the data, but what you do with that data
and how you evaluate that data.That’s the key.”
“If you can immediately take a new item introduction
and implement it into your ordering system and have
your buyers order it and thereafter manage that into your
inventory and track it, making the billing against that,
and managing your overall supply chain, you can create
amazing value for your organisation.”
Arkan sees consolidation ahead for data pools. “I do
expect further consolidation. I would say in a two year
timeframe there will be two levels of data pools; one will
be local and then there will be one, or a maximum of
two, that will be global – our place is at the global level.”
He adds, “I don’t expect local level consolidation.”
Perhaps, what’s needed is a “Google” of the data pool
market place? What seems clear is that getting data
synchronisation right brings many benefits and is a
prerequisite to the adoption of RFID. The underlying
standards behind RFID and GDS are identical, but RFID
is only going to bring value if the data is accurate.
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