We all know the global data synchronization (GDS) train is coming down the track, but what most suppliers and retailers don’t know is whether their data is ready for GDS or not.

I say most don’t know; but to be honest if they were to guess they’d probably say it’s nowhere near ready. Anecdotal evidence of lack of preparedness for GDS in terms of data is backed up by industry studies. In the UK the Data Crunch Project carried out by GS1 in conjunction with some of the country’s largest supermarkets and consumer goods suppliers revealed data being used in the supply chain is inconsistent in well over 80 per cent of instances.

A related study in Australia found remarkably similar results. In order to understand the impact of bad product data, GS1 Australia discussed the findings of the survey with representatives of large retailers and suppliers, who concluded the most likely cost implications of the data misalignment highlighted in the study fell into three main areas: Manual Workarounds four per cent, Administrative Shrinkage 31 per cent and Lost Consumer Sales 65 per cent.

Data quality is always important, but when it comes to collaboration between trading partners and GDS it’s paramount. The growing demand for data to drive e-commerce initiatives, satisfy consumer demand for nutritional information, traceability and product specifications, and to comply with government and regulatory bodies regarding environmental, packaging and legal issues, is further complicating an already complex situation. The problem is obviously significant and growing in significance every day.

So is your data ready for GDS? How would you even begin to find out? The data needed for GDS can come from multiple systems and is provided in different formats leaving data management teams with the unenviable task of tying it all together.

Organizations need an easy way to measure how well their data conforms to GS1 standards, retailer-specific requirements and many other Data Quality rules. That’s why we built the Clavis Data Quality Monitoring Service. By simply uploading their data (from whatever source) to Clavis, suppliers and retailers get access to a comprehensive dashboard of Data Quality reports and scorecards that gives them a realistic understanding of the quality of their trading partner data for the first time. The Clavis reports will tell them if their data is ready for GDS and if not what they have to do to make it so.

Not a bad place to start if you want to get on the GDS train when it arrives at your station.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 at 9:54 am and is filed under Cost of Poor Data Quality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.