Stibo Systems Blog

Stibo Systems is excited to be a Platinum sponsor again at the Gartner Master Data Management Summit this April 4 – 5, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. Not only will we be exhibiting, but we will also be there presenting, "Success with MDM - A Customer's Perspective" at 3:45 PM on Wednesday, April 4.

As we all know, but often overlook, product information is the foundation of any successful online endeavor.  Rich copy, extensive attribution, comparison guides and charts, images, documents, videos and more.  To create a compelling online experience that drives conversion, you have to enlighten and empower your customers to buy.  Try driving sales with only a SKU, 30 character description, price and a single poor-quality image…

Recently, I talked with the CEO of a large distribution firm. This company has worked diligently to improve data management internally. It can now publish accurate and consistent product information across all print and online channels. And it has drastically reduced cycle times for publishing and updating their large catalogs, printed marketing materials, websites and data syndications to downstream partners and affiliates.

Marketing in a multichannel environment is no easy task. Getting product content approved and syndicated across online and offline channels takes a tremendous time and effort. So it’s no surprise that most marketers have been focused on perfecting this “push” process over the last few years.

Globalization. Rising incomes in emerging economies. Greater consumer expectations.

These are just some of the key factors that have caused the food supply chain to grow dramatically in both scale and complexity over the last decade. The kind of growth that has also led to a number of high-profile food safety outbreaks and public health concerns.

Innovation continues to be a hot topic in boardrooms everywhere. But innovation alone is worthless if a company can’t get products to market faster.

Truth is, a high percentage of product introductions run over budget and are continually behind schedule. According to a survey by the IBM Institute for Business Value, 48 percent of products are launched late, and 35 percent of them are over budget.

One of the biggest challenges facing merchants today is managing tens of thousands of products across multiple sites and channels. Maintaining data quality in such a scenario is extremely challenging. So is introducing new or updated products.

In fact, it’s not unusual for a product to take many weeks from the moment it is introduced into a company system to the time it’s actually available for sale. Considering the current economic climate retailers and distributors are working in, reducing this timeframe can have a tremendous impact on business performance.

Just this week, Ventana Research released its 2011 Value Index for Product Information Management, a new research-based index designed to provide authoritative metrics to guide business and IT buyers.

I’m pleased to report that Stibo Systems was named the top overall ranked “Hot Vendor,” and our STEP PIM/MDM enterprise solution ranked highest in seven key categories.

In a recent article, RIS News commented on RSR Research’s latest benchmark report, “The Cross Channel Wake Up Call.” One of the conclusions in that report is that internal cultural challenges now far outweigh the challenge of meeting consumers’ ever-evolving needs.

This is an interesting observation. It highlights the fact that we’ve finally reached a point in business where it’s not a lack of technology that’s preventing businesses from providing consumers what they want, when they want it, and at the price they want to pay.

Once a retailer has a full-cycle information management platform in place—a single source of master product information for the entire business—it’s all the people stuff that gets in the way of cross-channel success.