Product Data Quality: Health, Safety, and Security

Why Indominus rex could so easily escape from the cage? It had happened because the dinosaur was genetically created both to entertain kids at Jurassic World Park and to be a perfect weapon: the genetic engineers have more than delivered. The security engineers did not know that it could control body temperature. Temperature sensors were used to track a dinosaur inside the cage. Indominus was smart to become invisible for sensor and escape.

An incident became possible because Indominus features and parameters, such as IQ level, speed, ability to control body temperature, and ability to change skin color were initially unknown to the Jurassic World administration and security engineers.

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PIM for global sourcing: features and functions

Is it possible to share the same product repository and classifier both for buyers and for sellers from different countries and different industries? What features should Product Information Management (PIM) systems have to do so?

Today there are only a few good examples: GS1 and IceCat in FMCG. Some experts could mention UN SPSC, which was initially developed for statistical needs. However, its application in procurement is doubtful.

Clearly, firms have unique requirements to their classifier structures and to the product information. Information that is necessary for one company might be redundant for another. Both abundance of unnecessary details and lack of vital information might reduce process effectiveness. Therefore, companies need customized product templates (item identification guides in ISO 8000 terminology) for items of procurement, items of production, and items of supply.

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What will happen with printed catalogs in the new digital B2B-commerce world?

One of the most difficult questions that everyone has to answer after an exhibition – what to do with this heap of catalogs? Yes, this is my little mountain of catalogs on the photo above, just a part of it.

Actualog offers a unique classifier and provides categories templates for forty industries, and I use those catalogs to define facets, categories and attributes.
Why it is necessary to use this heavy bulky catalogues? (more…)

Waiting for the Semantic Web: Product Information Management Perspective

“People want to be a part of something that is the future”

Marc Benioff, Behind the Cloud

Anyone who has just discovered the concept of Semantic Web wonders why, despite the apparent simplicity and usefulness of the concept, its deployment takes such a long time and still does not produce any noticeable effects on business. Why a framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries remains only a concept rather than a dominating standard? (more…)

Why PIM is important?

Product Information Management in B2B: who is responsible for product data?

Understanding of a PIM system is still missing in the B2B area.  At the same time, we are witnessing two trends determining the growing importance of product information management (PIM) for purchased and manufactured products.

Firstly, it is the rise of online trading in the B2B segment. Sales and marketing models have traditionally been built around large sales forces, C-suite relationships, and enterprise-wide implementations. A disruptive new sales model, however, is emerging: digital-enabled enterprise sales more closely resembles B2C e-commerce models where large enterprise customers can research, test, and start paying for products without stepping away from their computer and with minimal sales touches.   (more…)

Actualog: Powered by Windows Azure – опыт использования платформы

О компании

ACTUALOG – это универсальная B2B платформа для обмена информацией о продуктах и продуктовых каталогах между производителями, поставщиками и потребителями. Система предоставляет возможность организовать всю имеющуюся информацию с помощью универсального классификатора, который создается общими усилиями с привлечением сообщества экспертов.

Для удобного доступа различных групп компаний к большим объемам информации предусмотрена фильтрация по отраслевым сообществам. Это позволяет пользователям видеть только интересующие их разделы классификатора и до минимума сокращает необходимость сложной навигации по всеобъемлющему классификатору. Инновационный пользовательский интерфейс позволяет эффективно взаимодействовать потребителям, поставщикам и сообществу экспертов используя, в том числе, и такой современный способ коллективной работы как социальные сети.

Одной из важнейших функций системы является поддержка многоязычности, которая позволяет не только локализовать интерфейс пользователей из разных стран, но и хранить информацию о компаниях, продуктах и категориях на различных языках, предоставляет возможность создавать мультиязычные каталоги продукции.

С помощью относительно небольшого начального объема инвестиций   команде разработчиков удалось создать продукт с высокой степенью готовности к промышленной эксплуатации.
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