Product information systems embrace company data for a single version of the truth

摘要

The latest attempts to arrive at "a single version of the truth" about company data are focused in consumer packaged goods and retailing, and revolve around data synchronization and product information management (PIM). Jim Murphy, analyst with Boston-based AMR Research, says it's important to distinguish between these two processes. "Global data synchronization is about companies sharing data with each other. Wal-Mart and others have mandated that product attributes come to them in a certain form, so manufacturers are trying to get product information out of existing systems and integrate it directly with UCCnet or Transora [now both part of 1SYNC, which provides standardized data-pool services]," he says.