PIM Suite Update from FullTilt

Product information management suite adds upgraded business process optimization capabilities

Product information management suite adds upgraded business process optimization capabilities

Wayne, PA — September 9, 2004 — FullTilt Solutions today rolled out the latest version of its enterprise product information management (PIM) solution, adding a new business process management system designed to help companies automate processes relating to product information, among other upgraded features.

FullTilt said that the new version of its Perfect Product Suite is designed to optimize a company's product information for more efficient electronic commerce. Version 5.0 incorporates the new FullTilt Business Process Management System (BPMS), intended to allow organizations to further automate processes related to creating, managing and synchronizing internal product information dynamically across the supply chain in order to cut costs, deliver products to market more effectively and improve customer service.

Other upgraded features include improvements in product versioning and change control, "lights out" automation, management reporting, audience-specific delta detection and catalog management.

According to the provider, Perfect Product Suite 5.0 is an example of a new breed of business applications driven by an extensible service-oriented architecture (SOA) targeting cross-function, end-to-end business processes. "It automates the internal and external data synchronization processes necessary to ensure that product information is accurate, relevant and dynamic within the enterprise and throughout the supply chain," FullTilt said in announcing the new version.

Perfect Product Suite supports manufacturer and retail data synchronization with UCCnet, ECCnet, Transora, WWRE, GHX, IDEA and others and in user-defined custom formats. In addition, FullTilt said it lays the groundwork to comply with data standardization requirements mandated by Wal-Mart and other major retailers and enables companies to implement collaborative initiatives such as CPFR, GTIN compliance requirements, Sunrise 2005 and radio frequency identification (RFID).

According to a recent study by Capgemini, more than 50 percent of the items in company systems contain incorrect data. The analysis found that half of consumer units were incorrect and one-third of traded units were inaccurate. It also reported that nearly 75 percent of suppliers of consumer units had incorrect items, and 57 percent of suppliers of traded units had errors. The report further stated: "The use of new enabling technology such as EPC-enabled RFID tags, which will provide previously unimagined visibility across the supply chain, simply will not bring their promised benefits unless they are built upon a foundation of quality information."

FullTilt said its PIM suite aggregates product attributes and other information from multiple enterprise data stores and through business processes, and adjusts disparate definitions to conform to a uniform standard. It then dynamically updates and synchronizes information as it changes, maintains product information and links in a central repository for a "single source of product truth," and outputs data in any format required to synchronize with internal enterprise systems and users or external trading partners.

"Mismatched and obsolete item data costs companies millions of dollars every year in problems like inaccurate invoices and shipments, and the growing adoption of standards like Global Data Synchronization is making it imperative for companies to reconcile these disparities in order to do business with the Wal-Marts and Krogers of the world," said Andrew White, research director for enterprise and supply chain management at technology consultancy Gartner. "Good product information management solutions provide a means of eliminating discrepancies to create uniform product definitions while also offering the business process automation tools that are essential to keep product information current on an ongoing basis."

For a look at how Canadian company McCain Foods is overcoming data synchronization challenges in its supply and demand chain, see the article "Building a 'Trusted Source'" in the April/May 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.
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