Offers more data model, business process automation capabilities; platform can synchronize with UCCnet, Transora, WWRE
Santa Clara, CA — August 24, 2004 — Velosel Corp., a provider of collaborative product information management (CPIM) software, today announced the general availability of an upgraded version of its Velosel5 CPIM platform, which supports both manufacturer and retailer simultaneous data synchronization with UCCnet, Transora, and the WorldWide Retail Exchange (WWRE).
The company said Velosel5 offers an extended data model and improved business process capabilities to enable associated data domains such as location, vendor, customer and radio frequency identification (RFID)-specific attributes.
First, the data model gives manufacturers and retailers the ability to expand and customize the number of product attributes, without IT involvement. It includes additional attribute support for the hard lines, manufacturing and retail segments, and new initiatives such as direct store delivery.
Second, Velosel5 offers new support for a variety of business processes, including item management, acceptance, and authorization and exception processing for retailers; vendor and display introduction; sales fact sheet creation; and date reminder processing for manufacturers.
"CPG companies and retailers alike are recognizing that product information management is the foundation for strategic initiatives like RFID and global data synchronization. These solutions provide a competitive advantage by driving more efficiencies and substantial cost savings across the entire supply chain," commented Joshua Greenbaum, principal, Enterprise Applications Consulting, Berkeley, Calif.
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 [electronic product code (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."
Velosel said its new software addresses these challenges by enabling manufacturers and retailers to organize, create, approve and manage item information in a central data repository using a business process automation engine that enforces a set of user-defined business rules.
The software employs validation capabilities to ensure that product information complies with both internal and industry standards. Manufacturers and retailers can extract item data from a range of sources; cleanse and enhance it with the additional details required for global data synchronization (GDS) or other product information destinations; and then customize, load and synchronize that information, via systems such as UCCnet, Transora and the WWRE, to meet each trading partner's needs.
