Written by: Amy Cornforth

Posted on: 21/12/20

5 Golden Rules which can improve your Product Information Management.

It’s always important to ensure your product information is managed effectively, so have a look at these five golden rules you can follow to streamline this process.

Although Christmas is known as the ‘season to be jolly,’ another accurate way to describe this glorious holiday would be the ‘season to be full of food,’ or the season where you have a licence to eat food until you are forced to change into a looser festive jumper.

In a season where food consumption rises, it couldn’t be more important to have full confidence in your product information, which comes from thorough and effective product information management processes.

Like my true love gave me five gold rings on the fifth day of Christmas, here are five golden rules you can follow to increase confidence in your processes:

Centralise your product information.

Have you ever had countless numbers of spreadsheets full of product data? Have these ever gone missing, so you have spent hours and hours trying to find the information you need? Considering how imperative it is to keep track of any allergen information, this isn’t a safe, or even effective method of carrying out your processes.

By operating from one central, cloud-based system, with one larger database full of information. It’s a lot easier to find the information you need. It’s easy to organise your data, and with the Natasha’s Law deadline on the horizon, this has never been more important.

Automate your processes.

It’s not uncommon to have to chase up suppliers to send over the information you need. Either that, or the information is sent over in smaller segments. Before you know it, you have several different spreadsheets you need to compile, which takes unnecessary time and effort.

By automating your product information management processes, you can save time you’d normally spend chasing down information, which will increase efficiency in your product information management processes, and allow professionals valuable time to complete other duties.

Reduce risk by eliminating need to re-key data.

An imperative and essential aspect of product information management is to get things right and ensure accuracy the first-time round. If data is inputted incorrectly at the very beginning without the mistake being picked up further down the line, it can cause larger issues later on.

Instead of worrying about re-keying errors, if the supplier can input product information directly into your system, then any concerns surrounding data re-entry are essentially eliminated.

Integrate your systems.

Teamwork is the way forward. Whenever a team functions in a flawless and harmonious manner, then work is completed efficiently, and it feels like the sky is the limit. This concept can be applied elsewhere.

When systems work together, processes can be completed more efficiently.  Data can be moved automatically between systems in either direction, without any need to manually re-key data or adjust information. Like teamwork, operating using a group of systems to formulate one functional whole, is certainly a way to work optimally.

Encourage collaboration.

Remember how workplaces are more effective when people work together well?

By having full visibility in your workplace procedures, colleagues can more easily collaborate on projects through a digitised process, and knowing where each colleague is at during the process can save a great deal of confusion. By storing documents in the same place, colleagues can always be working on the most up-to-date version of the document, saving time and confusion.

Each of these points are features provided within ARCUS® Product Information Management (PIM), a cloud-based system which enables you to automate your production information management processes for increased efficiency and reduced risk, allowing you to have full confidence in your product information.

If you are interested in ARCUS® PIM, then download the case study here, and contact us at Trade Interchange today.

 

PIM Video

To learn more about ARCUS® Product Information Management, watch the video below.

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PIM Case Study

Learn how Domino's Pizza streamlined their product information management by reading the case study below.

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PIM Factsheet

Learn more about ARCUS® PIM by reading the factsheet below.

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