Product data is becoming more comprehensive, from a simple description to product images, and packaging sizes. Suppliers and retailers need every bit of information to feed their internal systems and their consumers. But how do you make sure that everyone is getting the data they want? And how do you prevent mistakes when processing data you received from one of your business partners? More and more industries agree on using specific data standards to answer these questions – think of the GS1 data standard that is widely used.
Although data standards, such as GS1, are commonly accepted and used, we often see that companies struggle to work efficiently with data standards. This blog explains more about data standards and how you make sure that your data complies to the requirements of the standard used in your industry.
What is a data standard?
A data standard is an agreement on how to structure data. Using a data standard gives companies the ability to exchange standardized data between internal- and external systems and data pools. Industries decide which file formats to use, which attributes and validations are in scope, how to store images, etc. In the end, everyone can use the same information as everyone is ‘speaking one language’. But why should you use data standards? Simple, they make things easier. It is less time consuming and error-prone because you send and receive data in a way that you expect.
Don’t forget to validate your data
When you agreed to process data according to a specific data standard, how do you make sure your product data meets the requirements of this standard? You can do this easily with validations. In most cases, you will process your product data with a PIM-system. Some PIM-systems, such as our SRC-PIM, have a built-in validation functionality. With this functionality, you can check whether your product data meets the requirement of the data standard you wish to use. Validations make sure you publish the correct data to your internal systems, data pools or your business partners (first time right). See it as a quality check.
Learn more about how you can work with data standards
Curious how you can work with data standards and how to validate your data? We created this whitepaper that explains how you can validate and publish your product data to GS1, the most used data standard in the Netherlands. Download your copy below and learn how to efficiently realize a better quality of data.