Catalog management

As catalog management , the management of electronic product catalogs and associated catalog data is understood. Sometimes the term catalog data management is also used. Catalog management is particularly important for electronic purchasing , as it is primarily indirect goods that are procured here that can be easily described in catalogs.

Essential process steps in catalog management are the checking and approval of the product catalogs transmitted by the supplier. The product catalogs are only forwarded to the company's internal procurement systems once this has been approved . There, the company's employees order their material directly and at the approved conditions.

application areas

Article and product data are currently usually maintained in PPS and ERP systems , but only to the extent that they are required for the respective production and merchandise management context. Images, sketches and photos are held in other systems.

The layout design and creation of the classic print catalog is carried out in a complex DTP program. Ensured by explicit business processes, the respective information excerpts for the products are maintained in the individual systems in the required quality. However, there is no consolidated and secure basis with central access to all product information. This gap between the ERP systems and CRM systems is closed by a catalog management system (eCatalog system).

The term “content supply chain” is gaining more and more importance here, since product catalogs have to be published regularly for the market in order to provide customers with information that is crucial to their purchase. This often happens not only under time pressure - the "new series" must be included in the catalog that is to appear for the industry fair - but above all in an interdisciplinary manner between marketing, product management and sales. The business process in the company is characterized by manual steps, not very reliable and not reproducible. On the other hand, for the company, there is the great importance of product catalogs for the sales representation.

Another aspect has arisen with the spread of the Internet and e-commerce in recent years. Product data must be made available for presentation in a wide variety of media. In addition to the more traditional paper catalog, CD catalogs, Internet shops and also individualized electronic customer catalogs have been added.

The integration and comparison of the products and assortments published there is again often done by hand - and is therefore organized in a manner that is prone to errors and takes a lot of work. At the same time, globalization creates the problem of wanting to supply foreign-language markets with information. In addition to English, it often makes sense to create the product catalog or at least excerpts from it in the national language. Usually this is also done manually via translation agencies and has to be repeated over and over again. The translation work carried out once for the basic range must be kept and compared for further catalogs and media.

In relation to the print catalog, which is often the starting point for manufacturing companies and companies that have long been active in wholesaling, the technology is mature, but not yet widely available, to generate print templates from the well-maintained database. The traditional way up to now has been to hand over the product information to a marketing agency, which uses DTP tools to design layouts and create print templates. Due to the extensive manual work at the agencies, this regularly leads to costs, additional time delays and further disruption of the susceptible business process. This prevents the catalog from being up-to-date, which is actually necessary for the respective market.

The challenges outlined can only be dealt with effectively if article and product data are only maintained once, quality assured and repeatedly published for a wide variety of media and sales channels. A very individual mapping of the respective products, ranges and processes as well as an effective integration into the existing system and organizational structures must be guaranteed.

Catalog data

Various standard formats have established themselves in the electronic exchange of product catalogs.

BMEcat

This format is manufacturer-independent and particularly widespread in Germany.

xCBL

This format was developed by CommerceOne, a manufacturer of procurement systems.

cXML

This format was developed by Ariba Inc., another manufacturer of procurement systems.

eCX

This format was developed by Requisite, the manufacturer of popular e-shop software.

CIF

This format was developed by Ariba, another manufacturer of procurement systems.

ONIX

XML -based format for the exchange of bibliographic data in bookshops.

CSV

Simple text files structured by separators such as tabs , commas or semicolons are also used.