Customer Story
Strategic Market Alliance Co-op Standardizes Online Product Information
A janitorial, sanitation and food service distributor cooperative aims to streamline access to product information among members and their suppliers.
250,000
products managed by EnterWorks
200+
members
2,000
suppliers with GS1 standards
Background
Comprised of North America’s leading janitorial, sanitation, health care, and foodservice distributors, SMA’s mission is to create value-based business solutions that result in mutually beneficial and sustainable partnerships among suppliers, member distributor owners and their mutual customers.
SMA serves as a catalyst for optimizing efficiency and effectiveness within the supply channel by creating application-specific, functional solutions that improve operations while enhancing customer satisfaction. With independent member web sites and over 227 distribution locations, challenges in accessing accurate, current product content were increasing so the SMA felt a PIM was necessary.
The Challenge
Strategic Market Alliance (SMA) had a long-running product information problem to solve: how to standardize content among more than 100 manufacturers who sell products to its 59 member distributors.
The janitorial, sanitation and food service distributor cooperative provides information and reporting services on- behalf of its members to national account customers that they individually serve. It aspires to provide rich content services to the members, and in this case found an application that would give its members as much or as little access as they choose. The EnterWorks PIM platform aligns well with the SMA mission of enabling member and trading community collaboration.
The EnterWorks solution will enable SMA to create and facilitate rich, compliant content that will enhance the effectiveness of service to strategic account customers and member distributors. A successful launch and adoption of an advanced content platform will enhance alliance operations and increase member profits.
Industry
Distribution
Results
- SMA Members have the ability to “personalize” their product content
- Products can be added from suppliers that are not in the “Master” catalog
- Product data can be published to Member print catalog and website
- Manage cross references between Member part numbers and Manufacturer part numbers
- Member Sales data allows SMA to better negotiate with suppliers
Solution
“Over 100 suppliers are close strategic suppliers of our distributors. Our members operate their own e-commerce platforms and each might have their own way to apply item numbers. Once implemented, this technology will allow cross references for each manufacturer, along with some reporting expertise, which will provide higher quality data and greater accuracy.”
Chris Rowe, Sr. Director, Marketing and Supplier Development
Strategic Market Alliance (SMA)
“Once implemented, this technology will allow cross references for each manufacturer, along with some reporting expertise, which will provide higher quality data and greater accuracy.”
Chris Rowe, Sr. Director of Marketing and Supplier Development
The solution
Achieve a single view of trusted product information: PIM solutions provide a central repository to gather, cleanse, and synchronize data. This trusted, consumer-ready information is quickly accessible to internal users and external partners.
Reduce time-to-market for new product launches: A PIM solution eases the process of introducing new items, as details can be quickly added and disseminated across every channel.
Support larger product catalogs: PIM provides a scalable solution to continuously manage all information efficiently across the business. Private labels and product lines can be introduced quickly without a strain on resources.
Ensure a consistent omnichannel experience: A PIM solution helps ensure correct, brand-sanctioned information is available across all online sites, print catalogs, store displays, kiosks, mobile apps, and more. This gives the consumer confidence in purchasing the products, no matter the channel.
Simplify GDSN processes: A PIM system helps aggregate a complete source of product data, automate data feeds, cleanse data, align closely with GS1 Standards, and streamlines process flows.
Goals
- Improved data quality and governance
- Single, centralized source of truth for product information
- Improved customer communication and relationships
- Seamless integration with internal and external systems/ processes
- Reduced duplication of item content file creation and maintenance
- Simplified GDSN process and close alignment with GS1 standards
Solution goals
The SMA turned to the member experts at Precisely as their EnterWorks PIM platform aligns well with the SMA mission of enabling member and trading community collaboration. Once fully implemented, EnterWorks will enable SMA to create and facilitate rich, compliant content that will enhance the effectiveness of service to strategic account customers and member distributors.
The EnterWorks Portals for Members and Sales provides a shared, industry-compliant platform for collaboration and syndicating content to data pools, manufacturers, and retailers. The platform enables content sharing that meets industry standards such as GS1, add-on requirements from major chains, and rich visual content needs for premier brands.
Through the EnterWorks solution, the SMA will be able to offer its members an advanced content platform that will enhance alliance operations and increase member profits. The agreement will make best in class PIM capabilities available to its members at a fraction of the cost of a full-blown, standalone PIM system.
About EnterWorks
EnterWorks is the most powerful Multi-Domain MDM and Product Information Management (PIM) solution on the market today, providing the single view that enterprises need to acquire, manage, synchronize and syndicate all their data and product information.
Integrated, best-in-class tools—including Sales Portal, Publishing with Adobe® InDesign, Automated Workflow Engine, Syndication, and Digital Asset Management—have elevated EnterWorks as an analyst-ranked, customer-acclaimed solution.
EnterWorks is backed by a team of industry experts providing unparalleled support and innovation such as cloud deployment. As a market innovator, EnterWorks is also leading the way in emerging technology enablement for artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, machine learning, and more.
Why choose EnterWorks PIM?
- Revolutionary Agile Data Fabric™ Technology weaves together data domains
- Business-friendly platform for high user adoption, no coding required
- Hosted Private Cloud SaaS, Your Private Cloud, On-Premise, or Hybrid
- Perpetual, Term, and SaaS Licenses
- Lowest Total Cost of Ownership
- Fastest Go-Live Times in the Industry
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