How do I create a product data enrichment workflow?

Collaboration within a company: a somewhat vague objective or a reality?

It is certainly a topic that fits perfectly within the digital transformation of the organisation. Whilst new technologies bring greater agility, it is collaboration that enables us to reap the full benefits, by drawing on well-established ways of working together amongst staff.

54 per cent of employees in large organisations would like to ‘collaborate more often’

But it is not always easy to put into practice…

54 per cent of employees in large organisations would like to “collaborate more often”, but only 27 per cent believe it is “easy to collaborate within their organisation”. In larger organisations, it is indeed often found that a culture of “working together” needs to be nurtured. The aim? To bring together people’s willingness and skills around processes and tools that provide structure without restricting freedom. In this context, the term ‘contributors’ refers to any employee whose work is closely intertwined with that of other colleagues to achieve a common goal.

This gives rise to the concept of ‘workflow’, which encompasses:

• The role and rights of each contributor
• The sequence in which the various contributions follow one another
• The standard required to validate a contribution
• The strategic contributions that must be validated to allow the process to continue
• The stages of the process that can be automated and, conversely, those that require manual intervention

It is on the basis of the workflow that fruitful collaboration is organised. It brings teams together and aims to streamline and accelerate joint work in order to create the conditions for collective success.

The key words: speed, creativity and productivity.

How can you create a bespoke workflow centred on product data?

Enriching product data is a good example of the benefits of a collaborative approach. More broadly, it contributes to Product Information Management (PIM), a tool that drives the digital and omnichannel strategies of e-retailers, distributors and suppliers across all sectors.

The aim of PIM is to centralise and enrich product data (from technical and marketing descriptions to photos and videos, including SEO and translations) and then automatically distribute it across all sales channels (web and print).

To achieve this, PIM provides a single platform for everyone involved in enriching a specific part of this product data.

Quable’s PIM solution organises collaboration around the principle of a customisable workflow.

Here are the questions to ask when building a workflow:

• How many people are involved in enriching product data – from the product’s arrival in stock to its release for sale? Which contributors have approval rights? Which ones are only authorised to make suggestions (which are then subject to approval)?
• What is the timeline for product data enrichment?
• Which fields are essential and required for my product listing to be published?

Does your workflow need to evolve? PIM makes it possible!

Whether you’re just starting to set up collaboration or continuing your digital transformation, you’ll inevitably need to implement a workflow.

It’s best to start simple to ensure that the various contributors take ownership of the solution.

Initially, you’ll need to position the solution at the heart of your product enrichment strategy and then support the teams as they get to grips with it.

Once these steps have been completed, you’ll be fully able to expand your workflow to adapt it to the company’s growing needs.

Your main challenge is to rely on a solution that offers a scalable workflow, such as Quable PIM. This reinforces your long-term vision and allows you to evolve the way you collaborate with ease. You can add, edit or remove steps from your product data enrichment process whenever you like.

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What does a product data enrichment workflow look like?

A product data workflow is, above all, built with and for a specific business.

Here’s a practical example:

Step 1: Your product is recorded in your ERP system with its EAN code, which automatically triggers the creation of a new product record in your PIM

Step 2: Paul from the marketing department enters an initial draft of the fields:

– Basic product information

– Marketing descriptions

– Technical product specifications

Step 3: Hélène from the e-commerce team checks these fields and completes them where necessary, then submits them for approval

Step 4: Camille, the digital manager, checks and approves the fields or sends them back for amendment

If the entries are incorrect, Hélène is notified and is responsible for completing and resubmitting the product information to Camille until it is approved

Step 5: The ‘basic information’, ‘marketing description’ and ‘technical description’ fields are approved and passed on to the translation team

Step 6: Once all fields have been translated, photographs are added to the product listing

Step 7: Once all stages of the workflow have been completed, the product listing is published across all channels

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Conclusion

Collaboration is one of the key drivers of business digitalisation and is strongly supported by employees who wish to integrate it into their work and experience it first-hand. Within a large organisation, it brings teams together. A synergy then develops around collaborative tools and evolves into a new way of thinking about work and business. Quable’s PIM follows this philosophy to offer those involved in enriching product data THE collaborative solution. The workflow thus embodies the structuring and organisation of collaboration, regardless of the size of your organisation.

(*A survey was carried out amongst a sample of employees working in 50 French and international companies. The survey was conducted between February and March 2018 and covers eight sectors (transport, luxury goods, consumer goods, banking and insurance/consultancy, advertising, retail, telecommunications). The sample comprised 37 per cent large companies, 32 per cent SMEs, 17 per cent start-ups and 8 per cent public sector organisations.)