Thanks to Wikipedia, the definition of FIFO is, “an acronym for First In, First Out, which describes the principle of a queue processing technique by ordering process by first-come, first-served (FCFS) behavior: what comes in first is handled first, what comes in next waits until the first is finished, etc.”  If you’re dealing with mission critical information such as supply chain data, FIFO would or could cost your business.  Supply chain information processing requires parallel processing managed in seconds or nano-seconds.  But, that’s not what this blog is really about.  I want to get into GIGO – thanks again to Wiki, “GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out, is a phrase used to call attention to the fact that computers, unlike humans, will unquestioningly process the most nonsensical of input data and produce nonsensical of output.  In fact, the acronym has evolved into what some people now call, “Garbage In, Gospel Out”.   It is a sardonic comment on the tendency to put excessive trust in computerized data, on the propensity for individuals to blindly accept what the computer says. Because the data goes through the computer, we tend to believe it.”Is that the truth, or what?  The InsanIT of it!!  It’s not that we are naïve or anything.  Since the 1940’s, we all bought into the fact that computers are suppose to reduce errors, make us more productive, save cost, drive revenue, etc.  And for the most part they do.  But, we also have to remember that humans are still humans, and guess what?  We still do make mistakes.  We have to remember and accept that the information we input into our computer systems could still be inaccurate, or some might say, “dirty”.  Yuck!  Who wants to be known for having “dirty data” – especially when your data needs to be shared with your trading partners?  It’s like a computer virus that will then proliferate to your trading partner and your trading partners’ trading partner, and so on, and so on, and so on (I’m beginning to sound like that Breck shampoo commercial from the 70’s). 

One of our GXS Senior Product Managers,  Melanie Ligons, wrote a great blog on the value of data cleansing as it relates to product information (http://blogs.gxs.com/ligonsm/category/product-data-quality/).  She discusses that if you can exchange product information accurately and quickly and keep that information up to date over time, you can ensure that all of your downstream supply chain transactions will also be correct.  That is a great example of how “clean data” can contribute significantly to achieving supply chain efficiencies.  After all, your supply chain is only as good as the data you feed it.  But, it doesn’t stop there.  What about data accuracy as it relates to order status for a customer?  Or, paying the full invoice or just partial?  Or, is the shipment going to the correct address?  

Data quality is critical at every step in the supply chain.  But, trying to achieve that can be a daunting and expensive task. That is why GXS has focused much of its effort on building data quality & validation capabilities within its GXS Trading Grid B2B integration services platform so customers don’t have to.  Customers simply need to send their supply chain data once to GXS and GXS takes care of the rest - cleansing, translating, and sending it off to all trading partners – nice and clean!   No more GIGO here!