12.11.06

If there is one thing no one likes, it’s tattle tales…  and one of the biggest in the business world is GDSN, the Global Data Synchronization Network — or more specifically the process of implementing GDSN.  In my last post, I wrote a little about the sorry state of product data quality and wrapped up with the fact that most companies had learned to live with it until GDSN.

Briefly, the Global Data Synchronization Network is a group of interconnected data-pools (services that operate large “catalogs” of product information for purposes of sharing it between manufacturers/CPGs and retailers or others that need it) who share a common set of standards and utilize a Global Registry, all of which is under the stewardship of GS1.  Basically, it is an effort on the part of multiple industries to leverage standards to manage the process of “data alignment”, the seemingly simple task of ensuring multiple companies have identical values for product data they share (e.g. height of a bottle of window cleaner, number of items in a case, etc).  GDSN is a wonderful system, and I will write an entry later — but for now, know that it was an earthquake in the world of data quality….

Why?

Well, imagine your house is not spotless and tidy (I know this is tough, but just try to imagine it), because your days are filled with higher callings…  Even given this however, your entrance hall and front rooms are probably neat for the occassional visitor — this is the world of data quality pre-GDSN.  The entrance hall is the published data, catalogs, etc, which are carefully produced by people that use manual effort to ensure the correctness of what they periodically publish.  Beyond that, the front rooms are VERY LIMITED proprietary data synchronization with select partners, using systems designed expressly to avoid breaking anything (the data quality equivalent of banning the kids — or internal systems — from those rooms).

So far, so good?

When someone in your organization (or an important partner) gives you the news that it is time to get on the GDSN, that is the equivalent of learning your spouse has volunteered your house for Thanksgiving.  GDSN, like a big holiday dinner, is going to require the full capacity of the entire house — even the rooms the kids play in.  People will want tours, will spread out . . . okay, you get the picture.

Because the GDSN, through its carefully orchestrated publish and subscribe system, strives to maintain data alignment continuously; you really want the changes you make internally to propogate — in a controlled manner – out through the “network” (that is the ‘N’ in “GDSN”).  It is not enough to do an export once a year (like a catalog), or comb through the data for a single partner, now you are publishing for the industry.  GDSN makes your current data quality issues/challenges visible to everyone — and it requires you get serious about data management. 

Finally, because sending “bad” data to partners through GDSN is a very big deal, poor data quality goes from being a bunch of small problems spread across the organization to a big problem spreading down the supply chain.

The irony is that GDSN is spreading the alarm, but the bulk of the work, as well as the issues, are not in GDSN, but in the organizations that are connected to it.