Articles
The right processes keep data true (July 2004)
The old computer adage of 'garbage in, garbage out' applies equally well to electronic trading. So how do businesses make sure their data remains accurate in the months and years after becoming EANnet Ready™?
Thomas Howard of EAN Professional Services explained. "To make EANnet sustainable, the right processes and people have to be in place to automatically feed current information into the system," Thomas said.
"Professional Services is often called upon to help members analyse their current business practices to make that happen, without disrupting their operations."
One EAN Australia member who took advantage of Professional Services' expertise was Lion Nathan.The brewer's new Technologies Manager, Derek Jones, said becoming EANnet Ready was a catalyst to reconsider the information flow throughout the new product development (NPD) process.
"The need for ongoing data integrity will require well-defined business processes and responsibilities for the collection and maintenance of item master data," he said.
"Lion Nathan, in conjunction with EAN Professional Services, undertook an investigation to ensure these issues are addressed as part of our journey to become EANnet Ready".
"We needed more information and we had to get that information in the right sequence: the right information to the right people at the right time."
The benefits, Derek said, will be the implementation of better checks and balances, higher quality information for decision-making and new speed to market metrics.
Household goods supplier Clorox also ensured the information streams were in place and only simple modifications were needed to guarantee EANnet sustainability. Clorox's Vera Georgievski, said the company was able to make the transition in less than two months.
"Clorox is a big believer in data integrity and we've been very fortunate to have automated systems in place delivering real time data that we could simply adapt," she said.
