If your company is a supplier to large retail firms, the chances are good that you face a global data synchronization requirement.

Global data synchronization is a cross-industry initiative, supported by common standards and infrastructure, for sharing information about products, packaging, pricing, promotion, and other collaboration content exchanged by buyers and sellers. By synchronizing this trade-related information prior to engaging in electronic commerce, participating companies improve order accuracy, reduce fulfillment errors, returns, and stock-outs, and cut time-to-market.

The shared infrastructure for this initiative is provided by the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN), which consists of a central registry and a collection of Internet-resident “data pools”. The GDSN connects buyers and sellers to each other, synchronizes trade-related data across geographies, and centrally maintains current definitions of trade items, pricing, locations, and synchronization status.

Trading partners synchronize with each other by connecting to a “local” (usually country-specific) data pool, not just once, but as shared data changes. And when a supplier or distributor trades large numbers of items, particularly ones that are subject to frequent changes in style, packaging, or pricing, manual synchronization of product master data changes with the data pool is an unrealistic option.

Navigating Global Data Synchronization Options

On the surface, global data synchronization appears to be a familiar problem – after all, businesses have been exchanging EDI and other data with trading partners for many years. But a closer examination reveals unique requirements that go beyond simple data exchange, including:

• Coordinating external data pool synchronization with internal application processes
• Verifying the correctness and completeness of synchronized data
• Enforcing correct workflow based on the status of each item
• Matching outbound messages with data pool responses to support auditing
• Staying current with changing global data synchronization standards

Few global data synchronization solutions address all of these requirements. And navigating the maze of options can be confusing, even daunting:

• Hosted service offerings offer modest start-up fees, but typically sidestep internal integration requirements, may expose sensitive data to unauthorized parties, and impose greater expense in the long-term, due to add-on charges for setup, maintenance, synchronization, and conversion.
• Spreadsheet-based offerings appear simple and easy to use, but generally lack controls that ensure data correctness, don’t track or respond to synchronization status, lack multi-user support and access controls, provide little or no support for integration, and in general, increase both implementation costs and the likelihood of project failure.
• Behind-the-firewall applications generally provide a higher degree of security, data integrity, workflow control, and internal data integration capabilities than the alternatives. But they are vulnerable to changes in the standards that make maintaining the complete application expensive Your global data synchronization strategy will determine whether you merely meet a short-term mandate or instead, realize substantial business benefits like improved data quality, fewer order and fulfillment errors, reduced operating costs, and more integrated supply chain processes. If you seek more from your global data synchronization investment, EXTOL has the answer.