Companies are confronted with increasingly fierce competition. Factors such as scarce resources, homogenized products, digitized business processes as well as short-lived innovation and product cycles contribute sustainably to this. In response to this market situation, companies analyze, modify and restructure their philosophies and business processes.
Information as a competitive factor
A key position in the optimization of one's own market position is the systematic and fast procurement and provision of information. Social aspects such as collaboration with partners, the synergistic use of know-how and resources, the general networking of business processes as well as holistic approaches to solutions are increasingly the focus.
The value chain as a whole process
In order to promote communication and exchange, an efficient, comprehensive use of information technology is essential. The aim is to bring together all information and communication technologies and break up inefficient insula- tions.
Unified information storage across all channels
In order to directly provide information both internally and externally, companies are pursuing an information-logistic approach. For information logistics or information supply chain management (ISCM), the entire value-added chain has to be scanned and all transit times of information optimized.
ERP and PIM link
Lying and waiting times generally require significantly higher capacities than real processing times. Effective information provision is thus a decisive competitive factor. Companies can benefit greatly from a restructuring of the IT landscape. With information supply chain management, it is important that the information turnaround times are minimized and companies optimize their information stock and provide "just in time" information.
It would be ideal to reduce all throughput times to the processing time, but in practice companies should both approach each other in the best possible way. Ultimately, an information chain is never stronger than its weakest link. With long lead times, insula- tions, and unconcerned technologies, companies are neglecting their potential and losing market access to the competition.
For an optimal design of all information flows, efficient information supply chain management coordinates all links in the value chain to form an overall process. Individual components must be networked in a synergetic manner to ensure a smooth operation.
Especially in the e-business sector it is necessary to digitize all business and communication processes so that they are decentralized and above all available at all times. The information-logistical approach also allows for the use of all data in a media-specific and country-specific way.
In order to ensure a seamless flow of information, companies should synchronize all information and communication technologies. Customers, employees and partners can be integrated and the necessary documents and data can be viewed or processed immediately. In addition to software systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), product information management (PIM) and media asset management (MAM), this also includes content management systems (CMS) or translation memory systems TMS).
The core of a successful information management is the uniform maintenance in a CMS for the joint creation, editing, organizing and publishing of text and multimedia content. With the intuitive CMS, companies can cover all their online communication needs without programming skills. The use of a CMS is particularly suitable for several country branches or business areas and corresponding online presences.
Taking into account the entire value-added chain, companies also benefit from the use of an enterprise content management system (ECM), a superior form of the CMS. This can also integrate other technologies and processes such as document management, business process management (BPM) or electronic archiving. With ECM, companies synchronize all content-related processes and communicate documents, forms and digital assets according to individual interests. However, such CMSs are not suitable for mass management of highly complex, often changing product information as well as for their output into different publication channels.
As a central component of the information supply chain, companies use an online shop system or product catalog to integrate a PIM system in order to publish information across the media and according to the channel. This is especially necessary to implement international expansion standards such as BMEcat, GDS or ETIM.
PIM systems can be preloaded to a CMS and can record, manage, consolidate, and then output data bi-directionally. Thanks to a uniform and structured data structure, companies benefit from both internal and external communication, and maintain information for all publication channels in one system.
Conclusion
Whether a website, print, shop, web and app catalog, or brochures, PIM allows companies to correct or update faulty data in parallel. Extensive search and search functions help employees consolidate product information. Open interfaces also provide a bidirectional connection to other systems, such as ERP (ERP) or image and media databases (MAM).
In order to ensure targeted information provision for different markets, internationally operating companies also rely on global information and translation management through the use of TMS. This allows seamless translation processes, shorter throughput times, cost reductions and a consistently high quality level of all multilingual, company and product related information.
In a database, a TMS saves already translated information in the source and target languages and compares new documents with similar sentences.
In order to integrate merchandise management processes into holistic information supply chain management, companies should link their ERP and PIM systems. On the one hand, not all the necessary product information is available, for example, for creating a web or app catalog in the ERP system. On the other hand, such systems as CMS do not allow information to be published across media channels in different channels.
The bidirectional connection between ERP and PIM is particularly useful in the case of so-called shadow quotas, ie articles from suppliers that are not recorded in the standard and therefore not in ERP. Any new article installation would otherwise have to be manually captured. Centrally managed in a PIM, all product data including supplier conditions can be loaded into the ERP via an open interface. The integration of a CRM into the value chain is also suitable for the implementation of cross-selling strategies and ensuring a better flow of information.
Another central component of the ISCM chain is MAM, also called DAM (Digital Asset Management). Companies use asset management systems for importing and exporting structured files, such as PDFs, videos or images, taking into account the required format conversions. Meta information such as the IPTC-NAA standard, EXIF or XMP file information can also be added via MAM and managed for research purposes. This makes it easy to find, compare and select structured files according to adjustable criteria.
Ultimately, an efficient information supply chain management has to be adapted to the individual requirements. The complexity is subject to the coordination of individual systems, as each company already has different (island) solutions for specific processes.
Ideally, the design of a complete ISCM structure would begin at zero. In practice, however, this is illusory. In most cases, the work begins with analyzing existing structures, elaborating optimization potentials and coordinating existing systems, as well as implementing new solutions according to the requirements.
In an increasingly globalized heterogeneous and digital market, companies remain competitive in the long term and are technologically prepared for the unpredictability of the economic cycle.
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