BMJ
BUILDERS MERCHANTS JOURNAL
Data accuracy is the Holy Grail here. If data isn’t accurate in merchants’ back office systems then you get invoice queries and these generate cost – in both time and money and lost selling opportunities.”
“ ANDY HEXTALL, NMBS
One of the main problems when dealing with a large number of suppliers, all of whom have data and product information to distribute to an even larger number of merchant Partners all on different systems, is that all the suppliers deal with the data in slightly different ways. NBG has worked with NMBS and suppliers to ensure that, in a nutshell, suppliers will upload their product files in one format. The Merchant Pages will be accessed via NBG’s exist members’ Hub, enabling them to download the exact product and pricing data they need from one central online point, crucially, in a format that is compatible with their own IT and back- office systems.
“Why have we done this? Well, it’s because we know that merchants can have major problems uploading data to their back office systems,” Green says. “The more different formats the data comes in the more time consuming and inefficient a manual process it is. And, of course, up until now it’s not just been the
Partners and suppliers learned about the new website and Hub developments at the NBG Conference in November
case that suppliers have been providing data in too many formats. Merchants too, have had different data requirements, meaning suppliers have had to provide information in a variety of formats for different customers. Dealing with this is also time consuming and costly. “Data accuracy is the Holy Grail
here,” says NMBS’s Andy Hextall. “If data isn’t accurate in merchants’ back office systems then you get invoice queries and these generate cost – in both time and money and lost selling opportunities.” The product data portal is called
Merchant Pages, a secure, solution for loading product data and pricing via the NBG Hub. The onus in on the supplier to get it right, Hextall points out. “We’ve given them the way that we need to receive the data but we haven’t just plucked it out of the air. We know that this is a format that offers the best way of dealing with this data.”
In a nutshell, Hextall says, the Hub side of things is what NBG runs and manages. Merchant Pages is where NMBS comes in. “This sits in the background, validates the data and passes it back to the Hub, giving the Hub team the confidence that the information comes in a structured format as the merchant Partners require it.” NMBS have also created the next step where the merchants can go in and download the relevent file in any chosen format. “The supplier essentially provides the data in one structure, as requested, however, the merchant might say, ‘actually I only need the information that is in columns A B G, D and H’ because that’s how it fits with their own back-office system.” There are clear, major operational benefits to suppliers from the new Hub and Merchant Pages collaboration. Reduced costs in distributing data for one. “We’re calling it ‘load in one place,
BMJ January 2017 Building our Brands
job done’, says Green. “Secondly, with all of the Partners using the system we know that it will be a fast way to get information on new products and promotions to the market.” Thirdly, the system is capable of dealing with full data file with information on images and spec sheets. It’s also free. This is a system that NBG is making totally free to its Partners and suppliers. “It’s more about making sure that we have the right accurate data and systems in place,” Green says.
The whole system is completely confidential as well, there is no risk of the information getting out to the rest of the industry. The access to the NBG data is restricted so only the people who need to see the relevant data can have access. NBG has also tightened internal confidentiality procedures, by minimising the amount of information that is transfered via email. In fact, Green says that another major benefit of the new Hub developments will be a reduction in emails. Instead, a secure NBG internal messaging tool is built into the Hub and Partners will get daily alerts as suppliers upload new information. The future too, needs to be thought about and catered for. With more and more merchants taking on sizeable online presences, the accuracy and compatibility of data becomes ever more vital. If merchants are to have a competitive online offer they must have accurate and complete data. To ensure that the suppliers make the most of their relationship with the Partners, NBG is running two supplier workshops early in the New Year, on the topic of how to work better with NBG. Green says: “The whole aim of this is to make it easier to build our business and our brands - using the very best most accurate data that the suppliers and Partners can get.”
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Hub IT/Developments
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