Built-in Speed and Precision: Make your PIM System Quicker and Smarter
Any business engaged in multichannel eCommerce knows how essential it is that product information is both accurate and up-to-date. Nothing spoils the customer experience more than ordering a product whose specification has changed from that shown in the catalogue. So, when product specifications change it is essential that the Product Information Management System (PIM) updates promptly and automatically and then delivers these content changes to all users, e.g. distributors, resellers and customers.
XML and PIM
Data onboarding from manufacturers and suppliers and product data syndication to users are commonly done via the transmission of files in XML formats, such as BMEcat, to and from the central PIM system. So, it is vital to identify changes in these files quickly and accurately and present these changes to workflows built into the PIM or users’ own systems. This is what DeltaXML’s new product, XML Data Compare, has been designed to do. XML Data Compare can not only identify and represent changes in your data, it can do it quickly enough to be built into your applications. This allows for quicker and more efficient processes, as only records that have changed need to be updated.
Data Specific XML Comparison
DeltaXML Ltd has been a market leader in comparison and merge software technologies for XML document formats, such as DITA and DocBook, for over 20 years. A number of our customers recently approached us asking for a product dedicated to identifying and reporting changes in XML format data files, specifically for product information. In response our research and development team has devised new algorithms designed to work more efficiently with XML data, offering potentially huge performance increases over our XML Compare product. These algorithms form the basis of XML Data Compare.
The performance of XML Data Compare on product catalogues for eCommerce applications is near real-time, and over 90% faster than our document orientated product XML Compare. Using our Application Programming Interface (API) developers can easily integrate this functionality to improve the accuracy and performance of existing software workflows.
Supply Chain Management and XML
Another business application for XML Data Compare is in enterprise data exchange, such as Supply Chain Management (SCM). SCM systems use Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards for communication between disparate systems. Newer EDI standards, such as GS1 or EDIFACT, are XML-based and XML Data Compare can ensure change is quickly identified and processed within current applications.
This integration is particularly useful where systems carry out Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) functions, for example data cleansing and validation. The near real-time processing means changes can be reported in dashboards and monitoring tools. Benefiting from reduced configuration requirements, XML Data Compare can deliver high quality results at scale, ensuring our processing does not limit your business growth.
A Step up in Change Management
Performance is key to processing the increasing volume of data, and businesses are looking for competitive advantage from identifying change in behaviours and trends as we emerge from the pandemic. Business leaders and software architects are focused on software tools to enable their business to grow and adapt. Using XML Data Compare can make a step change, where change matters.
