Untitled

[mattc-dds-blog]

Easing the Content Burden for Distributors

Distributors, does your product content provider create scheduled, customized file exports that import directly into your e-commerce platform, without the need for you to post-manipulate the data or the file? Or—do they give you a login to a portal and make you create a report, wait for the report to run, download the report, then change column header names, add or delete unnecessary columns and their values, normalize values, manipulate product content, then import the new file, import the documents and images, categorize the products, normalize the drill-downs, and so on and so forth? At DDS, we speak to a lot of distributors who are dealing with the latter. And if you ask us, it seems like some content providers might be more difficult to work with than need be. Maybe they don’t have the technology to offer anything other than a one-size-fits-all product? Maybe they don’t consider that every distributor is different and has different needs, especially when it comes to e-commerce? Maybe they don’t understand that “syndication” isn’t complete until the product information is live on your site? If distributors were all on the same platform with the same content, it might be different. You would only need a single file format to import into your platform. But that’s just not realistic as distributors are choosing from a broad range of e-commerce and ERP providers. What if you need an import file of transactional content for your ERP and a separate import of more e-commerce-ready content for your website catalog?   At DDS, we recognized the need—and developed the technology and the talent—to view content delivery and syndication differently. Our customers are the ones who benefit. The challenge for many is that e-commerce is new, and it requires new investments. In light of this, distributors should look to their service providers as subject matter experts and should even expect their help by way of processes that are not complicated, as well as value-added services from those providers that enable the distributor to focus on their business. One specific issue for distributors in integrating commerce-enabled product content into an e-commerce platform—as well as maintaining that content—is a seamless import of the data from the provider into the distributor’s system. This should be the case for the first import, as well as regularly (hopefully scheduled) feeds thereafter. This is where there is a disconnect, and a problem, for most content providers. Due to their use of today’s (a.k.a. current or older) technologies, most choose to offer a legacy self-serve model or send a file to all of their customers in what they perceive is a one-size-fits-all format, regardless of the distributor’s e-commerce platform needs. Additionally, for the initial load they prefer to let the distributor try to figure out how to match to his or her unique internal part number. More on that in a later blog. At DDS, we have a different philosophy.  We come from distribution, so we understand your pain. We’ve been through it ourselves, and we’ve come up with a better way. And since we’ve hired the brightest tech minds in the business, recognizing the need for a next-generation content solution, we’ve designed our system from day one to be technology agnostic, and custom-formatted for each individual distributor. You choose the platform that is best for your business, and we will create a file export to match to it. No more manipulation of files. (…Every time you receive them.) No more unnecessary man-hours required. We think you should be spending the time focusing on your business, and not doing the work of your content provider. Imagine how a quicker time-to-market for this vital information could benefit your customers. It’s content syndication with custom exports.  It’s just a smarter, more customer-friendly approach. And it’s just one of the many differences in working with DDS. Truly, Matt Christensen Vice President DDS Read the full article

[mattc-dds-blog]

Manufacturers need a true syndication solution to deliver next-generation product content to distributors and channel partners.

Manufacturers, are you receiving more and more requests from your channel partners or distributors for direct product content feeds for their e-commerce and transactional needs? Are they asking for product and pricing files to be delivered to them in a specific format—with specific rules or column headers—unique to just their organization? You have no option but to do it for your largest channel partners, but how many separate requests can you handle each month with your current internal resources? What happens when a greater number of your mid-level and smaller distributors start asking for individual content feeds in their own formats? Can you also service all of these requests with a timely and repeatable process? These are all questions we at DDS are hearing from manufacturers on a regular basis. And how about those of you with international distributors? Are you receiving requests for your product content to be delivered in other languages? How about 15 different languages? These are among the new realities for manufacturers in today’s e-commerce world. (If it’s not already an issue for you, it soon will be.) So how can you prepare for this? You should ask your current or prospective content syndicator if they can do all of these things: Make it seamless for your channel partners to load your product content into their websites and ERP systems Maintain your original market-differentiating message Provide product content in multiple languages—using world-class translation tailored to your industry—at scale Give you faster time-to-market for new and updated product information across all your channel’s websites Use advanced, intelligent technology to truly syndicate your product content—at scale   Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a solution that helped you solve all of these challenges? Of the few content providers serving the wholesale distribution industry, only one is currently delivering on all of these requirements and utilizing the advanced technologies necessary to offer a true product content syndication solution that is desperately needed in this industry. A next-generation syndication solution should be efficient—delivering complete, accurate and up-to-date data, already translated into languages needed by distributors, and not just compatible with any ERP and e-commerce platform, but custom-formatted for each distributor’s unique systems. Sound like a tall order? Not to DDS. Having come from a successful distributorship ourselves, we set out to improve and support how manufacturers organize and deliver product data to their distributors. We’ve built proprietary tools specifically to facilitate next-generation product content syndication. No other solution in the marketplace meets all the needs of manufacturers today. If you aren’t working with a content provider who can meet this spec, you need a new provider. DDS is ready for you—are you ready for DDS?   Looking forward, Matt Christensen Vice President DDS   Read the full article

[mattc-dds-blog]

Still Disrupting, After All These Years

I just returned from the NAED National Meeting, which I attended with Dale Holt, the president of our company, DDS (Distributor Data Solutions). With one of the major themes of this year’s conference being “Disruption” in our industry, I figured it particularly fitting that I write my introductory executive blog in keeping with this theme. While DDS is a relatively young company—now in our fourth year as a premier product content provider helping manufacturers and distributors conquer the challenges of e-commerce—Dale and I go back a ways. I was the head of IT at Codale Electric Supply, the independent electrical distributor based out of Salt Lake City that Dale started in 1975 and grew to a massively successful enterprise that he sold to Sonepar—the largest electrical distributor in the world—in 2012. Anyone who knows Dale can probably attest to the fact that he is (and always will be) a disruptor. He’s never been one to accept a “that’s how it’s always been done” argument, and he’s always been an early adopter of technologies and processes with potential to improve how things are done, even when doing so seems unorthodox or challenges the status quo. It was in this spirit that Dale founded DDS, only a few years after he and I took on the less-than-pleasant experience of building an e-commerce website at Codale. Sadly, the same frustrations and limitations we met back in 2008, specifically with obtaining and having to manually manipulate product content from hundreds of different manufacturers, are still plaguing so many distributors chipping away at their e-commerce initiatives, and it’s been TEN YEARS. The challenges are equally frustrating for manufacturers, whose product content (which they spend major bucks to develop) ends up being incomplete, inconsistent and outdated across distributor websites due to countless technological hurdles. As Dale puts it, “With all the technology we have today, why aren’t we using better technology in our industry?!” Which brings us to another primary topic at this year’s National Meeting: “Digitization” of content. It’s no secret that our industry lags behind the curve when it comes to “going electronic.” Globally we are seeing an all-out race towards harnessing “big data” (data now being considered perhaps the most valuable of commodities) for all sorts of business applications, and there are some obvious leaders from the tech sector whose mastery of big data has allowed them to step into other markets overnight, which does not bode well for distributors still trying to establish an online presence. A major objective from DDS’ start, we brought in some seriously smart people (from some of the world’s largest technology and data companies—like Apple, IBM and Goldman Sachs, to name a few) and took a completely different approach (intelligent and programmatic) to improving the way manufacturers deliver data to distributors. We’re using the same advanced technologies as the tech giants—rather than manual overseas labor—to make this a better process for everyone involved: for manufacturers, for distributors, and most importantly, for end-user customers. We are DDS, and we are disrupting. We hope you will join us. Best regards, Matt Christensen Vice President DDS Read the full article