Paul Magin is the senior director for catalog operations at Epicor Software (formerly Activant Solutions). He previously held positions at PartMiner Worldwide and at IHS. He also serves on the AAIA's Technology Standards & Solutions Committee.
What do you see as the biggest technology challenge facing the aftermarket today?
There are actually three: the many internal legacy systems being utilized across the industry; data ambiguity caused by the multitude of niche players in key areas such as mapping, data conversion and product information management; and the persistent view within many manufacturing organizations that product information and related systems represent an IT expense rather than a vital sales and marketing resource.
On the first point, many manufacturers and distributors are relying on three or four legacy systems that have been cobbled together over the years, with each requiring a hand off in the creation and flow of data. Getting the resources to continually invest in new systems can be difficult, so some suppliers are handling the job in a piecemeal fashion using a variety of systems and processes that require a lot of manpower and are prone to inaccuracy.
At the very heart of this problem is the fact that there traditionally has not been a clear connection between the information management and sales and marketing functions within many supplier organizations. Because product information management is only now being perceived as mission critical, many catalog teams are working with technologies that are five to 15 years behind the state of the art.
Next, our industry is paying the price of too much choice and too little standardization. We have a large number of data service specialists who focus on pricing, imaging, catalog data, repair data or vehicle registration data, among other areas, with each having different requirements and business practices. This can result in thousands of gaps in data that have to be joined – which causes delays, mismatches and unwanted ambiguity that can impact the purchase of each part. That's why human interaction remains so important; it's up to eCatalog providers to drive the process of making this data whole.
And finally, we are only today recognizing that product information and systems are vital competitive tools that enable suppliers to effectively communicate their value proposition to the end user. I don't think anyone questions the importance of the sales and marketing function, yet many fail to realize that product information is one of the most important tools in today’s sales and marketing process.
What are the biggest obstacles you face in working with manufacturer data? How has this changed?
We receive a great deal of ambiguous data that requires conversations with the supplier. A very small fraction of the data we receive can be loaded automatically and published without human intervention. There are often many questions that must be resolved before the content is in the shape needed for successful use at the point of decision.
We are still experiencing delays in receiving some suppliers' "rich" content — such as images, technical bulletins, installation instructions, warranty details, MSDS files and other information — due to internal processes and concerns about sharing intellectual property. Obviously, many suppliers have spent a lot of time producing high-quality data and they're concerned that we simply “do whatever we want” with it. Of course, we try to be very careful with each supplier’s data and generally make changes only to conform data for production purposes. Additionally, we do not claim a copyright in the modified data. And our processes are designed to encrypt and monitor data to help protect the supplier.
Some suppliers still might ask why they should share this information, and my answer is simple: There's a correlation between rich data and sales performance. The better your data, the more powerful your value proposition at the point of the buyer’s decision. Additionally, you will likely experience lower product return rates than suppliers that don't provide rich data.
How do you expect e-catalogs to change over the next few years? What new technologies/features may become more common?
We'll see more consistency in adoption of standards and, as a result, greater speed in delivering content. We want suppliers to only have to “do it once” and to work with Epicor as an industry-recognized reference point for key anchor and reference catalog information.
In time, we’ll also see changes in the way our users access content. The future will include cloud-based distribution and near-real-time delivery coupled with rich media, video, mobile technologies and higher-density technical information that will provide improved support at the point of decision. Those that embrace this vision will continue to improve their own processes and capture the many benefits.
And finally, distributors will see significant enhancements to the search capabilities of their e-catalogs. The increase in data density creates new ways to search. We want to give the end user the ability to search in a more “free-form” manner while still receiving an unambiguous, finite result with no dead-ends. This capability exists in other industries and can be tremendously useful in the aftermarket.
Paul Magin is the senior director for catalog operations at Epicor Software (formerly Activant Solutions). He previously held positions at PartMiner Worldwide and at IHS. He also serves on the AAIA's Technology Standards & Solutions Committee.
What do you see as the biggest technology challenge facing the aftermarket today?
There are actually three: the many internal legacy systems being utilized across the industry; data ambiguity caused by the multitude of niche players in key areas such as mapping, data conversion and product information management; and the persistent view within many manufacturing organizations that product information and related systems represent an IT expense rather than a vital sales and marketing resource.
On the first point, many manufacturers and distributors are relying on three or four legacy systems that have been cobbled together over the years, with each requiring a hand off in the creation and flow of data. Getting the resources to continually invest in new systems can be difficult, so some suppliers are handling the job in a piecemeal fashion using a variety of systems and processes that require a lot of manpower and are prone to inaccuracy.
At the very heart of this problem is the fact that there traditionally has not been a clear connection between the information management and sales and marketing functions within many supplier organizations. Because product information management is only now being perceived as mission critical, many catalog teams are working with technologies that are five to 15 years behind the state of the art.
Next, our industry is paying the price of too much choice and too little standardization. We have a large number of data service specialists who focus on pricing, imaging, catalog data, repair data or vehicle registration data, among other areas, with each having different requirements and business practices. This can result in thousands of gaps in data that have to be joined – which causes delays, mismatches and unwanted ambiguity that can impact the purchase of each part. That's why human interaction remains so important; it's up to eCatalog providers to drive the process of making this data whole.
And finally, we are only today recognizing that product information and systems are vital competitive tools that enable suppliers to effectively communicate their value proposition to the end user. I don't think anyone questions the importance of the sales and marketing function, yet many fail to realize that product information is one of the most important tools in today’s sales and marketing process.
{C}What are the biggest obstacles you face in working with manufacturer data? How has this changed?
We receive a great deal of ambiguous data that requires conversations with the supplier. A very small fraction of the data we receive can be loaded automatically and published without human intervention. There are often many questions that must be resolved before the content is in the shape needed for successful use at the point of decision.
We are still experiencing delays in receiving some suppliers' "rich" content — such as images, technical bulletins, installation instructions, warranty details, MSDS files and other information — due to internal processes and concerns about sharing intellectual property. Obviously, many suppliers have spent a lot of time producing high-quality data and they're concerned that we simply “do whatever we want” with it. Of course, we try to be very careful with each supplier’s data and generally make changes only to conform data for production purposes. Additionally, we do not claim a copyright in the modified data. And our processes are designed to encrypt and monitor data to help protect the supplier.
Some suppliers still might ask why they should share this information, and my answer is simple: There's a correlation between rich data and sales performance. The better your data, the more powerful your value proposition at the point of the buyer’s decision. Additionally, you will likely experience lower product return rates than suppliers that don't provide rich data.
How do you expect e-catalogs to change over the next few years? What new technologies/features may become more common?
We'll see more consistency in adoption of standards and, as a result, greater speed in delivering content. We want suppliers to only have to “do it once” and to work with Epicor as an industry-recognized reference point for key anchor and reference catalog information.
In time, we’ll also see changes in the way our users access content. The future will include cloud-based distribution and near-real-time delivery coupled with rich media, video, mobile technologies and higher-density technical information that will provide improved support at the point of decision. Those that embrace this vision will continue to improve their own processes and capture the many benefits.
And finally, distributors will see significant enhancements to the search capabilities of their e-catalogs. The increase in data density creates new ways to search. We want to give the end user the ability to search in a more “free-form” manner while still receiving an unambiguous, finite result with no dead-ends. This capability exists in other industries and can be tremendously useful in the aftermarket.
