Lately the interest for exchanging data has risen. This is mainly due to the fact that time is getting more expensive by the day, companies are reviewing their processes. One of the most important issues is data collection and enrichment.

 

In order to do this three items are vital.

 

Structure and Classification
First of all you need to structure your data. This means grouping your products in a logical manner within a certain hierarchy. Based on this grouping you can use certain attributes per level in your structure. The ideal structure is different for each company. It has to do with your preferences in which you 'think' internally.

On the market there are certain structures and classifications available which you can follow. Most of these structures however are too simple for the following reasons:

For this reason we encourage our customers to create and use their own classification. Based on a mapping scheme your classification can then be mapped to a standardised classification such as ETIM (for the lighting industry). This gives you the flexibility to have the data as and when you need it, but also deliver data in a format so taht others can use it.

 

Exchange standards
Apart from structuring your data, you need to exchange it with other systems or users. In order to do so you need to deliver data in a readable format. Here you have multiple options. You can deliver your data in a tab or comma-delimited format. However when you have a lot of attributes the reader might have difficulties in interpreting this data.

 

To overcome this issue you can deliver your data in a XML format. This way the user knows the attributes he is getting per article. To facilitate this even more certain exchanging standards are available on the market. The most well-known and adopted format is BMEcat. This is widely used by marketplaces such as Nexmart and cc-Chemplorer.