overcoming product data challenges in publishing organizations using oracle product hub
TRANSCRIPT
Overcoming Product Data Challenges in Publishing
Organizations Using Oracle Product Hub
2 KEEP CHALLENGING November 2014CAMPEXEC – COGNIZANT REDEFINES CAMPAIGN EXECUTION 3
AbstractAs content in the publishing industry goes online from traditional physical books, along with various innovations in delivery channels, product data management processes and data model design to manage the increasing number of product versions becomes more challenging than ever. This paper deals with some of the critical features that are required to solve growing data management challenges in publishing using Oracle Product Hub.
OverviewIn publishing, as in any other industry, over the past few decades product data has come to exist in a wide variety of applications, systems and databases, as well as spreadsheets and other formats. Product information is fragmented throughout different business groups, users or systems, instead of being available centrally. There is an increasing number of product data outputs required (e.g., online, physical print catalogs, learning solutions, electronic data feeds, etc.). This has become a major publishing challenge,
and organizations are countering it by introducing product data management strategies. To ignore it would only lead to a high degree of inconsistency and incompleteness in product information, leading to data redundancy and data quality issues. In order to produce accurate and consistent information, product data models must be flexible enough to accommodate multiple manifestations, gathering data from varied applications and mastering it, before publishing it according to well-defined business rules for consumption by downstream applications.
Critical FeaturesNow more than ever, publishing organizations need a scalable, configurable, rules-driven and robust product information platform. Oracle Product Hub capabilities, enriched with Cognizant’s information management experience, provide the foundation for meeting this growing need.
Some key capabilities of our solution include:
Figure 1 : Product Data Management - Industry Pain Points
FragmentedProduct
Data
Tie DifferentFormats of
Same ContentTogether
Incomplete &Inaccurate
Data
Product DataManagementChallenges
Lost Cross- &Up-Sell
Opportunities
RevenueRecognition atLowest Level
(Docs, Chapters,
etc.)Onboarding
ProductsThrough
Acquisitions
Figure 2 : Cognizant’s Extendable Solutions - Feature Map
Automated Product Induction, Update Process
Content, In-house Applications
Content Product – Automated Batch Process
Error Handling
Administrator
Error HandlingValidations
Automated Product Publish
Scheduled Publish Program
Validations Publish Data for Downstream Application
Enabling Power Users to manage rules for Induction, Publish and DQ Reporting
User Interface to Manage Rules
Global and Regional Power Users
Staging Database
Inform Source for Data
Related Errors
Notification
Inbound Validations
DQ Rules for Report
Publish Validations
PIM Database
Notify Admin for Errors
4 KEEP CHALLENGING November 2014 COGNIZANT 20-20 INSIGHTS 5
Product Data ModelingProduct data modeling is one of the key aspects of any Oracle Product Hub implementation. Prior to designing the model, any content that is to be associated with the product in Oracle Product Hub, but not to be managed in Product Hub, must be determined. Oracle Product Hub is where the product is created, collated, cleansed, governed, shared, published and retired.
Content is managed outside of Product Hub, but is associated with items in Product Hub. Content items could reside in any of the product manifestations or medium in which it is transacted or sold to customers.
We recommend managing the association of content items to sellable versions of product offerings in different formats, using structures in Oracle Product Hub. Pricing of content to be managed at content item level, and any add-on, is applied at the structure level. This ensures no ambiguity while managing royalties and subscription accounting transactions. This framework, coupled with Oracle Product Hub’s other features listed below, provides a flexible data model that can support publishing industry needs.
Online and Physical Product Data ManagementThe fluid development of content presentation to customers – the core information asset in the publishing industry – poses a unique set of challenges for any publisher. Content set management for online channels differs from traditional physical products management. Very often, product managers collate different content and content types to deliver sellable product packages. Conversely, in the physical world, content association with physical products doesn’t vary much, but typically traverses a longer lifecycle process before hitting the data in Oracle Product Hub. To minimize complexity and accommodate business practices associated with online and traditional, physical product data management, we recommend separating online and physical content associated with products. When both are managed in Oracle Product Hub, it is best not to link them (though content may be the same); instead, create them separately as items in Product Hub.
Content Set
Documents Documents
Properties or Chapters or
Topics
Properties or Chapters or
Topics
Content Item in Product Hub
Not Managed in Oracle Product Hub
Product(Structure Item in
PH)
Product Offering – Online(Structure Item in PH)
Products(Structure Item in
PH)
Product Offering – Print - Hardback(Structure Item in PH)
Product 1(Structure Item in
PH)
Product Offering – Print – Softback or PDF(Structure Item in PH)
Product Representation
Product 1(Structure Item in
PH)
Figure 3 : Product Representation
Figure 4
Product Catalog / Taxonomy
Legal owner of product data and beneficial owner drives the structure of taxonomy along with attribution
Attributes Management
User-defined attributes (UDA) Oracle-seeded attributesMulti-row, user-defined
attributes Business rules to ensure
data integrity Item templates to
default attribute
Items
Structures or Bills of Material
Change Management
Life Cycle and Change Policies
Alternate Catalog Categories
Oracle Product Hub
6 KEEP CHALLENGING November 2014 COGNIZANT 20-20 INSIGHTS 7
Onboarding Product Data, Mergers and AcquisitionsThese days, mergers and acquisitions among publishing companies are a common occurrence. In order to streamline onboarding of product data into our architecture and processes during these events, we must have a defined business process, incorporating workflows, and a data management process in Oracle Product Hub. Using the well-defined, repeatable processes and flexibility that Oracle Product Hub provides, we can make onboarding product data during a merger or acquisition much easier and manageable.
Online Product IntroductionHaving well-defined processes for new product introductions in online channels is another critical need.Content items flow into Product Hub through an automated, common induction process, with built-in business validations. From there, product managers may package various content to provide sellable offerings, which go through different data collection, validation and approval processes before reaching the online customer application. Cognizant provides a scalable framework to support this business requirement, which can be extended for online, as well as physical or other channels.
Product Publishing FrameworkProduct Hub needs to share a common definition of product and product offerings across the organization for various downstream applications (i.e., royalties, financials, fabrication, CRM, WAM, etc.). Cognizant’s scalable and automated Product Data Publishing framework is detailed in our paper, “Automated Product Data Publishing from Oracle Product Hub is the Way Forward,” a 20-20 Insights solution. (Note: This solution can be implemented in Fusion or EBS platform).
ConclusionOracle Product Hub features, coupled with Cognizant’s scalable framework and solutions, will deliver real business benefits that support organizations in countering challenges faced in product data management in today’s publishing industry.
About the AuthorNandakumar Balasubramanian is a Project Manager with Cognizant’s Oracle Solutions Practice. He has more than 11 years of experience, seven in product master data management. Nandakumar has extensively worked for clients in retail, high-tech and publishing domains. He provides process, domain and technology consulting, and has extensive experience in business process analysis, solution design and implementation in the area of product data management. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering with specialization in mechanical engineering. He can be reached at [email protected].
For more information on Cognizant’s Oracle solutions, contact us at: [email protected]
Figure 5 : Framework for New Product Introduction and Data Validations
Automated Induction Process for Content Products
Content Applications Content Product – Automated Batch Process
Product Manager
Product Offering SME - 1
SME - 2
SME - 3
Product Manager Confirms the Changes
for Release
Global Power User Validates Impact
Globally & Approves Change Order
End-to-end process is automated through workflow in Product Hub with SME dashboard and UI to review and update with built-in RBAC
Staging Database
Oracle Product Hub
Each SME reviews, updates and confirms the product data, attribution
Changes are captured in Change Orders in
each stage of review, enabling audit trail
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