B2B e-commerce provider GXS, Inc. today rolled out a new version of its master data management (MDM) product that the company says provides better visibility across workflow processes, tighter integration between enterprise systems, and the ability to manage new types of content.
GXS Product Information Manager (PIM) version 8.3 acts as a central repository for all of a company’s product data that can be replicated across business and supply chain systems. The principle behind the GXS MDM initiative is to ensure the consistency and accuracy of data shared across internal systems or delivered to an external network. The result, according to GXS, is accelerated time-to-market for new products, an empowered sales staff, and a reduction in order errors.
To that end, the latest version of GXS PIM includes business process management (BPM) functionality for workflow escalation. A manager can set actions to automatically escalate if not completed within user-defined timeframes, for example. In addition, PIM can now manage extended content related to customer information in addition to product information, which includes warranty specifications, ingredients, marketing content, pricing, and locations.
Other updates to the software include: An enhanced data validation engine to ensure compliance and cleansing of incoming data; Workflow audit reports to measure progress against key performance indicators, identify bottlenecks in approval processes, and provide a snapshot of workload at any point in the process; new application programming interfaces (APIs) for service-oriented architecture (SOA) environments; and the GXS Application Integrator, which allows the master data to be used and updated across multiple systems, including ERP, merchandising, logistics, and warehouse management.