The Fundamentals of Product Information Management

According to AT Kearney "roughly $1 million for every $1 billion in sales" is lost due to poorly maintained and synchronized product information. Furthermore, "30% of item data in catalogs used by retailers and manufacturers for replenishment of stocks is in error [costing] $60-$80 [per error] to address."

According to AMR Research, poor product information leads to delays in product introductions, averaging more than 4 weeks2. Other notable supply chain inefficiencies due to poor product information cited by AT Kearney are:

• Companies invest an average of 25 minutes per SKU to manually cleanse out-of-sync item information.
• 60% of all invoices generated have errors. Each invoice error costs $40-$400 to reconcile.
• 43% of all invoices result in deductions.

The result: inaccurate and out-of-sync product information is costing the industry millions in overall supply chain inefficiencies due to costly and inefficient processes that ultimately result in lost revenue.