Transora and Trigo partner to push data sync

Transora, a consortia-based Internet trade exchange for the consumer packaged goods industry, has inked an agreement with Trigo Technologies, a product information management vendor, to provide linked services to help manufacturers create and transmit synchronized data to their retail customers.

The partnership aids suppliers in complying with their customers' data-sync deadlines. "Wal-Mart and other large retailers have been driving the data-sync initiatives," says Daniel Druker, a VP with Trigo.

January 2004 is Wal-Mart's target date for major suppliers to synchronize product data. "There are continual pressures on these companies to [clean up their data]," says Kara Romanow, an analyst at Boston-based analyst firm AMR Research. "Wal-Mart is the biggest, but Ace, Lowes, and Home Depot have joined in with similar deadlines."

The process of data synchronization requires two steps. First, manufacturers have to create an internal repository of standardized product data. Second, the data needs to be delivered to retailers. To support these goals, Trigo and Transora will interconnect their flagship offerings, Trigo Product Center and the Transora Global Data Synchronization Network (TDSN). The TDSN will securely distribute information from Trigo Product Center directly to leading retailers, the UCCnet Global Registry, and to country data pools and exchanges.

"You have to assemble a golden source of product information before it's sent to Albertsons," says Druker. Once you have clean data within a company's firewall, it becomes much easier to use a network to send it along to retailers, he adds. "Transora is the network in between," explains Druker. "They're like the phone company. After the data is assembled inside the firewall, we send it to Transora, and they send it to Albertsons."

But some experts say the need for sophisticated, internal data repositories is mainly among large manufacturers. "Some companies may not need a behind-the-firewall data repository," says Romanow. "Some may just need to get data together for three retailers."