Following on my last post, I’d like to focus on the question: What can be considered as a good taxonomy? Given the fact that taxonomy is something between art and science, a consensus will be hard to achieve. Luckily, this discussion is focused on the product data realm and based on practical aspects gained through many years of experience working with product data.
Read the whole post by Yossi Rissin, InQuera's CTO.

Spotlight On...	Feature Article	Case Study
Product Data Quality: Definition, Differences, and ROI	Driving Supply Chain Optimization through Data Refinement	Mastering the Challenge of Product Data Consolidation
What is Product Data Quality? High-quality product data is more than just key identifiers. Learn more. PDQ versus CDQ The differences between customer and product data. Learn more. Return on Investment How to derive value from data refinement. Learn more.	A supply chain focuses on moving products from suppliers to customers. But its success depends on knowing exactly what products are in stock, where to purchase materials, what needs to be manufactured, and where they are located. Poor product data hampers SCM initiatives — and you might never know why! Download (PDF 45kB)	The project's goal was to consolidate a product inventory of about 100,000 stock keeping units (SKUs), stored in four different databases, formats, and languages utilizing DataRefiner — a high-performance data refinement solution. Download (PDF 92kB)

White Papers

Why InQuera?
InQuera transforms raw, "Tower-of-Babel" product data, obtained from disparate sources and different media into concise, industry-neutral, and uniformly-structured product content. InQuera delivers a single, standardized product database enabling cost-effective and efficient procurement. Download (PDF 209kB)

Basic Concepts of Normalized and Structured Product Data
Structured and normalized product data is essential in understanding your data. At the core of meaningful data lies the taxonomy: the categories, attributes, and attribute values. Download (PDF 475kB)

InQuera Central Repository (ICR)
ICR is the single, central, database-driven repository that contains InQuera's MRO product content, aggregated from multiple manufacturers. ICR is structured for manipulation into automated, cross-media, virtual and print catalogs. Download (PDF 189kB)


Articles

Data Refinement Solves Product Data Dilemma
How does a global company with disparate purchasing departments in different locations go about unifying its product data? When the data is located in different sources, consolidating data is an extremely complex, time-consuming, and labor-intensive task, especially when the product information is unclear, inconsistent, and incomplete. Download (PDF 267kB)