In September 2015, GS1 Germany presented the low data quality in the German data pool and its approach to improve that, namely to tackle this challenge with the solution from Systrion AG. An analysis of the data quality in the pool carried out by Smart Data One in 2016 showed that approximately 50% of all data is inaccurate. The results of the comprehensive data quality program started by GS1 Germany and its implementation with synfoxx^®/p are now available, just one year later. They are so positive that the project is seen as a benchmark for the industry.

On track towards 100% data quality

Smart Data One, mandated by GS1 Germany, had so far defined over 130 validation rules together with partners from industry and retail, which were then customized in synfoxx^®/p as data checks. During a proof of concept phase with 200 companies, the implementation team continuously improved the data quality gate. The results are compelling:

• 60 percent quality improvement for the suppliers, i.e. a reduction of the average error rate from 56 percent down to 22 percent.

• 54 percent qualtiy improvement for the products, i.e. 5.600 from originally 10.250 inaccurate product numbers/GTINs were error-free according to the validation rules, after passing the data quality gate.

The data quality gate measurably improves the quality of product master data, and the active support thus provided to the manufacturers leads to significantly better results. The automatic controls are saving the manufacturers - as a general rule - a time expenditure of several weeks. One multinational company pioneered the process: Unilever, by their own account, had already in 2013 reached a data quality of 99,2% using Systrion's solution.

Powerful with big capacity

The project is now being rolled out to all 2.500 suppliers of the German master data pool, in which over 1 million products are being maintained. In further project steps, the number of attributes being checked will - in FMCG alone - be expanded from approximately 40 to the whole data model. In that process all product master data changes will be collected in synfoxx^®/p and validated with the data checks. All participating companies receive a comprehensive weekly report via e-mail that helps them correct any mistakes in the data.

synfoxx^®/p can handle the growing volume. Already during the pilot phases there were up to 30.000 product notifications per day that had to be processed by the system. The underlying Microsoft infrastructure helps with any potential scaling issues - the Azure environment allows to add as many servers as needed on very short notice.

A light house project

Smart Data One is very content. "We see that our decision to go with Systrion and their product synfoxx^®/p was the right one. The pilot phase has proven that the industry can and wants to improve their data, if they are provided with meaningful feedback. Systrions solution provides just this feedback and - due to its innovative architecture - is able to handle our future requirements like the rollout to all manufacturers and a lot more data checks. From the beginning of the project until now, Systrion has been supporting us extremely well with their consulting and the implementation in their solution synfoxx^®/p", says Fabian Dimski, COO Smart Data One.

"This project really is a light house project with regards to analysis and improvement of data quality. I think we were able to contribute pretty well with our solution and competency. The demanding requirements regarding performance of the solution, which will continue to increase, can easily be handled due to the underlying Microsoft Azure platform. We can thus implement synfoxx^®/p without difficulty in big concerns or on other continents, too", says Wolfram Koller, founder and CEO Systrion AG.

The data checks currently defined within the data quality initiative from GS1 Germany can be obtained from Systrion as a package in synfoxx^®/p. The quality of the data can thus already be assured before it is sent to 1WorldSync.