Vantage Point: Weeding Through the DSR Market
Go to any trade show in the consumer goods market and you will hear company after company claim they are a Demand Signal Repository (DSR). Years ago, we attempted to clear up some of the DSR confusion by defining ourselves as an Enterprise DSR solution versus a Team/Departmental DSR solution. Ah, but now everyone claims to be an Enterprise DSR. So how do you weed through the confusion and get what you need?
The solutions on the market vary greatly. True, they all use demand data and can show reports with demand data in them. As business users, you may see these reports and have a hard time seeing much difference in them. No business user wants to be delving into the underlying technology to determine the true differences, however, when everyone claims to be doing the same thing, that’s exactly what you have to do. Involve your IT people as well, to truly understand the differences.
We’ve identified some basics to help you differentiate all the DSR solutions out there. First and foremost, agree upon what you need. We often go into companies where everyone claims to want an Enterprise DSR that will bring in POS, syndicated data, shipments and forecasts, only to find out what they really want is a report that shows “X.”
If specific reports for specific retailers is all you need, there are some good solutions with retailer specific reports. A “Team” or “Departmental” solution may be all you need. Companies providing these customer reporting solutions should acknowledge that this is their forte and keep the market from being any more confused. Unfortunately, some of these vendors actually believe they have an enterprise solution, which makes your job more difficult.
Everyone evaluates the front end tool. But let’s face it, most companies have nice front end tools. This is really the icing on the cake. You need to also evaluate the implementation process, the data management and most importantly, the underlying architecture.
The architecture of various DSR solutions differ from company to company. If an Enterprise solution is truly what you need, there are some key things you need to look for. First, recognize that the confusion in the market is real. It exists even with the vendors themselves. It will be up to you to determine, the differences in what each company is actually doing. Below are some pointers on just how to go about doing this.
- Categorize the solutions you’re looking at. Ignore the fact that they all claim to be Enterprise DSR solutions and determine for yourself if they warrant that title. Differentiate between Enterprise DSR, Team/Departmental DSR, Data Provider or Specialized Application. I add the specialized application because we are even seeing TPO/TPM and Forecasting applications out there claiming to have a DSR. (As if the market was not confused enough already).
- Look at the vendor’s history. What was their focus in the past and what is their claim today? Did they really just warm over an old product designed for one retailer and recreate if for other retailers? Has their focus been to create reports for buyers of specific retailers? If so, is this all you need? It may be.
- What problem am I trying to solve? Do I just need my Monday morning reports to show my buyers? If so, you may want to go with a Team DSR.
- Is corporate involved in this decision? If so, what problems are they trying to solve? What groups does this need to support?
- Who does the vendor call on? Category managers or corporate?
- Does the solution integrate with internal data? Ah, the problem arises again. Because all the vendors claim they can integrate POS with syndicated as well as internal data. Here is where you have to start getting a little technical because if you are truly looking for an enterprise solution, you have to determine the long term requirements of the business and make sure the solution you chose truly has the capacity to support all those needs. Below are things to look for in a true Enterprise DSR:
-Ask what database the application runs on. It should flexible and support your database of choice.
-Identify data types the application can pull data from. Make sure they support ODBC, but are not just relying on ODBC. Direct access to a wide range of data sources is important. Why? Speed. Consumer goods companies have massive data volumes. If the solution does not natively support the databases it is sourcing and targeting, the data loads will bring the system to it’s knees and make the application virtually unusable over time.
-Find out how they handle historical data. The speed with which it can be integrated and identification of data errors.
What functionality does the front end tool have? Can other business intelligence tools be leveraged?
-Ask to see the cleansing and validation processes.
-Ask to see the data model. Understand how new subject areas are added and enhancements made.
-Find out if you have the option to have the application behind your firewall or in a hosted environment. If so, identify any functionality you might lose if they host it for you.
-Are you dependent on the vendor to add additional retailers?
-How is the integration of data scheduled and automated? We have heard vendors say that this automation cannot be done. Indeed it can be done, and should be done, but it requires solid expertise in the area of data integration.
-Is it possible for you to edit the data?
-How is the application managed?
-Can the clean data be used for other applications?
About the Author:
Janet Dorenkott is co-founder and COO of Relational Solutions. She has worked in the technology and consumer goods area for over 20 years. Her company has implemented over 200 data integration and business intelligence projects and has focused on the consumer goods industry since 1998. Relational Solutions has been consulted by analysts and conducted classes for corporations, universities, analysts and technology associations. Relational Solutions’ POSmart application is designed to leverage POS data automate the integration and cleansing with internal and syndicated data and generate reports to support customer teams, supply chain, forecasting, marketing, promotion analysis, executive reporting and others. For more information, visit: www.relationalsolutions.com.