By: Doug Baker, Vice President, Industry Relations, FMI
I get it. When you look at the data your grocery retail or CPG business collects daily on consumers and business practices, it’s a lot to take in. The volume of data being created worldwide is now being measured in zettabytes, which is equal to 1 billion terabytes of computer storage capacity. That’s mind-blowing! It’s also an immense opportunity, but where to begin and how to be efficient and effective?
FMI partnered with Accenture to address the challenges facing the food industry in leveraging an exponentially growing volume of data to enhance trading partner relationships and omnichannel consumer experiences. Through executive interviews and an industry questionnaire, we’ve developed The Daunting Data Dilemma report, which outlines the data challenges facing the food industry, includes six themes for food industry executives to consider and suggests industry action steps.
While there have been significant improvements in standards over the years – from GS1 to EDI – industry feedback shows a need for more to be done. Among our findings is that syndicated POS and panel data are the most important data for standardization, particularly in terms of consistent category and product hierarchies and metrics definitions. Clearly, there is an opportunity for collaboration to better support foundational data standards.
With that in mind, I hope you’ll join us at the Midwinter Executive Conference as we discuss the Daunting Data Dilemma findings as part of FMItech at Midwinter. The conversation will include insights, best practices and a roadmap to help trading partners address data challenges.
It’s important to remember that you’re not alone in the daunting data dilemma and that through collaboration, as an industry, we’ll make progress together and turn that dilemma into a bright future that creates dynamic shopping experiences for consumers and strong business efficiencies.
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