How Workflows Can Make Content Programs More Effective – Part 2

You can read Part 1 here.

Workflows are one way to ensure product data is more accurate, while giving more clarity into the steps for creating and approving information.

Your Approach to Workflows

There are many ways to approach a workflow solution, and your company may already have processes or systems in place for digital asset or product information management. However, within the scope of content creation, management and distribution, there is a benefit to working within a single solution.

Today’s product content has multiple uses. Logistics data, for example, has different requirements than enhanced eCommerce images. Shelf and space management content is formatted to feed large planogram files, which have different requirements than an online product detail page.

By approaching workflows with a single solution, a product owner (and data recipient) can ensure that the information is consistent and being delivered against the same rules, without needing to access multiple systems.

Even within an organization, product attributes may be kept separately between basic descriptive information and product images, and another for enhanced rich media assets. Add in the complexity of delivering content to multiple partners in different data standards, and it can become very complex, very quickly.

Multiple Workflows, Single Platform

When we speak with suppliers, we often hear similar stories of conflicting input, unstructured data, and unclear line-of-sight to the hierarchy of who should be managing each part of the data. Each of these processes are necessary, and they all must be combined with a technology stack that can help manage the information flow.

Users have more confidence in the data with a more streamlined business process that allows control over each step, ensuring that product data is complete and validated before syndicating it to recipient partners.

For clients who are not frequent users of data management systems, a workflow helps to instill confidence in the process, which can also reduce time spent and improve content quality. When a workflow is correctly set up, users can confidently “check their box” and move on.

A workflow that is incorporated into an overall content platform helps to build confidence in overall data quality.

Having a workflow process integrated into the digital asset management platform itself is also beneficial as it allows for multiple streams within an organization. Individual department/data owners can build the proper steps and check points for the people who need to manage and access the same product information.

Delivering on Customer Challenges

There are many challenges that can arise to slow down item content publishing. In today’s increasingly complex in-store and online environments, speed to market is a primary goal. In the past, suppliers had to build their own processes to share the portion of an item’s data record to internal or external partners. A large number of attributes for a vast assortment of products was a significant challenge in bringing products to market. Today, that is no longer the case.