New Global Passport from ACNielsen

ACNielsen has recently launched an innovative new service for manufacturers and retailers, The ACNielsen Global Passport - an on-line product catalogue and new product registration service.

The aim of the Global Passport is to assist manufacturers and retailers in creating and maintaining their own product catalogues, storing key attribute information and product images on-line. Using standardised attributes and values, along with harmonised definitions and coding structures, customised views can be created and maintained. In addition, the Global Passport provides participating manufacturers and retailers with supplementary industry codes to assist in information exchange between trading partners. Through the Global Passport, manufacturers can also register their new products on-line and have the information sent to participating retailers.

'With retailers and manufacturers expanding beyond their traditional borders, the ability to consolidate and share information across markets is a significant challenge', according to Jane Perrin, ACNielsen Managing Director of Global Services. 'ACNielsen has significant experience in coding products all over the world and understands the challenges of multi-country coding and harmonisation. ACNielsen's Passport provides manufacturers and retailers with a truly global solution.'

With password-protected web access to their own information, manufacturers and retailers can share detailed information on categories and brands for collaborative projects in category management, shelf planning, product mix analysis and global sourcing.

To facilitate global sourcing initiatives and other key business initiatives between trading partners, the Global Passport provides retailers and manufacturers with a range of regional and global reporting capabilities based on information that is aligned across geographies.

Manufacturers register their new products on-line with ACNielsen and get a new product 'Passport' sent to all participating Passport retailers. The manufacturer notifies ACNielsen of the upcoming introduction, and ACNielsen does the coding, sending the product registration to both the manufacturer's and retailer's internal systems. Once the product is actually on-shelf, the coding is revalidated through ACNielsen's Marketing Information Service. Manufacturers and retailers can then receive a New Product Alert report for a listing of new products on-shelf.

With a number of on-going industry initiatives already underway in this area, ACNielsen's Global Passport has been designed to complement and support the emerging industry activities. 'Our intent is to work with the industry, assisting manufacturers and retailers in creating and maintaining customized item master files that will then be able to feed their home data pools. Based on our years of experience in coding products around the world, our aim is to assist our clients in this extremely complex area of global harmonisation and product classification,' added Perrin.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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