Business Tip 8
Automate the Dissemination of Content and Data

The challenge ... and opportunity ... of managing file sizes, updating data and regionalizing content

You have finished the presentation; everything is done; it looks great. Except that it uses 25 MB of disc space and next week you need to delivery 5 MB of updated data to 10 different markets! How do you get it out to the field or to your customer?

There are some daunting challenges when it comes to delivering large, fact-based analyses and presentations:

• The data footprint in data-intensive applications is enormous
• It is difficult and time-consuming to incorporate the latest data, which can change as often as weekly

To make matters worse, most organizations deliver more data and content that necessary, which clogs up networks and overwhelms people.

By automating the dissemination of information, you can tailor content to the audience, and by using tools that automate data updates, you can minimize the difficulty of getting the data into the presentation. Some things to keep in mind:

Match the Content to the Need Making everything available to everyone all the time is not economically feasible - and extraneous data does not add value. Match the content and data to the region or accounts that people are dealing with and include just the information necessary to drive the presentation and generate recommendations.

Choose Measures Carefully Map presentations to your data source and include only those measures used in the majority of the presentations on a routine basis. Update infrequently used measures on a quarterly or sem-annual basis to minimize your download time.

Recognize the Importance of the Category Weekly data deliveries for an occasional or convenience category may not make sense. Look for the dynamic categories - categories that see a lot of new product introductions or that are fast turning - and make sure these are the ones that are updated on a frequent basis.

Control the Degree of Granularity If you are not addressing assortment issues, you may not need UPC level data. Look for ways to distribute only the products that have data for current and previous periods. If the item has not sales, leave it out. It will be assumed to have zero sales.

The data, products and accounts depicted in this example are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual data, products or accounts is purely coincidental.