Accuracy at Hand

The non-descript exterior of the Campbell Soup Company headquarters, located in Camden, New Jersey, is a humble facade that does not do justice to the veritable brand museum on display inside. Warhol interpretations, for instance, hang next to model airplanes fashioned from tomato soup cans. Colorful quilts, emblazoned with the Campbell logo hang alongside a massive product wall housing the company's other world-famous brands, like Pepperidge Farm and Godiva chocolate. A decorative Campbell egg collection is also a wonder to behold, and the Campbell light switch covers -- located in the product-testing center stocked with eight working kitchens -- made me appreciate not only the company's ubiquitous brand name, but its attention to detail as well.

Detail Oriented
Campbell's eye for detail also appears as a core part of its business strategy, which is to be customer-focused. At the heart of this strategy is a visionary data synchronization plan that began nearly four years ago. "As a member of the Uniform Code Council (UCC), we received early announcements about the formation of UCCnet, which we paid close attention to," says Rose Smith, IT director of Application Management Services for Campbell. "We then called our top 40 customers, told them that we saw the potential for data synchronization, and asked them their thoughts. Ten of those top customers had definite plans to engage their suppliers in data synch pilots. Based on that, we started to investigate what it would take to get in the game. That's how we got started," explains Smith.
"From a capability standpoint, we made certain that we could support customer specific requirements without compromising operational excellence within the organization," says Joe Spagnoletti, vice president of IT for Campbell North America. "Data synch is a capability upon which we can build the foundation for other collaborative processes with our customers, such as CPFR and RFID."

Getting Closer to Customers
By embarking on this type of data synch initiative, Spagnoletti says a danger lies in alienating customers who are not prepared to have similar types of discussions. In response, Campbell published information stating the company would work with the fewest number of the broadest reaching partners to meet the needs of its customers. A plan was soon set in motion to determine how Campbell would approach its customers, the way it would reengineer its internal customer service processes, and the way it would deploy and manage the technology. "Even though we wanted to be unique to our customers, there were certain standards to which we were committed and it was a constant challenge to balance custom requests and the need for standardization," says Spagnoletti.

"Although Campbell is one of the founding members of Transora, we made the strategic choice to build additional partnerships to ensure we were working in concert with our customers," says Spagnoletti. "The WWRE was one of those partnerships and, strategically, I think that was a very bold move for us. Fortunately, it paid off and helped facilitate us working more closely with our customers on collaborative initiatives."
Many Eggs, Many Baskets
As Campbell formed its external relationships, the company also made sure the technology it implemented would shield it from those relationships changing or failing. "We didn't want to put all of our eggs in one basket," says Smith. "We spent a lot of time talking to our internal architects. We talked to every single UCCnet alliance partner. We asked a lot of retailers what they were doing."

Campbell also benefited greatly from perhaps the most valuable resource of all: the competition. The level of sharing Campbell experienced with other CPG companies was paramount to the company's data synch vision. The sharing of information and ideas, however, has little to do with giving away competitive advantage and has everything to do with creating a common language and rules for sharing information. "If we don't all do the same thing, everybody loses," says Smith. "To make this happen, you have to be willing to share best practices with others in your industry -- in the end, it benefits us if our competitors are also synchronizing with retailers. The more suppliers who synchronize data the same way, the better for all because it helps drive adoption of standards."
Adds Spagnoletti: "Think about other major CPG companies and the influence they have on retailers. If they, in addition to Campbell, can encourage retailers to do more things in a common way, it really expedites the data cleansing process and helps move us forward as an industry."

Spreadsheets: Just Say No
From very early on, Campbell made the decision to stay clear of using spreadsheets. From a technical standpoint, according to Smith, spreadsheets constitute a step backwards for Campbell as the manual effort involved is time-consuming. Spreadsheets also leave too many products in too many places. Since Campbell is constantly making product changes, spreadsheets might not reflect the most accurate information. "We built the infrastructure, which was really our technology project," says Smith. "Our product information was maintained in the place where it has always been maintained. And then it was passed on via the infrastructure to Velosel."

Campbell purchased a Product Information Management (PIM) package from Velosel that provides a point to gather data for a final review before it is sent out to data pools like UCCnet and WWRE. Smith says Campbell is also taking advantage of some of the workflow capabilities that Velosel offers due to the volume of messaging that takes place from Campbell to UCCnet and WWRE and back. "Now we've also got the GS1 Global Registry to contend with -- so as we expand, it can become very complicated, which is why we've chosen to automate," says Smith. "There is no e-mail involved for us -- it's all XML and messaging. The technology has really been used to the fullest."

Smith also found solace in Velosel because many other retailers and manufacturers use it as their source for accurate product data. If Campbell sends a new product message to UCCnet or WWRE and they send it to a retailer and the retailer conveys that they are not interested in the item, Campbell will take that message and route it back to its customer service team via the Velosel workflow engine. "You want to communicate with your sales and customer service teams," says Smith. "Depending on the message, the Velosel package will handle all of that."

Quality Comes First
To achieve the value of data synchronization, the quality and accuracy of data are critical. In the past, the quality of the data in a company's master files wasn't perfect because it wasn't being shared externally. Campbell was certainly not immune to this problem, as the company would often discover incorrect information, data typically provided by the company's account teams. A massive clean-up effort that took about six months to complete involved collaboration among Campbell Packaging, R&D and Data Administration Services teams.

"We had to bring in various functions to review all of the data to make sure it was accurate," says Smith. "Before we sent that first machine-to-machine message out, everything we were sending had to be correct. The challenge from there is to keep it correct and we've managed to do that."

But as Campbell trudged through this rigorous exercise, the company soon discovered that most suppliers faced the same challenge. As Campbell approached each retailer, it also asked what the biggest issues were surrounding data synch with other suppliers. Across the board the biggest issue was the quality of the data. "If asked, our advice to the rest of the world would be that you really need to clean up your data," says Smith. "Don't ask your customers to do it for you! It's not good for improving customer relations."

Other Issues Surface
Bad data is the impetus for many suppliers to get their data synch plans moving. An example that suppliers may uncover is incorrect product weight. Spagnoletti believes that as products change over time, the weights often change, becoming heavier or lighter due to packaging and product changes. When a customer puts in an order and the weight changes aren't correct in the master file, more or less product appears on trucks than should be, and the supplier ends up shipping the incorrect quantity of product. "This is a real problem that manufacturers are dealing with every day that they may not realize," says Spagnoletti.

Forward-Thinking Strategy
Campbell is clearly not buying into the data synch hype surrounding the billions of dollars that could potentially be saved from reduced deductions. "If every retailer and every manufacturer cleans up all their data, it could happen, but it's not moving that quickly," says Smith. "We were very honest about not trying to make that claim." Instead, Campbell sees much more upside to data synch because it enables so many other forward-thinking strategies, like Collaborative Planning, Forecasting & Replenishment (CPFR) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). "It's like building a house," says Smith. "You've got a foundation and that's a nice thing but you've got to put something on top of it. We have the opportunity now to do new and exciting things with our retailers."

Regarding Campbell's CPFR and RFID initiatives, "all of these things require data synch to be done first," says Smith. "With some retailers, it's the entry fee to get into the club. By doing this, we've shown them our willingness to participate in their initiatives. It lets us sit at the table with them and participate in these other projects. That's where the big benefits and ROI kick in."

Adds Spagnoletti: "We have a strategy to 'Win with our Winning Customers.' If we can demonstrate the value of these added services and these services can translate into benefits to consumers...then I think we've got a home run."