When working with Product Information Management (PIM) and the recurring challenges in exchanging product information between trading partners the idea about everyone adhering to the same standard is a tempting idea.
This idea is also governing the many product data pools around. However, there are some serious considerations against this idea, namely:
- Being on the same standard and not to say on the same version within your business ecosystem is quite utopic (being that within your own organization is hard enough).
- It is not desirable to have the same product information as your competitors if you are going to compete on other factors than price.
In my eyes it is a better idea to forget about imposing a rigid standard for everyone and instead embrace the many available standards for product information where your organization utilize those being best for you at the given time and your various trading partners utilize those being best for them at a given time.
The solution for that is Product Data Lake.
Liliendahl on Data Quality 