EXTOL Scales Down Offering for UCCnet Compliance

by Alex Woodie

EXTOL last week launched Windows-based software designed to help smaller suppliers with a handful of products to synchronize their product data with their retail partners, using UCCnet. The new software, called the "plug and play" version of the full EXTOL Integrator for UCCnet Services offering, costs $2,500 and allows suppliers to manually enter data for a limited number of products into a catalog, which the software then synchronizes with the UCCnet global data repository.

Every year, $40 billion is lost in this country due to product data inconsistencies in the retail supply chain, analyst groups report. These errors range from having the wrong price on a six-pack of Coors to providing measurements in the English measurement system, as opposed to metric. Today, these problems are predominantly addressed manually, with a person and a clipboard. Several years ago, the UCCnet was formed to help retailers and suppliers synchronize their product data, and to do it using computers hooked together over the Internet.

Retail giants like Wal-Mart and The Home Depot, which have the most to lose from product data inconsistencies (and the most to gain with UCCnet), have set deadlines requiring their suppliers to be hooked into the UCCnet GLOBALregistry. While hundreds of retailers and suppliers joined UCCnet in 2003, there were still only a handful of companies actively using UCCnet services in December, according to EXTOL, which estimates that more than 80 percent of the companies that will eventually deploy UCCnet solutions have yet to do so.

With such a large untapped market for UCCnet services, EXTOL decided to re-think its UCCnet strategy. The company had already gained UCCnet certification for its EXTOL Integrator for UCCnet Services, which is based on its Java-based B2B integration broker platform that also supports EDI and AS2 communications, and will support radio frequency identification (RFID) in the future. However, at $40,000, EXTOL Integrator for UCCnet Services doesn't appeal to smaller companies that only have a few products. That's where the "plug and play" version comes in.

The new "plug and play" version is identical to the full EXTOL Integrator for UCCnet Services product, except for a few key areas. In terms of the core similarities, both products validate and synchronize product data with the UCCnet GLOBALrepository. There are also some niceties in both products that won't be found in bare-bones synchronization tools, such as features for workflow approvals, e-mail notifications, intelligent "stop-lighting," and automated life-cycle tracking.

Now for the differences. First, the "plug and play" version is limited to only 25 products, or Global Trade Identification Numbers (GTINs), although synchronization for additional GTINs can be purchased. Second, the software costs $2,500 and only runs on Windows. (Extol says it can't provide multiplatform support for that low a price.) Lastly, the "plug and play" version cannot integrate directly with the product data master of an ERP system, which the full product was designed to do (specifically, it integrated with the big ERP systems running on IBM's AS/400 and iSeries proprietary midrange machines). With the scaled-down version, the product data must be entered manually into the product catalog, which EXTOL provides.

Extol president Dennis Bonagura says companies can install the new software and start synchronizing their product data over UCCnet in less than an hour. "This new offering removes the obstacles of cost and deployment times for the SMB [small and midsized business] enterprise, without sacrificing the automation and ease of use previously available only in expensive, high-end solutions," he says.

At any time, users can upgrade from the "plug and play" version to the big-dog version of EXTOL Integrator, enabling them to unlock the product's integration capabilities and to run it on other platforms.

The "plug and play" version of EXTOL Integrator for UCCnet Services is available now. Synchronization for additional GTINs is available in blocks of 25, and cost $100 per GTIN. Interested parties may want to check out an EXTOL Webinar called "UCCnet: A Business Integration Opportunity" next Wednesday, March 31, at 12:30 p.m. EST. For more information, go to www.extol.com.