SEMA News—September 2015

SEMA DATA CO-OP
By Jon Wyly

Is Your Product Data Up to Speed?

See for Yourself on SEMA Search!

	Sign up at www.SEMAsearch.com for access to the newly launched online electronic catalog powered by the SEMA Data Co-op.

It’s been about eight months since the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) rolled out the Data Quality and Completeness Program, which is designed specifically to help suppliers increase their data quality level in an easy, step-by-step process. In that time, we have seen more than 250 “steps” made by participating suppliers as they have moved up through the quality ratings of Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum, making their data more valuable to their customer base and creating more sales.

Now, with nearly 300 brands at the Bronze level or better and another 100 in the process of getting there, the rollout of SEMA Search couldn’t be better timed. Designed to be a one-stop resource for detailed product information, application lookups and more, SEMA Search also serves to visually illustrate just how effective a product data set is in a typical e-commerce-type presentation.

So how do you leverage those two valuable tools?

The first step is to be aware of the current level of your data. Talk with the team that is handling your data or take a look at the “Directory of Data Innovators” published quarterly in SEMA News. There you will find a brief description of your company along with its data level at the time of publication. The most recently published list can be found in the July issue, and an updated one will be printed in the October issue. If you are currently at any level lower than Platinum, you are making progress, but there is work yet to do.

Next, sign up at www.SEMAsearch.com for access to our newly launched online electronic catalog powered by the SDC. It’s free to the trade, and inclusion of your brand is free as long as you are a member in good standing of the SDC and have a data quality rating of Bronze or better.

Jump in and do some searches to see what your results look like. Use our “compare” feature to see how your brand stacks up against competitors in the same category. Check out your marketing copy, features and benefits, product specs and more. Are you happy with the results, or could they use some work? It will become very obvious to you what a difference it makes to maintain a high-quality, up-to-date data set.

And speaking of up-to-date, don’t forget to search for your latest products and vehicle applications. If they are missing or are incomplete, it’s time to revisit your data team and get some updates loaded! Remember, the SDC provides powerful and effective data-management tools and technical guidance, but the responsibility for keeping your data current and complete is yours and yours alone.

Speed to market is critical for us all, and there is nothing worse than launching a brand-new product only to have it lay on the shelves waiting for distributors and retailers to get the info loaded into their systems and websites. Don’t let distractions or misplaced priorities keep you from putting the best possible data into the marketplace in a timely manner. It will make a difference in sales you can feel.

Not involved yet with the SDC?

Contact us right away if you have not yet joined the SDC, and we’ll guide you through a smooth on-boarding process to get your data organized, standardized and published into the SDC repository. From there, you have total control to manage, improve and expand your data all the way up to Platinum level with the help of our highly qualified team of data experts. 15649.png