Dot Foods Leverages GDSN for Improved Customer Product Information
(April 6, 2011) – Dot Foods, the largest food redistributor in the United States, announced that it recently completed a pilot of the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) for receiving foodservice marketing, nutritional, allergen and ingredient data from food manufacturers. The pilot was managed by Aligntrac Solutions, using its GDSN integration software and 1SYNC, Dot Foods’ data pool of choice.
The pilot demonstrated that foodservice manufacturers can rely solely on the GDSN to transmit the complete set of product information needed by distributors to satisfy sales and marketing purposes as well as logistics and ordering. It also showed that the product information Dot Foods receives from the GDSN can enrich the product content available within its customer-ordering website known as the Dot Expressway®. The site is used by almost 6,000 people from over 2,400 distributors as a research tool in selecting and ordering products.
“The ability to use the GDSN foodservice marketing, nutritional, allergen and ingredient information is a great step forward in providing Dot customers with the best possible product information,” said Dick Tracy, Executive Vice President of Foodservice, Dot Foods. “The industry initiative so far has allowed us to surpass the level of synchronization that we had achieved prior to GDSN. With the addition of the attributes to fulfill our sales and marketing needs, we see a powerful win for Dot, our customers, our suppliers and our industry.”
Dot Foods had already been using 1SYNC and Aligntrac to synchronize logistics data attributes through the GDSN with many of its suppliers, and has seen improvements in data quality and completeness by doing so. With the addition of the nutritional, allergen and ingredient information, Dot expects to see similar levels of improvement across sales and marketing.
The foodservice marketing, nutritional, allergen and ingredient information used in the pilot adhered to new foodservice industry standards known as Phase Two Data Attributes in the Foodservice GS1 US Standards Initiative. Dot Foods is a founding member and Governance Committee leader of the Initiative, and continues to lead the industry in the adoption of data synchronization.
The Initiative allows manufacturers to securely transmit standardized product information to distributors. As the nutritional, allergen and ingredient data simply leverage and extend the work already in place, food manufacturers are able to streamline and consolidate the flow of product information to distributors.
Aligntrac Solutions provided pilot participants with training and guidance in readying their foodservice marketing, nutritional, allergen and ingredient data. Aligntrac’s Sync/PDI™ system is tailored for foodservice – both food and non-food – making it easy for manufacturers to adhere to the Foodservice Initiative’s Phase One and Phase Two specifications, and is Dot Foods’ gateway to the 1SYNC data pool. In addition, Aligntrac announced new features including integrated GDSN image hosting and capabilities to extend manufacturer websites with “Item Spec Sheets,” thus ensuring that its customers have a single version of the truth.
In the pilot, Dot Foods and Aligntrac, partnering with 1SYNC, not only successfully exchanged Phase 1 and Phase 2 attributes with their partners, but also created a relationship that enables Dot Foods trading partners to send and receive product data to any trading partners on other GS1-certified GDSN data pools without any additional fees.
“The ability to synchronize nutritional, allergen and ingredient data attributes is an important step in realizing the full value of the industry-standards based approach embodied by 1SYNC and GDSN,” said Dan Wilkinson, Vice President, 1SYNC. “We look forward to working with our current and new subscribers in helping them realize value in a single approach to data synchronization.”
Sturm Foods, Tampa Maid Foods, Tyson Foods and other food manufacturers participated in the pilot and are extremely excited about the nutritional, allergen and ingredient information being integrated into the Dot Expressway. The pilot proved that the solution allows the manufacturer to quickly transmit full item information and marketing materials and know that Dot’s customers are viewing complete and current information. In addition, since everything is based on industry standards, the manufacturer can quickly provide product information to other distributors.
For Dot Foods and other distributors, Aligntrac is pleased to announce new features allowing distributors to quickly link to “Item Spec Sheets” generated from GDSN data. These features significantly accelerate a distributor’s implementation of GDSN. New reporting features of Sync/PDI will provide Dot Foods and their suppliers with weekly progress reporting on “Phase Two” implementation status.
Dot Foods, 1SYNC and Aligntrac will be presenting the result of the pilot and use of GDSN to satisfy sales, marketing, ordering and logistics requirements at the 1SYNC User Group being held in conjunction with the GS1 U Connect Live Conference, June 1-3, 2011 in Orlando.
Note to editors: The Global Data Synchronization Network enables companies to connect and communicate with their trading partners and improve the accuracy and efficiency of their collaboration. Using GS1 GDSN-certified data pools such as 1SYNC, companies register and synchronize supply-chain information through the GS1 Global Registry, which serves as a centralized information repository. The elimination of informational inaccuracies helps companies achieve a wide range of business benefits, including reductions in out-of-stocks, mis-shipments, purchase order/invoicing errors, and transportation costs.
About Dot Foods: Dot Foods Inc. carries 100,000 products from 700 food industry manufacturers and is the largest food redistributor in the United States. Dot Foods and Dot Transportation sell and deliver foodservice, convenience, retail, vending, equipment and supplies to leading distributors in all 50 states. Dot Foods operates eight distribution centers, located in: Modesto, Calif.; Vidalia, Ga.; Burley, Idaho; Mt. Sterling, Ill.; Cambridge City, Ind.; Williamsport, Md.; Liverpool, N.Y.; and Ardmore, Okla. For information, visit www.dotfoods.com.
About Aligntrac Solutions: Aligntrac's Sync/PDI™ platform allows sell-side companies to organize, cleanse and synchronize their product information and buy-side organizations to quickly implement the automated flow of item/catalogue information. Sync/PDI™ is a full-featured solution that was designed with ease of use in mind. It features sophisticated data validation, several integration options and many end-user searching and reporting capabilities. Aligntrac is a certified 1SYNC™ Solution Partner and the Sync/PDI™ solution supports the current 1SYNC Data Pool. For more information, visit www.aligntrac.com.
About 1SYNC™: 1SYNC™, the largest certified data pool in the Global Data Synchronization Network® (GDSN®), is dedicated to the implementation of standards-based, global supplychain solutions. The 1SYNC community currently consists of 50 leading retailers and more than 5,000 suppliers worldwide. These implementations comprise data for more than 5 million items synchronized in the GDSN. 1SYNC offers a robust, easy-to-use solution that can reduce costly data errors and increase supply-chain efficiencies for companies of all sizes. For more information, visit www.1SYNC.org