Retailers share data strategies at forum

PHILADELPHIA —When Home Depot’s Chris Raabe unveiled the retailer’s plan to move away from third-party data providers and the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN), the tech-savvy audience in the AHMA’s Hardlines Technology Forum wasn’t completely surprised.

Many of Home Depot’s vendors had already been given a heads-up. But Raabe’s presentation still was one of those dramatic game-changers with profound implications for the No. 1 home improvement retailer and its vendors.

Here’s the big deal: Beginning later this year, the company will no longer require suppliers to submit data through a third-party data pool. Instead, all data will flow directly from the supplier to Home Depot’s new proprietary portal.

The reasons for the company’s change in direction were summed up neatly in the first slide in Raabe’s presentation, which was called “Getting Product Data Right at the Home Depot.” An internal assessment of the company’s data strategy found GDSN difficult to support and complex to implement, leaving the company with “no single source of the truth.”

Raabe, manager of merchandising operations, pointed to the company’s new direction with data management, which will go under the name “HomeDepotLink.” He described the proprietary system as a Web-based data collection portal that serves as an Item Master Repository, or a “single source of truth for item data.”

Home Depot plans to begin moving to HomeDepotLink in third quarter 2009. The company said it will inform suppliers of specific transition plans as the date gets closer.

Under the plan, suppliers will provide product data directly to Home Depot, which will no longer accept data from GDSN. Another change under the plan: Suppliers will not have to pay a fee to provide item data.

USG’s Laura Hunter was one of the vendors in the audience who had been notified previously about the move to HomeDepotLink. Still, she found value in it. “This helps me take the message home,” she said.

Home Depot’s presentation was one of many during the three-day technology conference held here at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel. Perhaps the highlight was the final Buyer Panel, during which Home Depot and GDSN supporter Lowe’s elaborated on their different directions regarding data management.

Michelle Adams, director of merchandising operations for Lowe’s, pointed to the benefits of GDSN—“Synch with one, synch with many,” she said, adding that there are many common vendors supplying data to Lowe’s, Wal-Mart and other retailers that embrace GDSN.

“If you invested the time and invested the energy to understand how to do this and make it work in your organization, then why not leverage it across all the retailers who are participating in the space?” Adams said. “Certainly we believe this is a collaborative effort. We would like to see you guys synching with other retailers because we know that that benefits you, which in turn benefits us.”

Home Depot’s contrasting position was that GDSN wasn’t working for Home Depot to support, and vendors weren’t able to supply the attributes that Home Depot really wanted—hence, the creation of the home-grown system.

“This will enable suppliers to directly submit product information, marketing data and supply chain data to Home Depot,” said Brian Wallace, senior director of merchandising operations. “So this is a big shift and a big change in direction, and one that will enable us to really work with our suppliers more effectively to set up and maintain accurate information.”

The AHMA event featured almost 40 educational sessions, as well as a small vendor alley where technology companies set up displays. In one session called “Inspector Gadget,” Carl Drisko, global strategic partner executive for Novell, explained the benefits of cell phone projectors, virtual keyboards and the Amazon Kindle, a digital reading device. He also highlighted the danger of digital security—pointing to a slide that showed computer and data theft now rank second only to automobile theft.

In a keynote address, technology expert David Strom described the importance of collaboration tools to connect businesses with consumers.

Next year’s AHMA Hardlines Technology Forum, the 20th anniversary of the event, is slated for Schaumburg, Ill., April 18 to 20, at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel.