Product Data Hub (PDH) Fundamentals

The objective of this article is to provide Overview of Oracle Product Information Management (PIM) or also known as Product Data Hub (PDH)

Oracle Product Information Management : Business needs

• Consolidate product information across different enterprise systems
• Enables Product data quality
• Reuse and source components from suppliers
• Synchronize data with trading partners
• Provide a centralized product and service catalog
• Accelerate new product introductions and changes
• Improve collaboration across the enterprise
• Centralize multi-channel product information – configurations, pricing and sales policies

Centralized Product Data

Many companies today store product information in numerous fragmented applications scattered across the enterprise, resulting in data duplication, version inaccuracy , and difficulty in locating information

Oracle PIM enables companies to consolidate all product information into a central repository that is based in a single extensible data model. This improves item accuracy and standardizes information so items can be classified, making them easy to find and manage. The Central repository accommodates virtually all information types, including

• Structured data such as item specifications, user-defined attributes
• Unstructured data such as documents, spreadsheets, images, drawings and other attachments.
• Lifecycle data (change Requests and change orders)
• BOMs (engineering, sales, manufacturing, service and so on )
• Oracle PIM enables you to store and manage all product data and provides you the capabilities to
• Organize items into user-defined catalogs and categories for quick retrieval, with an easy to navigate hierarchical catalog structure
• Capture form, fit, function and product-related information with user-defined attributes.
• Control Business functions and operations using predefined industry standard operational attributes.
• Compare attribution of two components and select components that best meet requirements.
• Import and export product information, including attributes for use of updating and generating custom data sheets, collateral and reports.
• Store all product definitions and hierarchies such as engineering and manufacturing structures in a single data model.

Oracle Product Information Management Data Hub (PIM Data Hub) enables you to synchronize product data spread across different business systems into a single master item record.

Operational Challenges

Oracle PIM addresses these operational challenges

Evolution

Change

Evolution

Oracle PIM addresses islands of data created by

• Mergers and acquisitions
• Going Global
• Rushing to Market
• Departmental Priorities and Politics

Change

Use PIM to bridge information technology gaps relating to

• Supplier and customer mandates
• New Government regulations
• Isolated business processes
• Best-of-breed applications
• Self-service Systems

Product Data

• Consolidate and maintain unique, complete and accurate product information across the enterprise
• Distribute product information to all operational and analytical applications

Oracle Product Information Management : Master

Use Oracle PIM to create a master repository of product data

Master Trusted Product Data

Your master data may contain

• Attributes
• Policies
• Trading partners
• Catalogs
• Documents
• Organizations
• Relationships
• Configurations

Central Data Repository

Create a single repository based on a proven data model

Your central data repository enables a 360-degree review of product information. This central data repository may also have these attributes

• Extensible and configurable Data model
• Model each entity once in the data model
• Support all business models and industries
• Provide locations for multiple geographies ( languages, units of measure, currencies)
• Real-time Visibility to transaction information from other systems
• Underlying data model of Oracle E-business suite

Structured and Unstructured Data Management

Oracle PIM supports all types of information related to an item

Structured Data may consist of

• Attributes
• Policies
• Catalogs
• Configurations

Capture operational info and specifications

Manage Product configurations

Define policies for Product change and approval

Manage an item’s relationship with trading partners and locations

Unstructured Data are attachments and can consist of

• Word Documents
• Spreadsheets
• PDF documents
• Images

Attach documents to an item,BOM or change order

Check-in and check-out documents with version history

Search documents based on content or attributes.

Complete view of Product information

View and manage all product information from a single user interface

Oracle PIM enables you to view

• Product configurations
• Product relationships
• Customer defined attributes
• Operational attributes
• Data syndication attributes

Product Information Management : Data Consolidation

PIM Data Consolidation enables

• Data extraction and import
• Data import through the Import Workbench
• Data import through an Excel Spreadsheet

Data extraction and Import

• Aggregate product data from multiple sources into one repository
• Combine smaller loads for business users and trading partners
• Stage data to review exceptions to incoming data before loading
• Match and remove duplicate data to create a single blended records
• Handle High Data volumes with batch import

Data Import through the Import Workbench

• Assign import batched to appropriate users to avoid processing conflicts
• Track Status of all import batches from a single screen
• Review items and structures prior to import

Data Import through an excel spreadsheet

• Import and export product data to excel
• Make Attribute changes in excel and load directly to repository

Blended Product Record

Create a single, blended record from multiple sources

• Create data blending rules and combine all data sources
• Display “single source of truth” blended record to end users while maintaining original source data

Oracle Product Information Management Solution : Cleanse

• Standardization Data
• Match and remove duplicates
• Automatically generate item numbers and descriptions

Data Standardization

• Standardize item descriptions
• Translate into any language
• Convert non-standard data
• Extract and standardize attributes
• Apply company and industry standards

Match and Remove Duplicates

• Develop and Apply rules to eliminate duplicate data
• Identify match rules by source system
• Add granular match rules based on item specific criteria
• Map items in source systems to items in repository

Automatically Generate Item Numbers and Descriptions

• Reduce Manual entry
• Generate Sequence part numbers based on user-defines rules
• Generate system

Attribute Validation Rules

Validation rules enable you to set up attribute validate rules to improve data quality at the point of entry

Create validation rules for :

• Data Type validation, such as numeric values versus date
• List of values in drop-down menus
• Range validations
• Other user-defined rules

Oracle Product Information Management Solution : Govern

Oracle PIM enables you to govern and control the following

• Change Management
• Catalog Adminstration
• Security
• Events and policies

New Item Definition and Approval

Use the new item request process to prevent item duplication, and to control the process

New Item Request process

• Submit the new item request
• Check for any redundancy
• Define the item
• Verify accuracy and completeness
• Approve the item

Oracle Product Information Management Solution : Share

Share product information with appropriate individuals and enable them to

• Access and search product data
• Publish and subscribe product data
• Register product information
• Generate reports

Content Based search

• Search for words and phrases within files
• Search for files using the basic metadata of the attachment

Multi-system synchronization

Drive accurate information to your entire enterprise

• Integrate synchronously or asynchronously with other systems
• Create single blended record from multiple sources and then synchronize from product data repository to other systems
• Connect via embedded integration services, such as set of public APIs and business events
• Apply cleansing and transformation rules to consistently interpret source data for ongoing synchronization

Comprehensive Integration Repository

• Apply a set of APIs for synchronization
• Search through a catalog of APIs
• Search for different APIs and API types
• Drill down to detailed API specifications

Template-Based XML publishing

Supported formats

XML

RTF/Word

PDF

HTML

Generated Outputs

Reports

Data sheets

Labels

MSDS

Print Catalogs

XML/EDI Messages - Beauty of 12

NOTE: Writup for this article is not done by me... it is compiled and edited from various documents...

Why upgrade to R12.1 ???

Latest Release (R12.1) of Oracle E-Business Suite Helps Reduce Costs, Improve Controls

Expanded support for shared services was introduced in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 and continues with the latest release. Release 12.1 offers additional capabilities for supporting shared service centers (an increasingly important option for reducing administrative costs), improving transaction-processing efficiency, and addressing higher levels of regulatory scrutiny.
With shared services, global organizations establish a central department, often in a country chosen for its low labor costs, to process financial transactions for all business units and geographical locations. “CFOs and other C-level executives continue to say consolidation, centralization, and standardization are their top priorities. These goals are top of mind and influence their IT projects,” says Amrita Mehrok, director of financials product strategy at Oracle.
To address these demands, Oracle E-Business Suite offers an architecture that enables businesses to run finance operations centrally to enforce enterprisewide standards and achieve global visibility."

As globalization shifts work around the world, companies must address the different accounting, tax, and reporting requirements of the countries in which they operate. For example, most organizations with foreign subsidiaries find themselves preparing consolidated financial statements according to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), as well as statutory reports to meet local requirements." Mehrok explains. "Oracle E-Business Suite Financials Release 12.1 delivers configurable rules engines that keep you current with legal requirements and makes sure those requirements are applied consistently across the enterprise."
Other features that support shared services include

• Multi-Organization Access Control (MOAC enables shared services personnel to enter transactions, process data, view information, and run reports on behalf of other divisions or business units within the enterprise. Users no longer need to switch responsibilities to enter invoices, view consolidated requisitions, perform collection tasks, and receive or drop-ship goods for multiple operating units.
• Oracle E-Business Tax is a comprehensive infrastructure for managing transaction tax rules and transactions. The automation of tax processing through a central integrated engine improves the efficiency of your shared services organization and reduces errors. Your shared services staff can leverage the central setup and maintenance of tax rules by your tax or accounting personnel. An internal (or multi-entity) subscription model allows the tax rules to be shared across legal entities, along with the ability to apply business rules that enforce company wide tax content.
• Payments and collections can be processed more efficiently in a shared services environment with the centralized payment engine and bank account model in Oracle E-Business Suite Financials. The highly configurable centralized engine enables straight-through processing based on industry-standard protocols, with a dashboard for process visibility and management.
• The payment engine and bank model together enable a shared service center to make a single payment run spanning operating units, currencies, payment methods, and bank accounts. According to Mehrok, this dramatically increases the efficiency of a company's finance operations by reducing the number of payment files sent to the bank

Readers are requested to add other reasons for upgrade to R12 in the comment section...