Promising Discussions on the Concept of a Product Catalog

New Initiatives

Promising Discussions on the Concept of a Product Catalog

By Brent Kemp, AgGateway EVP and COO

Last month several AgGateway members attended a face-to-face meeting in Minneapolis to discuss the concept of a directory service, or “product catalog”, for product reference data that permits standardized access to product information for eCommerce and compliance purposes. At a high level the idea allows for both centralized and remote storage of product elements and attributes, and a common access protocol for additions, updates and notifications.

Land O’Lakes graciously hosted the meeting, which was also attended by representatives from Bayer, Growmark, Smartwyre and Syngenta. Remote attendees included GS1-US, Rosen’s Diversified and Southern States.

During the meeting, Bayer shared experiences with the EPA’s SmartLabel pilot, informing some of the data requirements over and above eCommerce needs. The group also began to list out use cases, data requirements and areas of focus for next steps.

A webinar will take place soon to share the work done to date and identify volunteers interested in participating in one of the breakout working groups: Data Buckets and Models; Use Cases and Business Rules; Governance and Data Quality.

Watch for details on the webinar and other news from this initiative!