Many companies have a growing need for distribution and delivery of product information in standard XML formats to support their market communication. This presentation will focus on the business challenge manufactures of industrial components and large distributors are facing when they want to implement a future safe solution, which also can handle localized information in a global environment.

The request for product information can be divided into three categories. Each of these categories is supported by a number of XML-based standards.

1. Data. In this context a stream of structured product information to support the sales process. Typically requested by eProcurement solutions in terms of eCatalogues. Hooking into the Information Supply Chain of your business requires the ability to import and export data according to industry standards such as BMEcat, cXML, xCBL, RosettaNet and the upcoming UBL.

2. Documents. The structured product information can be further organized for a specific presentation, typically in terms of printed catalogues, data sheets and other product related documents. Product presentations in CDROM and Web catalogues are also considered documents. Many software packages are available to generate such product presentations based on media neutral XML documents. XSL-FO is the standard to watch.

3. Knowledge. Much product information only exists 'in peoples head', and is thus difficult to capture in terms of data streams or documents. This knowledge of the product experts typically consists in the ability to relate a specific product to a specific problem. This type of information - or knowledge, can be expressed as RDF triples or as TopicMaps. Also within this category, XML based standards are available for the distribution of information.

Today many companies have separate solutions for the data and the document distribution.

1. As basic product data to support the business transactions are available in the ERP system, the delivery of XML data streams (eCatalogues) is then implemented as a feature of the ERP system. But these data are often insufficient for market communication in terms of rich data for product catalogues. Additional product data is then needed.

2. Stand-alone solutions for DTP and Web catalogues are often the answer when additional data are needed, and they may solve the problems here and now. But these solutions are not the integrated and future safe solutions that you are looking for. There is no synergy with the delivery of eCatalogues

3. Knowledge distribution is still in its infancy. A third stand-alone solution will require a huge overhead in data management and coordination.

Although XML is the common standard for the distribution formats for all these categories of information, it is not necessarily the best choice for the persistent form of your product information.

This presentation will illustrate how a Catalogue Content Management solution can accommodate all three categories of data deliveries from one single source, if the content is properly organized.