Key players in Australia’s office supplies sector have started an eCommerce pilot project as part of a program to make their merchandising processes more efficient.

Retailers Officeworks and OfficeMax and suppliers Australian Office, Pelikan Artline, Acco Australia and Dalton Office will run a five-month data synchronisation pilot project from 9 February 2010.

The pilot is an initiative of the Office Supplies GS1 Action Group (OSGaG) whose members plan to utilise GS1 Australia’s GS1net service to electronically align product and pricing information as a measure to vastly improve the quality of data that feeds the merchandising and order processes. 

The project aims to eliminate paper-based forms for new product and product update information reducing data errors in the process.  Improving the integrity of master data across the supply chain will also assist to improve inventory control, improve operational efficiency and accuracy of reporting, both internally and with trading partners – all leading to lower supply chain costs.

By using agreed global standards for the industry’s data definitions this information can be shared and exchanged between trading partners irrespective of what back office IT systems they have.

The pilot aims to establish an office supplies industry data model that defines these standards for master data synchronisation between buyers and their suppliers.