What is data harmonization? A CPG Guide

Executive summary

Consumer Goods (CPG) companies frequently struggle with fragmented data across physical and digital storefronts. The result? Inefficient ‘data swamps’. Data harmonization solves this challenge by merging disparate sources, formats, and naming conventions into a single, unified database.

By establishing a single source of truth, this automated process eliminates operational silos and drastically reduces manual reporting times, such as Scholl’s 99.99% reduction in data management processes. Reports that used to take two weeks, now complete in minutes. Specialized software, like TELUS Revenue Growth Management Analytics, empowers manufacturers to deliver actionable retail insights, optimize promotional spend and make faster, more accurate decisions that drive profitability.

What is data harmonization? A quick guide

Data is like water – it’s everywhere and it takes many different shapes. When collected and stored properly, you have a clear and easy to navigate data lake – where you can swim in incredible insight. But things get a little murky when there are formatting issues, duplicates, junk and missing data. Suddenly your crystal clear data lake becomes a stagnant data swamp full of disorganized raw data.

In a data swamp, you can’t easily see all of your raw data or make sense of it. You can’t glean good insights. So how can you clean up the swamp? The answer is simple – data harmonization.

Data harmonization at a glance