SURF brings product content into one shared operating model.
One source. Less manual work. More control.
SURF is the collaborative ICT organisation for Dutch education and research, supporting more than one hundred member institutions with shared digital services and infrastructure.
After a structured evaluation process, the choice fell on ConnectingTheDots PIM.
Managing product information had become time-consuming and relied heavily on manual input, making it harder to keep data current, complete and consistent.
ConnectingTheDots helps SURF structure incoming supplier data, manage product content centrally and give multiple teams a shared environment for working with the same information.
- Central product content: management
- Greater visibility: into data quality and progress
- More structured collaboration: across teams
The challenge: keeping product data current without manual overhead.
SURF was managing product information from multiple sources, with a significant amount of manual maintenance.
That created room for:
- duplicate entry;
- inconsistencies;
- missing information;
- delayed updates;
- unclear ownership of outstanding work.
The challenge was therefore not simply to centralise product information.
SURF needed a process that could structure incoming supplier data and give teams a shared way to manage product content.
Structuring supplier data before PIM.
Automated supplier data onboarding through Import & Onboarding is an important part of the setup.
Instead of repeatedly entering product information by hand, incoming data can be processed into a consistent structure before it moves further into PIM.
This helps:
- standardise supplier input;
- reduce repetitive manual entry;
- validate data earlier;
- align incoming information with the internal data model.
This moves part of the correction work earlier in the product data pipeline. Good product data starts before your PIM. Read more about Supplier Data Onboarding.
Central management of product content.
SURF manages product content centrally in Product Information Management.
Product information can be:
- maintained;
- enriched;
- reviewed;
- prepared for publication.
This reduces the risk of different teams working from different versions of the same product information.
Changes can be managed from a shared product data foundation, making consistency easier to maintain.
A shared environment with clear ownership.
Multiple teams contribute to product information.
Centralisation alone is therefore not enough. Teams also need clarity around responsibilities.
ConnectingTheDots allows different users to work with product content within the roles and responsibilities relevant to them.
This reduces reliance on spreadsheets, manual hand-offs and disconnected working methods.
Teams can work from the same environment without every user needing the same permissions or tasks.
Visibility into quality, progress and outstanding work.
A central system is most useful when teams can also see where action is needed.
With Workflows & AI and Reporting & Analytics, SURF has visibility into:
- data quality;
- progress;
- open tasks;
- incomplete products;
- outstanding workflow steps.
This makes it easier to prioritise work and reduces the risk of tasks remaining unresolved simply because ownership is unclear.
Data quality as part of the operating process.
Data quality is not determined only by what ends up in PIM.
The way data enters and moves through the process matters as well.
By combining onboarding, central product content and workflow visibility, SURF can address quality earlier in the process.
This makes data quality less dependent on ad hoc checks at the end and more integrated into the day-to-day operating model.
The result.
SURF now operates from a central product environment that brings supplier onboarding, product content and collaboration together.
- central product content management;
- more structured supplier data processing;
- less reliance on manual entry;
- clearer collaboration across teams;
- greater visibility into data quality;
- better visibility into progress and outstanding tasks.
For SURF, the value goes beyond centralising product information. The improvement comes from bringing supplier data, product content, tasks and data quality into the same operating model.
That gives teams a clearer foundation for managing and improving product information together.