Syndication Glossary of Terms

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Learn the definitions of terms, phrases, and acronyms used around Syndigo, including platform-specific terms, industry-specific vocabulary, and some general tech jargon.

Glossary of Terms:

ACES: The Aftermarket Catalog Exchange Standard (ACES) is the North American industry standard for the management and exchange of automotive catalog application data. With ACES, suppliers can publish automotive data using standardized vehicle attributes, parts classifications, and qualifier statements.

API: Application Programming Interface. A set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. Basically, an API specifies how software components should interact. Additionally, APIs are used when programming graphical user interface (GUI) components. APIs allow people to bypass manual work between systems. Syndigo Integration APIs enable brands and recipients to interact through automated, established technology connections.

Asset: A piece of digital media owned by a company.

Asset Portal: Syndigo's platform to display, share, and download high-quality marketing assets (e.g., product images, specs, logos, guidelines) that aren't always associated with a product.

Assortment Number: The collection of goods that a vendor provides to consumers.

Attribute Override: In addition to editing or adding attributes for products, users can also override an attribute value that has been created by Syndigo, or that needs to be managed for a specific recipient. The override value will take precedence over any attribute value that has been published on the supplier/brand’s behalf. (Exceptions apply as some recipients will only accept Syndigo Verified content.) There are two types of overrides:

• Public Override: Public override values will replace the Syndigo Verified attribute value for all recipients.
• Recipient Override: Recipient override values will replace the Syndigo Verified attribute values only for the current requirement set (recipient-specific). Recipient Override values will also take precedence over a Public Override value.

Attributes: Information about an item, such as product name, order cost, lead time, revision control, nutritional information, measurements, weights, etc.

• GUID: A Global Unique Identifier is a unique number that can be used as an identifier and helps tie attributes together across recipients.
• Requirement Set: A collection of data required by a recipient for the successful syndication of a product.

Base/Each-Level: Lowest packaging level for a product. (See "Packaging Hierarchy.")

BlackApps: A Syndigo-developed tool used to track GDSN messaging.

CAS: Content Asset Services; internal Syndigo team, formerly known as Data Prep.

Check Digit: A digit added to a string of numbers for error detection purposes, computed from the other digits in the string.

Clipping Path: A closed vector path, or shape, used to cut out a 2D image in image editing software -- most notably Photoshop. A clipping path effectively "removes" the background from the image. Anything inside the clipping path remains, and the image can then be used with a recipient's templated background.

Like image masking, a clipping path is an image editing tool that allows you to remove the background from an image.

The clipping path is necessary for the item to have a transparent background. Without it, the image will appear all white. The clipping paths allow retailers to populate the images on their sites and retain the site’s background color. For example, if a site’s background is blue and a clipping path is NOT applied to the image, the image will appear on-site with a white background. With a clipping path, the site can retain its background and formatting.

Content Creation: Syndigo helps suppliers and recipients create content via our in-house or remote photography studios or upload their brand's existing content from other systems. We ensure accurate representation of product weights and dimensions, ingredient and nutritional information, marketing claims, etc.

Content Experience Suite: Legacy term for the Syndication platform.

Content Service Provider: A Content Service Provider (CSP) is a company aggregating, enhancing, and creating product catalogs with product descriptions, images, videos, and other rich media content. (Syndication is a CSP.)

Core Content: A product-specific marketing requirement set, including digital assets, weights and dimensions, nutritional data, etc., for in-store and eCommerce optimization used by recipients.

• Syndigo Verified Physical Content: Clients ship us the physical product for photography and coding of the product. We capture core content images per GS1 standards (up to 6 straight views, up to 3 angled ecommerce views, cropped bar code images, and cropped ingredient images) plus on-pack attributes. Syndigo captures dimensions from the physical product.
• Syndigo Verified Digital Content: Clients digitally provide us all the images, weights & dimensions of the product, which we use to code and QA all on-pack attributes.
• Brand Created Content: Client provides us with the product images and product data (weights, dimensions, product description, nutritional facts, allergens, etc.). This can be basic core/marketing imagery.

Correlation ID: Correlation IDs are assigned to Syndigo Verified items. The correlation ID is Syndigo Verified, i.e., created automatically. If an item does not exist in the Marketplace, it will not have a correlation ID.

Country of Origin Code: A unique identifier issued to denote an item’s country of origin.

Critical Error: An alert within the Syndigo platform that will prevent publication until addressed.

CSV: Comma-separated values (CSV) in a simple file format used to store tabular data, such as a spreadsheet or database. Files in the CSV format can be imported to and exported from programs that store data in tables, such as Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Calc. CSV is different from Excel because it’s plain text. Excel sheets' binary file format holds information about all the worksheets in a file, including both content and formatting.

DAM: Digital Asset Manager. (In the Syndication platform, think Assets tab!)

Data Quality: The planning, implementation, and control of activities that apply quality management techniques to data, to ensure it is fit for consumption and meets the needs of data consumers.

• Critical Error: An alert within the Syndigo platform that will prevent publication until cleared.
• Feedback: An alert in the Syndigo platform showing fields that may be rejected by the recipient.
• General Data Quality: A custom dictionary for spell check and grammar, including case sensitivity to ensure brand consistency.
• Required Attributes: A check to make sure that you have fulfilled all recipient-specific requirements.

Data Pool: A data pool is a centralized repository of data where trading partners (retailers, distributors, or suppliers) can obtain, maintain, and exchange information about products in a standard format.

Display Shipper: Used as both an on-shelf display and a level of packaging (generally Inner Pack).

DPI: Dots per inch is a measure of spatial printing or video or image scanner dot density, in particular, the number of individual dots that can be placed in a line within the span of 1 inch. Monitors do not have dots but do have pixels; the closely related concept for monitors and images is pixels per inch or PPI.

Drop Ship: A method of shipping goods from the manufacturer directly to the retailer or customer without going through a retailer/usual GDSN channels. 

DUP: Short for “duplicate.”

EDI: Electronic Data Interchange is the concept of businesses electronically communicating information that was traditionally communicated on paper, such as purchase orders and invoices. Technical standards for EDI exist to facilitate parties transacting such instruments without having to make special arrangements.

Enhanced Content: Brands and recipients can create an immersive online product experience and provide next-level detail with Enhanced Content such as comparison charts, product guides, and a variety of lifestyle images. Enhanced Content is integrated on recipient websites through a JavaScript integration.

• The Engaging Hero: Formerly referred to as Above the Fold Content; Compelling, conversion-winning content on the most-viewed, top of the page area of a site that captivates shoppers who aren’t committed to scrolling.
• Contextual Hotspots: Contextual Hotspots (formerly called Storypoints) that can be placed on top of the hero image of a product page. When clicked, these hotspots open modal windows that contain additional key product content like feature descriptions, photo captions, and additional image galleries.
• Interactive Toolbar: Interactive Toolbar (formerly called Mosaic) that serves up your best assets in the most lucrative, eye-catching page positions. Deliver visually interactive, mobile-responsive, rich media assets to the prime product page real estate.
• In-Line Content: In-Line Content (formerly called Below the Fold Content or Power Page) provides a deeper dive into relevant product content that immerses shoppers who are moving into the consideration phase on the path to purchase (e.g., comparison charts, interactive product guides, lifestyle images).

Enterprise Data Suite (EDS): The Syndigo Platform is grouped into suites of products—the Content Experience Suite and the Enterprise Data Suite. The Enterprise Data Suite allows you to manage and govern your enterprise data, including product information management (PIM), master data management (MDM), and custom applications that reference these solutions.

Feedback: An alert in the Syndigo platform showing fields that may be rejected by the recipient.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used for the transfer of computer files between a client and server on a computer network. FTP is built on a client-server model architecture using separate control and data connections between the client and the server.

GDSN: The Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) enables trading partners to share product information using product attributes defined by the international standards body and the GS1 community. Values for the product attributes are provided by the supply side trading partner and published to recipients who have elected to receive product content via the GDSN.

• CIC: Catalog Item Confirmation. A message standard that refers to electronic communication from the Data Recipient to the Data Source, indicating what action has been taken by the Data Recipient on the item. The confirmation process occurs in the recipient’s data pool.
  • Synchronized: Data is integrated, synced, and added to the synchronization list.
  • Accepted/Received: Data is added to the synchronization list and will be in synch.
  • Rejected: Data will no longer be synchronized, or updates will no longer be provided.
  • Review: A request to the data source to “review” their data because the data recipient has received discrepant data, which they cannot synchronize.
• CIN: Catalog Item Notification. A business message used to transmit new or updated trade item information from a Source Data Pool to a Recipient Data Pool and further to the Data Recipient within the Global Data Synchronization Network.
• GEPIR: The Global Electronic Party Information Register (GEPIR) is a distributed database that contains basic information on over 1,000,000 companies in over 100 countries.
• GPC: GS1 Global Product Classification. A component of GS1 GDSN. It provides the required global framework for trade item categorization, supporting global data synchronization.

GDSN Datapool Provider: A company that provides a client access to the Global Data Synchronization Network.

GLN: A unique identifier registered with GS1 for a specific company, company branch, or location within a physical store.

GPC: (Also known as Brick Code) The Global Product Classification classifies products by grouping them into categories based on their essential properties as well as their relationships to other products. GPC offers a universal set of standards for everything from a car to a liter of milk.

GS1: A nonprofit company that determines global standards for data supply chain information, including GLNs, GTINs, and UPCs. The best known of these standards is the barcode, a symbol printed on products that can be scanned electronically.

• GDSN: The Global Data Synchronization Network is an internet-based, interconnected network of interoperable data pools and a global registry known as the GS1 Global Registry, that enables companies around the globe to exchange standardized and synchronized supply chain data with their trading partners using a standardized Global Product Classification.
• GDSN Provider: A company that provides a client access to the Global Data Synchronization Network.
• GLN: A Global Location Number is a unique identifier registered with GS1 for a specific company, company branch, or location within a physical store.
• GUDID: The Global Unique Device Identifier Database - FDA-managed repository of product information for medical devices that are authorized to be distributed within the USA.
• Subscription: When a recipient requests data for a product, it opens the channels for the data to be published.
• UDI: A Unique Device Identifier uniquely identifies a device or group of devices by combining its device Identifier (DI) with its Production Identifier (PI). Except where exempt from the requirement, UDIs are marked on medical devices.

GS1 Image Guidelines: Established in 2014, guidelines for suppliers/recipients to send and receive standard images via the GDSN.

• There are recommendations around:
  • Resolution (1:1 ratio, 1500 px, 300 PPI RGB)
  • Image format type
  • File naming convention
• There are generally up to 4 images per Product for GDSN. (See "Packaging Hierarchy.")
  • Case
  • Inner pack
  • Raw/uncooked
  • Open case

GTIN: A Global Trade Item Number is a unique 14-digit number registered with GS1 for a specific level of a product hierarchy. It is used to identify trade items, products, or services. A GTIN is also an umbrella term that refers to the entire family of UCC.EAN data structures. The entire family of data structures within the GTIN is: GTIN-12 (UPC).

Hierarchy: A system of organization in which items are ordered  in a parent/child format.

Holding Step: A step in a recipient workflow in which an item can be held unless action is taken by a supplier or recipient.

IDR: Acronym for Initiate Data Report.

Imagery Types:

• Optimized Imagery: Brands, retailers, distributors, and operators can go beyond core product imagery, complete their online sites, and focus on key messages that help consumers make quick purchase decisions at the digital shelf (e.g., mobile-ready hero, optimized hero, montage/composite hero).
• CGI: Photorealistic computer-generated imagery product renders can be an ideal image solution for many brands. It eliminates the need for shipping physical samples, and content can be created weeks before a physical product is even produced.
• Stylized and/or Prepared Food Photography: Brands, retailers, distributors, and operators can artfully arrange for an attractive visual presentation that is designed to suggest the taste, aroma, and appeal of the actual dish.

IMS: Image Merchandising Solutions that create the most effective use of your store and shelf merchandising layouts for a compelling shopping experience, primarily within convenience stores and gas stations. E.g., Shelf strips with images that allow for easy stocking and ordering.

Initiate Data: A requirement set for all new Lowe's GTINs.

Inner Pack: Refers to the items that come inside a case.

Lead Time: The time between the placement of an order and the shipment of the order.

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): A unique identifier set by the product's manufacturer to differentiate it from similar parts and counterfeits.

Marketing Data: Customer-facing information provided by the suppliers.

MDM: Master Data Management (MDM) is a method used to define and manage the critical data of an organization to provide, with data integration, a single point of reference. The data that is mastered may include reference data - the set of permissible values, and the analytical data that supports decision making.

Merchandising Subdivision: A category-specific division within Lowe's to help organize products in its stores.

Merchant: A seller of goods from multiple suppliers.

Merchant Portal: A legacy Edgenet platform for recipients/merchants.

Packaging Hierarchy: 

• Base/Each-Level: Lowest packaging level for a product.
• Inner Pack: Contains multiple bases.
• Case: Contains multiple inner packs.
• Pallet: Contains multiple cases. The highest level in a hierarchy.
• Parent: A higher-level GTIN within a hierarchy.
• Child: A lower-level GTIN within a hierarchy.

Pallet: The highest packaging level in a hierarchy, and how items are shipped or ordered by retailers and recipients. (See "Packaging Hierarchy.")

Parent: A higher-level GTIN within a hierarchy. (See "Packaging Hierarchy.")

PCM: Product Content Management; An application in Lowe's system that collects, synchronizes, and validates product data.

PDP: See "Product Details Page."

Personas:

• Category Captain: The category captain will be expected to have the closest and most regular contact with the retailer and will also be expected to invest time, effort, and often financial assets into the strategic development of the category within the retailer. In return, the supplier will gain a more influential voice with the retailer. The category captain is often the supplier with the largest turnover in the category.
• Category Manager: The category manager is responsible for the range of products purchased by a business organization or sold by a retailer, broken down into discrete groups of similar/related products; these groups are known as product categories.

PI: A Production Identifier (PI) is intended to enable traceability to production information about an item or product.

PIES: The Product Information Exchange Standard (PIES) is the best practice for the management and exchange of product attribute information in the aftermarket industry.

PIM: Product Information Manager. In the Syndigo platform, think Products tab!

Product Details Page: The Product Details Page (PDP) is the page in the Syndigo platform that represents an individual product. It’s the page you arrive on after selecting a specific product from the Product Index Page. The product content displayed on the PDP is always relevant to the Recipient and Requirement Set selected in the Top Bar Navigation. From the PDP, you can see what information is needed to publish the product to the Recipient.

Product Index Page: The Product Index Page is the page in the Syndigo platform that shows an overview of all products in your account. Access it by clicking the “Products” icon in the left-hand navigation bar. Within the Product Index Page, the product grid displays preview attributes for each product and contains links to each Product Details Page. The Actions Bar at the top provides a variety of options for single or multiple products.

Product Record: Refers to all the data associated with a product in the Syndigo platform; it’s the record Syndigo has for that product.

Product Set: A customized grouping of products that can easily be recalled and managed within the Syndigo platform. Product Sets are shared between users within an account but are not visible to anyone outside of an account.

PSD: The file extension for a Photoshop document (.psd).

Publish/Syndicate: When a supplier sends data to a recipient, the data is published or syndicated.

Recipient: A receiver of product data.

• Custom: Requirement set defined by the customer. Product data can be sent as a file export (Excel, CSX, XML, or JSON) to an email address or FTP.
• Direct: Product data is being delivered to an FTP or staging area. Requirement sets are pre-defined.
• Integrated: Product data is being delivered directly to the recipient's vendor portal/item set up machine/wherever they push the content live from via API and XML. Requirement sets are pre-defined.

Requirement Set: A collection of attributes required by a recipient to publish or syndicate content to them. (See "Attributes.")

SKU: A Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) is an identifier, usually alphanumeric, for a specific product that allows it to be tracked for inventory purposes. Typically, an SKU (pronounced SKEW) is associated with any purchasable item in a store or catalog.

SOS: Special Order Shipment (SOS) is the shipment of an item upon request of the recipient.

Subscription: When a recipient requests data for a product, it opens the channels for the data to be published.

Supplier: A person or organization that provides products or product data.

• Merchant: A seller of goods from multiple suppliers.
• Vendor: A person or company offering something for sale.

Supplier Portal: A legacy Edgenet platform for suppliers.

Supply Chain: The sequence of processes involved in the production and distribution of a commodity.

Taxonomy: The science of naming, defining, and classifying products.

UOM: Acronym for Unit of Measure.

UPC: A Universal Product Code (UPC) is a product identifier used in the United States, Canada, and other countries for tracking trade items in stores. UPCs consist of a series of black lines and a unique 12-digit number assigned to each specific commercial product. Each unique product, including variations like different colors or sizes, must have its own distinct UPC.

VBU: A Vendor Business Unit (VBU) is a vendor number assigned and used solely by Lowe's.

Vendor: A person or company offering something for sale.

VQT: Acronym for Vendor Quote Template.

WAGS: Abbreviation for Walgreens.

Workflows:

1. Syndigo's Workflows product notifies and guides team members according to their roles to input product attributes, enable reviews, and approve & publish quality product data quickly.
2. Specific to Recipient in the Syndigo platform; different channels through which publications are received for syndication approval by a recipient.

XML: Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. The W3C's XML 1.0 Specification and several other related specifications - all of them free open standards - define XML.