Making the case for automating data updates within eCommerce sites
- It helps to minimize the risk of errors encountered with a manual process.
- It allows the technical staff to concentrate on solving technical problems, rather than loading data. Packaging and deploying data can be a tedious and time-consuming process.
- It puts the business side in control of what is deployed and when.
- It allows an exact duplication of effort between test and production environments, therefore eliminating human error by making updates to production that were not tested.
- It allows frequent – large or small – updates to be managed without leaning on the technical staff's involvement.
To get a feel for how automation works, let’s start with an overview of a recent NetSphere Strategies client success story. Gearing up for the holiday season, a client turned to our team of eCommerce experts to learn about alternatives to the manual approach to uploading data. We began by standardizing the process and provided a structured spreadsheet where they could detail all the necessary fields for their catalog updates. Once the business filled out the information to load or modify, we would convert that spreadsheet to an XML format, which could directly load to the database. This same process could then be run on every update.
While this was a huge leap forward, the client discovered that they needed an even more enhanced solution. Since we were still managing the packaging and deployment for each change, and they often did not want to interfere with other development work we had in progress, it was clear that they would need another level of automation. Therefore, we took the existing process and turned it into one in which the client could use a web interface to load up the spreadsheet changes. The application would handle the deployment from there.
As this client's (and most clients’) needs change, there will always be the potential for implementing further enhancements. It’s important to understand, however, that at this point in the process, they are often simple incremental updates grounded in a process that is easier to manage.
To get assistance automating your data upload process, feel free to reach out to the team at NetSphere Strategies. Our eCommerce experts have the experience and the know-how to streamline the way your website works and would be honored to help.