EDS-GMA Poll Reveals Consumer Industry Retailers Have Much Work to Reach Sunrise 2005/GTIN Compliance Deadline Of January 1, 2005

Joint Survey Of GMA’s Member Companies Finds More Than 70 Percent Of Current IT Systems Still Await Product Code Compliance

PLANO, Texas and WASHINGTON, DC -- A survey conducted by EDS and the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) reveals that fewer than 30 percent of current product inventory systems used by food, beverage and consumer products manufacturers are compliant with the looming Sunrise 2005/Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) requirements. The deadline for global compliance to these retail industry standards is January 1, 2005.

In a recent poll conducted among GMA's member companies who represent more than $500 billion in annual sales, 75 percent of respondents indicated that their retail customers were asking them to be GTIN ready. Only 30 percent of respondents, however, said their applications and data stores had been remediated and were capable of handling new Sunrise 2005/GTIN requirements.

"Clearly there's much work to be done to bring the U.S. consumer products industry into compliance," said Pam Stegeman, GMA vice president of industry affairs. "As an advocate for brand manufacturers' ability to market their products profitably, GMA recognizes this as a matter of urgency for our members as they move forward to compete globally."

To be Sunrise 2005/GTIN compliant, retailers must adopt a 14-digit data structure that will support the emerging GTIN protocol, allowing complete item identification of any global data carrier to support cost efficient and seamless international trade.

"By acting now, retailers and consumer goods manufacturers can drive out lost revenue caused by vendor data misalignment," said Chris Sellers, Global Leader, Consumer Industries and Retail Industry Practice, EDS. "They can also significantly reduce costs associated with goods handling, logistics, inventory control and financial transactions. The challenges of system renovation pale in comparison to the benefits of aligning for seamless global trade."

Other significant findings from the EDS-GMA survey include the following:

• More than 80 percent of respondents indicated they would move to GTIN compliance to enable a more consistent assignment of product identification indicators.
• 75 percent of respondents have begun remediation efforts; only 25 percent indicated they were still using a manual process or had not yet initiated activities related to data synchronization.
• More than 70 percent of respondents said that their applications and data stores currently do not accommodate the 14-digit field.
• 55 percent said their enterprise applications do not differentiate the case UPC from the item UPC, a capability that will be required in January 1, 2005 by North America's largest retailers.
• 83 percent indicated that their systems utilize an internal product code, a capability that matches the product code with the UPC code and is necessary for GTIN data synchronization.
• 58 percent said they would connect to an external data pool rather than implement their own to cleanse and synchronize data.

According to Stegeman, consumer goods manufacturers should ask five key questions to learn more about the Sunrise 2005/GTIN issue, and how they compare to others in the industry:

1. Are your retail customers asking for your support in helping them prepare for data synchronization?
2. Does your organization still operate manually on the global data synchronization continuum?
3. Do your current applications accommodate the 14-digit field length?
4. Do your enterprise applications differentiate the case UPC from the item UPC?
5. Do you have an enterprise-wide integration strategy?

Sunrise 2005/GTIN Background
The Sunrise 2005 initiative was brought about by the lack of common identifiers between various global trading countries, creating inefficiencies and expenses related to how products and services are referenced and traded around the world. As a way of bringing consistency and generating sufficient quantities of unique item and service identifiers globally, the Uniform Code Council (UCC) and the European Article Numbers (EAN) International have come together to create an all-encompassing product identifying data structure, known as the GTIN, that can incorporate all the UPCs around the world.

Christine Spivey Overby, senior analyst at Forrester who analyzes the impact of technology change on consumer goods manufacturers, distributors, and retailers said, "bad data costs the consumer goods industry billions." Overby added that "data inconsistencies among trading partners cost the industry between $25 billion and $100 billion annually...and firms that get an early start sharing clean data with their trading partners will use money formerly wasted on inefficient processes to seed investments in new technology innovations. These first movers...will distance themselves from the consumer goods pack as these new investments further reduce inefficiencies while improving customer service levels."

Get complete information on the Sunrise 2005/GTIN initiative.

Register to download the results of the EDS-GMA survey.

About EDS
EDS, the premier global outsourcing services company, delivers superior returns to clients through its cost-effective, high-value services model. EDS' core portfolio comprises information-technology and business process outsourcing services, as well as information-technology transformation services. EDS' two complementary, subsidiary businesses are A.T. Kearney, one of the world's leading high-value management consultancies, and PLM Solutions, a leader in product data management, collaboration and product design software. With 2002 revenue of $21.5 billion, EDS is ranked 80th on the Fortune 500. The company's stock is traded on the New York (NYSE: EDS) and London stock exchanges.

About GMA
GMA is the world's largest association of food, beverage and consumer product companies. With U.S. sales of more than $500 billion, GMA members employ more than 2.5 million workers in all 50 states. The organization applies legal, scientific and political expertise from its member companies to vital food, nutrition and public policy issues affecting the industry. Led by a board of 42 Chief Executive Officers, GMA speaks for food and consumer product manufacturers and sales agencies at the state, federal and international levels on legislative and regulatory issues. The association also leads efforts to increase productivity, efficiency and growth in the food, beverage and consumer products industry.