Challenges in Developing Cross-functional and Cross-system Metadata Standards: A case study of American Greetings

Metadata is often the heart of operations - describing key attributes of products across the business cycle. However, metadata projects are fraught with challenges – from scoping to requirements, organizational buy in and implementation. At American Greetings, a greeting card manufacturer, metadata is mission-critical as it drives the management and measurement of the digital assets that make up their products. They recently undertook a large metadata project as part of an overall initiative to revamp its digital asset management and business processes. In this case study, we will review how metadata was reconciled and harmonized across a number of diverse systems that supported multiple functions, from creative processes to manufacturing to business intelligence.

We will describe the challenges in developing metadata standards and controlled vocabularies with cooperation from multiple functional areas, including derivation and validation issues. Hear about how AG was able to get all these different stakeholder groups to participate and collaborate on a joint taxonomy framework. We'll describe how AG was able to focus on the needs of the immediate implementation of the digital asset management system while considering the future needs of the product lifecycle management tool or manufacturing systems. We’ll also discuss issues of organizational and behavioral change and the challenges in implementing metadata governance bodies and processes.

Learn about:

• The importance of metadata standards in business process re-engineering
• The challenges in cross-functional and cross-system metadata development
• How harmonized metadata is expected to lower miscommunications and errors in the business cycle and increase content reuse
• Challenges in developing a viable metadata governance process across business areas