Data management interface capable of providing enhanced representation of imported electronic content
View Patent ↗Embodiments of a data management interface (DMI) and associated methods are generally described. According to but one example embodiment, a method is introduced comprising importing content describing product inventory from one or more disparate data sources of such content, the content including one or more standard product descriptors that uniquely identify an individual instance of a product, selectively modifying the imported content based, at least in part, on content associated with the uniquely identified instance of the product obtained from an independent resource, and exporting the selectively modified content to any one or more of a number of media.
1. A method comprising:
importing electronic content describing product inventory from any of a number of data management systems (DMS), the content including one or more product descriptors that uniquely identify individual instances of products within one or more corresponding physical inventories;
comparing the imported electronic content with corresponding electronic content available from an independent source to determine whether the imported electronic content includes erroneous information, wherein the electronic content available from the independent source comprises content associated with the individual instances of products obtained from an independent electronic source of product information; and
selectively modifying the imported electronic content describing the one or more physical inventories based, at least in part on results of the comparison to correct erroneous information to generate an enhanced representation of the imported electronic content.
2. A method according to claim 1 , the method further comprising:
exporting the selectively modified content to any one or more of a number of media.
3. A method according to claim 2 , the element of exporting comprising:
identifying one or more media services selected by an administrator; and
configuring the enhanced content for publication by each of the select one or more media services.
4. A method according to claim 3 , wherein the media services include one or more of web-based services, marketing services, local publication services.
5. A method according to claim 1 , the element of importing comprising:
accessing a data management system (DMS) file to obtain current inventory information; and
selectively translating one or more elements of the current inventory information from a DMS data format to a DMS-independent data format.
6. A method according to claim 5 , the element of selectively modifying comprising:
accessing the independent source of product information;
identifying zero or more instances of a product corresponding to the one or more standard product descriptors; and
modifying and/or supplementing the information obtained from the DMS with information associated with the unique product instance obtained from the independent source of product information.
7. A method according to claim 6 , wherein the independent source of product information is obtained from a manufacturer of the product through a network connection.
8. A method according to claim 6 , wherein the independent source of product information is obtained from an independent data resource associated with an industry from which the identified product is derived.
9. A method according to claim 8 , wherein the independent data source is a new vehicle database (NVD).
10. A method according to claim 8 , wherein the independent data source is the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).
11. A computing system comprising:
a storage medium having content stored therein; and
a controller, coupled with the storage medium, to execute at least a subset of the content stored therein to implement a method according to claim 1 .
12. A storage medium comprising content which, when executed by an accessing machine, causes the machine to implement a data management interface (DMI) to import content describing product inventory from any of a number of data management systems (DMS), the content including one or more product descriptors that uniquely identify individual instances of one or more products within corresponding physical inventories, to compare the imported content with corresponding content available from an independent source to determine whether the imported content includes erroneous information, wherein the content available from the independent source comprises content associated with the individual instances of products obtained from an independent electronic source of product information and to selectively modify the imported content describing the physical inventories based, at least in part, on results of the comparison to correct erroneous information to generate an enhanced representation of the imported content.
13. A data management interface (DMI) comprising:
an import module, communicatively coupled with one or more disparate data management system(s) (DMS), to import content describing a product inventory from at least a subset of the data management systems (DMS), the content including one or more product descriptors that uniquely identify individual instances of products within one or more corresponding physical inventories; and
an edit module, responsive to the import module, to compare the imported content with corresponding content available from an independent source to determine whether the imported content includes erroneous information, wherein the content available from the independent source comprises content associated with the individual instances of products obtained from an independent electronic source of product information and to selectively modify the imported content describing the physical inventories based, at least in part, on results of the comparison selectively modify the imported content describing the one or more physical inventories to correct erroneous information to generate an enhanced representation of the imported content.
14. A DMI according to claim 13 , wherein the import module translates the content received from the one or more DMS from a DMS-format into a DMI-compliant format.
15. A DMI according to claim 13 , wherein the import module filters the imported content to remove duplicate records, records associated with sold inventory, and records denoting non-standard product codes.
16. A DMI according to claim 13 , wherein the edit module enables an user of the DMI to modify and/or supplement one or more elements of a record associated with the one or more records of a DMI data structure denoting an active product inventory.
17. A DMI according to claim 13 , further comprising:
an analysis module, responsive to the edit module, selectively invoked by an administrator to generate any of a number of predetermined or dynamically defined reports from any one or more records of a DMI data structure denoting an active product inventory.
18. A DMI according to claim 13 , further comprising:
a publication module, responsive to the edit module, selectively invoked by an administrator to configure one or more selected records of a DMI data structure denoting an active product inventory to any of a number of export services.
19. A DMI according to claim 18 , wherein the export services include one or more of web-based services, marketing services, or local print services.
20. A computing system comprising:
a storage medium having content stored therein; and
a processor, coupled to the storage medium, to execute at least a subset of the content stored thereon to implement a DMI according to claim 13 .