Intelligence Matching Tool - Best Practices

Matching Tool Best Practices

The Matching Tool relies on the data it is given to make matches. Knowing a little bit about how the matching tool works and following best practices will greatly enhance the number and confidence of the suggestions made by the matching tool.

Matching Tips for Items

The Matching Tool relies on two key pieces of data to assess item matches: the item name and the item group assigned to each item. Careful attention to item names and item group assignment can increase the accuracy of the matching tool. Here are some things to try to improve accuracy:

Assign item category groups to all items

• Use standard TraceGains groups, the tool does not recognize custom groups
• Assign groups according to the physical item, not its use
  • Ex: Fruit vs. Dairy when fruit item is used in yogurt, but is just the fruit component

Use item names that physically describe the item

• Use the complete natural language required to identify the physical item
  • Ex: Grape Soda vs. BigStoreBrand Grape
• Avoid Abbreviations: Greek Yogurt vs. Grk Yog
• Avoid extraneous information beyond descriptive language
  • Ex: part codes, dates, supplier names, brand names, packaging types
• Avoid ambiguity, especially with terms that cross ingredient types
  • Ex: Bell Peppers, or Green Peppercorn, or Jalapeno Pepper vs. Pepper
• Focus on the big picture with composite items:
  • Ex: Chicken Enchiladas vs. Chicken, cheese, tomato, onion Enchiladas
  • Ex: Mixed Greens vs. Arugula, spinach, baby mustard greens
• Avoid proprietary product names, use specific, but generic language
  • Ex: Gum drops vs. Choco-Raz Fruit-Ums!
• If other information is unavoidable, offset from descriptive name with a strong delimiter
  • Ex: Brown Basmati Rice | 50 pound bag, Part #123, Deluxe Brand

Matching Tips for Suppliers

Supplier matching uses both supplier name and supplier address to make matching suggestions. Intelligence Suppliers are location specific, therefore providing addresses for your suppliers is essential to making correct matches. Here are some tips for using the matching tool:

Have a clean supplier name without any extraneous information or formatting

• Provide the supplier’s complete trade name or business name as the supplier uses it
  • Swire Coca-Cola vs. Coca Cola
• Avoid abbreviations, internal codes, or custom names
  • Flour Power Inc vs. Supplier1 or FPK112 or FP Inc
• Avoid Customer ID, location type (plant, office, HQ), Location
  • Awesome Foodstuffs LLC vs. A55 –  HQ: Quebec
• Avoid product information
  • Loafing Around Inc: Bread, Wheat, IN
• Avoid editorial notes, contact information
  • Beverage Co (old name) Jan Miller 222-2222 ext. 2
• Avoid parent company names, use the business name for the exact location 
  • Jimmy’s Joe’s Bottling Services vs. Beverage Behemoth Inc
• Avoid distributor name, use supplier name only if coming through a distributor
• Avoid extraneous delimiters
  • Since you are providing the name only, you will not need them

Provide complete address information in correct formatting without extraneous information

• Provide complete data for all address fields
  • Street numbers, Street Names, Street Suffix
    • Use full street Suffix or the USPS standard suffix abbreviation
      • Avenue or Ave vs. Av, Aven, Avn
  • State, province, country, district, zip codes
    • Use correct full names or USPS standard abbreviations
• Correctly format addresses according to the location’s jurisdiction using standard spacing and punctuation
• Do not include any other information in the address fields