In most manufacturing environments, critical product changes originate in ERP. Cost updates, lead time shifts, allocation changes, compliance flags, and engineering revisions begin there. From ERP, data moves through PIM, CPQ, middleware, flat file exports, EDI feeds, APIs, and distributor portals before it becomes market reality.
The problem is not whether systems are integrated. The problem is whether truth propagates predictably, measurably, and verifiably across every surface where your products are quoted, sold, or specified.
A Product Truth SLA Program formalizes how those changes are detected, governed, published, and validated across ERP, PIM, CPQ, distributor portals, marketplaces, and customer-facing systems. It establishes measurable service levels for product data propagation so manufacturers can prove that approved changes reached every governed channel.
If you are responsible for product data, digital operations, or channel systems, the failure modes are familiar:
These are not abstract governance issues. They are propagation and visibility failures across integration layers.
Most organizations underestimate how many truth-changing events occur weekly across ERP, PIM, and related systems. Manual workshops alone rarely surface them all.
A Product Truth SLA Program begins with AI-assisted analysis of change logs, integration events, attribute-level deltas, and feed history to identify:
This data-informed approach accelerates truth-event modeling. Instead of relying solely on interviews, it surfaces empirical patterns from system behavior.
The output is a defined list of truth-changing events tied to specific source systems, data attributes, and downstream publish requirements.
With events identified, propagation must be measured across the full technical path.
For each event category, the program establishes:
This includes confirming that changes move through middleware, API calls, EDI transactions, flat file transfers, and distributor ingestion endpoints without silent failure.
Baseline timing is measured across a defined SKU set, typically the highest-revenue or highest-risk products.
Governance without instrumentation creates blind spots. Instrumentation without governance creates noise. A Product Truth SLA Program integrates both.
Technical instrumentation includes:
This shifts detection from reactive distributor complaints to proactive monitoring.
Distributor portals, partner extranets, and marketplace listings often represent the final operational truth for contractors and buyers. If those surfaces are stale, your ERP accuracy does not matter.
A Product Truth SLA explicitly defines which downstream surfaces are governed and how they are validated. This may include scheduled portal scraping, feed reconciliation reports, ingestion confirmation checks, or periodic differential audits.
The objective is simple: internal updates must result in externally verified synchronization.
Pricing authority may sit in Finance. Lead time in Operations. Compliance in Engineering. Feed management in IT. A Product Truth SLA does not assume centralized control.
Instead, it documents real decision flows, formalizes approval checkpoints, and introduces shared visibility so distributed teams operate against explicit propagation standards.
The fastest path to traction is a focused Top 100 SKU pilot.
The goal is not perfection. It is control.
In a distributed manufacturing ecosystem, product truth is defined by where it is operationalized. Manufacturers that instrument, measure, and validate propagation across ERP, PIM, CPQ, distributor portals, and marketplace channels build measurable control into how their brand shows up in the market.
If you cannot confidently answer how long it takes for a critical product change to reach every governed channel, that gap is measurable. We work with manufacturers to define, instrument, and validate Product Truth SLAs across complex ERP and distributor ecosystems.
Let’s start with a focused snapshot of your highest-risk SKUs.