In 2004, IMN conducted two Supply-Base telemarketing studies on the distribution of contact data. The following three questions were asked;

1. When was the last time your company change relevant information that required notifying your suppliers and customers?
2. How did you communicate these changes?
3. Rate the burden of communicating this information from 1-10 (10 being the greatest burden).

We contacted 200 companies and what we found was quite informative. From 2001 to 2004, 42% of the companies we spoke to had changed some relevant information that warranted notifying their supply-chain. The top three reasons for notification were:

1. Telephone Numbers
2. Management Changes
3. Address Changes

Surprisingly, we also found that 50% of those companies mailed formal letters to their supply-chain, 40% sent both emails and letters, 35% sent only email, 10% went on-line to update records, while 6% phone their supply base. The average burden was 8.85 percent with the highest burden (10) contributing to larger companies requiring more time spent notifying their supply-chain.

When asked if they would be interested in a solution that would minimize data input on their supply-chain and automate the update distribution on contact information when it changes; all expressed considerable interest in this service.

IMN also found that companies are now demanding their supply-chain to update contact records at their website. The feedback IMN received was that suppliers today have several hundred customers. If contact data changes, updating this data at each and every website is not only time consuming but costly.

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