Disparate sources of content, absence of standards, inaccurate data, reliance on third-party services, and lack of supplier participation have made product information management an unwieldy effort for the buyer. It is often easier to just create a new product item than to use an existing one. This situation leads to unchecked growth of a company's product item master as well as the number of suppliers. Without access to accurate and detailed product content, buyers cannot effectively search, evaluate, and purchase the products that they need. In many cases, when the supplier product information is imported, the buyer must manually cleanse and transform the data to a unified standard before its use by the buyer.