Product Information Management
Today more than ever, customers are bombarded with information at every turn, making it a challenge to spark their interest. The way to break through? Great content.
Internationalization, AI-driven process automation, the sheer range of communication channels and ever shorter product life cycles are all driving the need for fresh product communication. But for this to work, you need trustworthy product data at your fingertips.
Consumers no longer limit their behavior to one platform: multiple sales channels are used in parallel, with shoppers dipping in and out along their customer journey. Whether they are searching for information or making a purchase, today’s consumer uses all the options available to them. Online stores and marketplaces, bricks-and-mortar retail, mobile apps and print catalogs – the sheer range of channels where product communication takes place is constantly growing.
As a result, a multi-channel strategy is a must for brands, manufacturers and retailers alike. At the same time, however, digital commerce is repeatedly placing new demands on product information management (PIM). Companies need to set out how they procure, manage, prepare and distribute product information. Luckily, all this work has been shown to pay off: product information management forms a key pillar of any good differentiation strategy, unlocking untapped potential and opening new doors. In many cases, it lays the groundwork to fully exploit product data.
Product information in your organization
When a company centralizes their product information management, they are ensuring that product data from suppliers, their marketing and sales departments, and the ERP system are output consistently, for example to the web store and marketplace platforms as well as on packaging and sales labels. For a company, PIM is both an approach and a process. The overarching goal is to provide high-quality, accurate product information to meet customer needs quickly and cheaply.
Product information management relies on data collection, storage and maintenance. A PIM system makes this process sustainable and resource-efficient by creating a central repository with trustworthy product information – i.e. a single point of truth. The goal here is to provide product information for use across a wide range of output media, but to do that, you need media-neutral product data.
In today’s highly competitive market, product information is often the biggest differentiator – provided all your employees are on the same page. Poor data quality or inadequate data availability force teams to waste untold hours on tasks that just don’t add value. To avoid this, companies need to pool and centralize their product information internally.
More often than not, a number of different stakeholders host and maintain a company’s data sources, including PIM systems, ERP systems, Excel files, media servers, supplier databases, analysis systems, product review portals or content providers. This requires some pretty impressive coordination to generate the relevant product information needed for a customer-centric corporate strategy. That is, unless companies increasingly automate everyday processes with tools and software to create efficient workflows that result in improved efficiency, lower costs and high levels of employee and customer satisfaction.
There’s no doubt about it: automation, namely high levels of it, is increasingly relevant for company success – regardless of size or industry. Companies need one central source of information that provides accessible product data to all. These days, inefficiency and poor transparency in product information management costs the company. In view of the growing number of relevant sales channels, more and more companies are relying on PIM systems to get their products to market faster, more efficiently and more successfully than the competition.
What does a PIM system do?
A PIM system is central data management software used to collect, process and optimize product data (in different formats and from different sources) in a centralized and media-neutral way. It ensures that product information is standardized, complete and always up to date.
A PIM system provides a structured database which collects product master data, texts, translations and, depending on the system, images, documents and videos for multiple use. These are then maintained using dashboards. Depending on the company and use case, a PIM system serves as a single point of truth for all product master data and marketing information of relevance to purchasing, production and communication – and that for the entire product range.
For many companies, their PIM solution serves as both communication interface and product information system for marketing and sales.
A PIM system enables automated and consistent product communication along the entire information supply chain, including across all communication and distribution channels. Whereas, a Master Data Management (MDM) system, for example, takes over the central data storage for purely master data for multiple data domains.
As well as offering data storage, PIM software usually also includes a range of configurable interfaces and connectors as standard to supply product information to a wide range of output media, not least print catalogs, price lists or online marketplaces.
What doesn’t a PIM system do?
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It isn’t an online store solution, but it does provide product information for shop systems and online marketplaces.
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It isn’t a print publishing solution, but it does provide product information to automate publication production, e.g. for brochures, price lists, data sheets and customer-specific catalogs.
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It doesn’t offer Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) because quantitative information on the product range and stock levels as well as movement data aren’t recorded in the PIM.
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It doesn’t offer Customer Relationship Management (CRM) because the PIM doesn’t collect interactions between the company and users or customer data.
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It doesn’t offer Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), but it is possible to integrate supplier data to a certain extent.
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It isn’t a Translation Management System (TMS), but PIM does support multilingual content.
What are the key features of a PIM system?
A PIM solution facilitates collaboration between a company’s various in-house departments, ensuring that product-related business processes can be controlled and standardized centrally.
This graphic shows a simplified version of the product information management process. A PIM system collects and consolidates information from a range of company systems. As part of this process, it is refined, translated and checked to ensure the information meets the required quality standards, namely that it is complete, correct and consistent. The information can then be made available for different output channels.
Functions of a PIM system
There is no one-size-fits-all for PIM users. But thanks to all its different functions, a PIM system can still meet all their needs. The following provides an overview of the key features a PIM system can offer.
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Centrally integrated PIM software uses connectors, extensions or APIs to import product data both from other systems (such as MDM, ERP or media servers) as well as from external sources (such as Excel files, databases, content providers). It contains workflows for different access rights and approval processes, which enables a high degree of automation in consolidating data from different suppliers, departments or stakeholders. This in turns affords companies an efficient means to a single point of truth for all product data – with quality guaranteed to boot.
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Once all the collected product data has been brought together in a central location for processing, the PIM solution can employ measures to improve data quality in the long term. Automatic checks ensure data is complete, unambiguous, correct, up to date and consistent. Where this isn’t the case, data stewards can enrich information with additional features, images and attractive descriptions. If companies pay attention to consistent product information terminology, search panels in the process (e.g. online store) can be optimally filtered.
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PIM systems minimize the effort involved in prepping product information, standardizing data in different formats to create product categories and descriptions in a consistent catalog format. A PIM system supports multi-classification, provides attribute and inter-product relationship management and enables both automatic product data inheritance and variant management. But that’s not all: common classification standards can be integrated via interfaces and products can be classified automatically.
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Let’s face it: manual data validation is time-consuming and labor-intensive, not to mention it usually leads to errors. A PIM system allows you to check off these tasks more quickly and more intelligently. It offers algorithmic workflows so that product information can be checked and approved before publication. Plus, new data records are checked for compliance with previously established rules (mandatory fields, regional settings, touchpoint optimization) as they are entered. This way, product information can be enriched completely and correctly – not to mention fully automated – in good time before it is exported.
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These days, pretty much every company uses an ERP and/or merchandise management system, with many also using an MDM solution, too. Integrating PIM software into all relevant systems in your company’s software landscape is a must for efficient data management. To ensure seamless data integration, a PIM system is connected via interfaces for both import and export. Data exchange can be manual, semi-automatic or fully automatic.
What are the benefits of PIM? Why use a PIM system?
Introducing PIM to your company comes with a whole range of advantages. As we all know, searching for product information is pretty overwhelmingly time-consuming – especially when done manually, with product data stored in all kinds of isolated solutions across locations, departments and individual teams. More often than not, this reduces data quality, increases staff costs and generally puts a strain on the budget.
A good PIM system allows you to take back control, harnessing your data’s potential and benefiting from all sorts of advantages.
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Separate teams can collaborate in the centralized PIM system, reducing the need for coordination and lowering the rate of error. Standardized product data collection and quality control, meanwhile, ensure that the communication and marketing of new products in international markets and across various marketing channels is simultaneous, consistent and targeted.
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PIM software includes integrated checking functions. These support consistent product data maintenance in the PIM and prevent improper or incorrect entries. The quality of the product information increases, while time-consuming staff overhead for data maintenance is reduced, since the automated determination of missing data is also supported.
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A product’s added value can lie in the emotional buying experience, an additional bookable service or a consultation. Once the product data has been merged into the master catalog, data can be enriched, new structures created or inter-product relationships (e.g. spare parts, cross-selling and upselling products, etc.) established. This is how a PIM system improves experiences at various touchpoints (in the online shop as well as in the retail store) through targeted product information, thus reducing support costs, increasing cross-selling and heightening customer satisfaction.
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Individual target groups and trading platforms have different needs, requiring customized product data. A PIM system creates a data ecosystem with standardized product information that covers these aspects while reducing the complexity of data management. Simplified processes in the PIM system enrich the customer approach, e.g. through channel- and customer-specific ranges.
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Different channels require different formats for text, images and product descriptions. If you want to ensure your product information is displayed optimally across all media, you need to formulate it differently for each one. A voice assistant, for example, is different from a mobile app or product catalog. A PIM system helps target product data prep to the context, helping you stand out from the crowd with relevant and context-specific information.
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PIM systems support automated translation and editing, saving valuable time, money and effort when you serve different markets, and providing customers with product information in their local language along with country-specific sizing info or industry-specific standards. Plus, quality assurance in the PIM means technical and legal adjustments can be taken into account at an early stage.
Centralized product information management supports both B2B and B2C companies. Retailers and manufacturers in many industries stand to benefit from the myriad advantages offered by PIM solutions.
Successful Product Information Management: Customer case studies
ROTHENBERGER
ROTHENBERGER, a leading tool manufacturer, was faced with the challenge of creating marketing materials for over 4,100 products … efficiently! In the past, the company’s product and content managers had done this manually – a hugely time-consuming and monotonous task. This time round, the company introduced an AI solution for automated text generation with an interface to the PIM system. By harnessing AI, ROTHENBERGER was able to drastically speed up the process, saving time and money while taking the quality of their product texts to a whole new level.
fischer
fischer, a leading German family business, was searching for an efficient way to present its extensive product range in catalogs. With 52 subsidiaries and exporting to around 120 countries, producing a catalog manually was time-consuming and resource-intensive. fischer has since revolutionized its catalog production by introducing a modern PIM system and an automated print solution. Now, product pages are created almost automatically, improving quality and significantly cutting the team’s workload. This solution has enabled fischer to efficiently advance the internationalization of its catalog production and further boost sales.
Varo
Varo, a Belgian tool manufacturer, faced the difficult task of meeting increasing product transparency requirements, both from customers and new legal requirements such as the EU Digital Product Passport (DPP). To solve the issue, the company introduced a robust PIM system that supports the output of 2D barcodes as standard via connectors. This technology allows Varo to generate GS1 QR codes for its product packaging and provide detailed product information, increasing customer trust and affording the company a decisive competitive advantage.
Case studies available for download:
porta
porta Revolutionizes Shopping Experience with Artificial Intelligence – Breaking New Ground in the Mid-Size Space
Varo
More Time for Strategy & Sales: Varo Reduces Manual Effort for Product Data Maintenance by 70%
Product Information Management systems: Our partners’ software solutions
Contentserv
With its Product Experience Cloud, Contentserv offers an AI-supported, intuitive cloud solution that helps companies create exceptional product experiences – on-brand, omnichannel and customer-centric. Where marketing, IT and global product teams once invested seemingly endless hours in managing product data, Contentserv ensures total efficiency. Automated product data in one central location with seamlessly integrated feedback from all channels enable manufacturers and retailers to leverage their content more successfully and increase sales for the long term – B2C and B2B.
Informatica
Meet Informatica’s Product Information Management solution: MDM-Product 360. It offers innovative and intelligent product experience management to support your digital commerce and business transformation initiatives. Thanks to Informatica, companies can harness the transformative power of data. At the core of their portfolio is the Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud™ (IDMC), an AI-based, cloud-first, cloud-native, end-to-end data management platform that connects, manages and unifies data across any multi-cloud and hybrid systems to empower companies to modernize and update their data strategies.
Akeneo
Akeneo helps provide a compelling customer experience across all sales channels. The PXM suite includes Akeneo PIM, an open-source product information management solution designed to enrich product data and create your catalog; Akeneo Onboarder, which facilitates the collaborative onboarding of product data directly from suppliers into your Akeneo PIM instance; and Akeneo Franklin, a robust, subscription-based library that delivers best-in-class product information and machine-learning insights to create a comprehensive product experience.
Syndigo
Syndigo’s comprehensive solutions for PIM, MDM, DAM, Enhanced Content, Syndication and Digital Shelf Analytics are designed to promote state-of-the-art commerce across the entire ecosystem. Created to drive modern retail, they enable the continuous flow of data and content across the entire retail landscape. From data management to product content creation to global syndication and digital shelf analytics, Syndigo promises control and consistency for data governance.
How do you choose a PIM system? Getting your choice of PIM right.
When selecting a PIM, it’s not so much a question of which is the right system, but rather which PIM solution will best meet your company’s specific needs. After all, the demands placed on a software solution are as diverse as companies themselves. As such, you need to choose your PIM system with great care and with one main objective: to minimize risk. This means, for example, avoiding wrong decisions that were made because specific aspects were simply not taken into account or processes were not thought through. The following seven steps will guide you through the selection process to find the PIM system that is best suited for your individual needs:
1. Define the scope
First things first, you need to ask yourself the following questions: What does the company want to achieve? What do the company’s stakeholders expect from a PIM system? To compare PIM software in a way that is actually useful, you first need to determine how the company can be made more successful. Only then will you be able to identify the risks you might face along the way and find solutions to avoid them.
2. Identify your requirements
To gain an understanding of what your company needs from a PIM system, you and your consultants must first take a closer look at the company and its business processes. This should involve all departments that will be working with the PIM system or will be affected by its implementation and determining their needs. What drives their team members? What issues do they face? Imagine you wanted to travel from A to B and had to find the best way to do it. To solve this problem, you would need a systematic approach. Which car should you choose? Are you travelling on your own or will you need more space? Will a normal car suffice or would a delivery truck be better? You will have to ask the same type of questions when choosing a PIM system. Another factor to consider is the existing IT landscape as well as the envisioned data model. A checklist of the essential requirements for selecting your PIM system will help you keep track of all relevant issues. Once you have identified all your essential requirements, they should be set out in a specification.
3. Identify potential candidates
Experienced consultants will know the market and potential PIM software providers inside out. They know which solution can fulfill your needs and where the strengths and weaknesses of each software provider lie. In the end, it’s not just a question of technology; a PIM system needs to fit your corporate strategy too. It falls to the consulting firm to draw up a longlist of about 15 candidates. Qualified business consultants will already take into account your budgetary constraints when negotiating with suppliers. In the first step, all relevant software vendors will be provided with a list of your main requirements, which must be answered within a specified time. Based on the information supplied, a shortlist is compiled with about five top-scoring solutions, which are then further assessed in detail. The consultants will then work with your company to decide which two or three suppliers will be invited to present their software.
4. Organize a vendor pitch
The vendors will be tasked with presenting ten or so use cases. The aim of the pitch is to demonstrate to key stakeholders how the software works in practice and what it is capable of achieving. The obvious way to do this is have them simulate real-world use cases to solve a range of problems or points of relevance using sample data – a relatively objective way to compare the suppliers’ software.
5. Evaluate the pitches
The next step should see the pitches evaluated and compared. The pros and cons of the respective PIM systems are discussed and assessed in terms of how well they address your requirements. Of course it goes without saying that your budget and the software providers’ expectations also play a significant role in the selection process.
6. Process the recommendations
It then falls to your consultants to summarize the results for your management. If the parties involved are still in doubt or disagree, the final step can be a “proof of concept” between the last two contenders. Only when the systems have really proved effective in simulations, the costs have been negotiated and an approximate timetable for implementation has been drawn up, will a recommendation be submitted to the relevant executive body.
7. Choose a PIM provider!
If the results of the proposed course of action are convincing, it will be easy to decide which vendor to choose. If, however, several PIM systems are deemed to be suitable for the company, it will fall to your executive body to decide.
Great minds … choose strategic PIM consulting
Introducing a product information management system presents a complex challenge, not least because installing new software alone does nothing to help a company get ahead. There are countless steps to think through in advance, relevant stakeholders to involve, processes and structures to review, and cost- and risk-minimizing pathways to consider. With companies usually lacking the time and expertise in-house, this is where external, experienced PIM consultants come into their own.
It’s hardly surprising that companies often find themselves overwhelmed by the complexities of introducing or replacing a PIM system – it would be unusual to have experience of similar projects! This means, however, they struggle to foresee points of error and lack the oversight to keep all the key details under control. If a company wants to introduce PIM software, implement interfaces or realize new use cases, professional PIM consulting and project support from specialists is more or less indispensable. Experienced specialists help avoid mistakes, minimize risk and keep costs as low as possible.