Faced with mid-term economic uncertainty and tight spend controls, many mid-market manufacturers and distributors are choosing a modular approach to IT system upgrades and digital commerce conversions. The introduction of open source system architectures means that SME manufacturers and distributors can begin their digital commerce conversion based on operational need rather than be boxed into the linear path of traditional ERP implementations.
Robust API connectivity in modern software platforms offer a sort of plug-and-play integration functionality that allows companies to select business process automation solutions that fit most easily into their operations. As a result, mid-market companies can upgrade IT systems module-by-module over time to avoid the high upfront costs and operational disruption of large-scale deployments.
Modern PIM API functionality supports composable or microservices architectures that allow companies to design, test, deploy, and integrate a company-centric IT system module-by-module, solution-by-solution. PIMs have a context-sensitive user interface with drag-and-drop functionality built directly into user web browsers. Its open architecture, headless commerce, and easy developmental framework are ideal for native app development customized to fit your company operations.
Why Start in the Middle With a PIM?
Many of our manufacturing and distributor clients start their digital conversion journey with Product Information Management (PIM) middleware which acts as a centralized control tower for product data optimization and omnichannel customer experience marketing.
PIM middleware acts as a control tower that transmits pre-configured product data to and from front- and back-end IT systems whether new or legacy. Product data software can be hosted on company servers or on the cloud with monthly user subscription fees that make it easy to fit into operating budgets.
Typical PIM software offers:
- Product Information Management (PIM) to automate workflows, structure, & product data enrichment
- Customer Experience Manager (CEM) to prepare for future CRM deployment
- Content Management System (CMS) for marketing & SEO
- Document Management System (DMS) for sales & aftermarket services
- Digital Asset Manager (DAM) for marketing & SEO
- Data Feed Manager (DFM) with point-and-click functionality & pre-configured digital marketplace connectors
- Master Data Management (MDM) for enterprise-wide data governance
By starting with a PIM, companies can:
- design a product data structure that showcases your brand
- enrich & optimize product information for digital commerce
- consolidate & integrate multi-domain legacy ERP/MRP product inventories
- eliminate product information siloes to enhance collaboration
- use smaller development teams and staff resources
- automate data set feeds to digital commerce & e-commerce marketplaces
- prepare for export markets with AI-generated translations
- easily integrate new company acquisitions
ERPs vs PIMs for Product Data Optimization
Legacy ERPs were designed primarily for operations and financial management not product data curation and digital commerce. ERP product and OEM parts data are typically unstructured for use in digital commerce applications. Although next-generation ERPs are more flexible and customizable for front-end commerce than previous versions, they aren’t designed for efficient large-scale product data curation.
For example, legacy ERP descriptions may include vendor and brand acronyms, part numbers, item, size, and any other internal descriptors used in normal operations. The customer, however, is searching for a specific item like blenders which will likely return a ‘null result’ if product data isn’t first optimized for digital commerce.
Retailers, distributors, and manufacturers often have product portfolios in the millions and need to optimize them for different market segments. Businesses that offer OEM replacement parts can run into 6- and 7-figure product portfolios as well.
PIMs allow manufacturers to import, optimize, and export pre-configured product information to and from front- and back-end IT systems, websites, and e-commerce platforms for end-to-end integration. Starting your digital commerce conversion with a PIM allows marketing and product teams to collaborate, re-engineer, and automate product lifecycle workflows and syndication processes prior to ERP, digital commerce, and e-commerce website rollouts.
You may want to look at the benefits of a PIM if you:
- are looking for a low-cost solution to integrate, consolidate, & centralize multi-domain product information from legacy systems
- send different data sets of product information to retailers, distributors, and wholesalers
- have complex products with many attributes, hierarchies, relationships, pricing, and images
- offer products from multiple suppliers in multiple formats that need to be enriched & optimized to your target markets
- are looking for a central source of product data for multi-channel sales & marketing
- operate in global markets with multi-currency and support location languages
- create different catalogs for each market segment, location, language, or customer
PIMs allow companies to define minimum product data structures and set validation rules for publication. Product hierarchies can be classified into categories, multiple sub-categories, and thousands of attributes that can be sliced and diced into targeted marketing collateral by market segment.
Attribute planning and data modelling functionality allows companies to create product relationship and association data set matrixes that have common categories and attributes for advanced search and up- and cross-selling recommendations.
Companies can:
- create customized digital catalogs and product data sheets including customer pricing on the fly through user-friendly drag-and-drop functionality
- generate new sales opportunities and revenue streams through targeted product recommendations, promotional offers, and alternate products or brands
- obtain direct insight into B2B buyer behavioral patterns, preferences, search requests, and purchases for marketing strategy collaboration or trigger a sales call.
- build an approved master sales & marketing template database. For example, a sales associate can create a product data sheet or brochure on the fly from a central database and send it to a customer while on the phone to close more sales.
Conclusion
North America is the largest PIM market with American and Canadian companies rapidly adopting PIM solutions to enrich & search optimize product information for digital commerce. The top 3 verticals according to a global PIM market research report are healthcare life sciences, manufacturing, and retail distribution.
Use our ROI calculator to see if a PIM is a good fit for your company. Click here for the free calculator. And if you need help with the formula, call us!
