Bloomington, California Dec 18, 2023 (Issuewire.com) - Choosing the appropriate Product Information Management (PIM) solution is more important in the rapidly evolving world of digital commerce than only considering technological features. The tool's strength, adaptability to your business's procedures, and ease of adoption for future important users are all intertwined in a complex dance. Contrary to popular assumption, making snap decisions about platform procurement in lieu of a full "discovery" or "study" phase can result in expensive mistakes.
Starting the PIM process requires a thorough two-step discovery procedure. We begin with a high-level analysis, breaking down user demands to make sure the platform is chosen in a way that best fits team goals and processes. The objective is to select a solution that aligns with the maturity of the business in order to ensure optimal adoption and efficiency in managing product attributes and assets.
Divide User Needs Into Major Groups
Using rigorous sessions, we first analyze user demands and divide them into seven different categories. With a thorough approach that covers everything from KPIs and objectives to data model structure, you can be sure that your requirements are well understood. Here are the typical groupings we create for the various workshop sessions, which run anywhere from 30 minutes to a maximum of 1.5 hours.
- KPIs & Objectives: To know where you're beginning from, make a list of quantifiable objectives. Determine and enumerate the main technical and business obstacles.
- Product Lifecycle & User Workflow: Create a Business Process Management (BPM) Strategy and a process map with gaps between present and future needs. Listing user roles and permissions, enrichment, catalog search, and syndication requirements are all made possible by this.
- Structure of Data Model: Create a plan that effectively cleans and enhances data.
- Data Cleaning: Examine the amount of work required to clean up your database from a programmatic perspective that makes use of AI
- Asset Management: Pay attention to the strategy level to determine whether these assets are being loaded from an SFTP or a DAM, as well as whether renaming the assets is necessary.
- Supplier Data Onboarding & First Import: Depending on your role as a distributor or manufacturer, you may need to implement certain excellent features and procedures to format supplier data into your preferred format.
- Architecture and Connections: Lastly, but just as important, link your PIM to all of your source and destination systems (online stores, physical catalogs, point-of-sale, marketplaces, etc.).
Creating a Business Case
The analysis's findings should be combined into a business case, which is a high-level overview. Here is our usual schedule:
- Outlining the main obstacles
- Current client roles and important users
- An overview of the catalog
- KPIs and goals
- Gaps in product catalog management
- The requirements list that the PIM supplier will use to contextualize their demos for each of the seven groups above.
Purpose-driven PIM Demos
Equipped with a brief business case, we coordinate demonstrations with a meticulously chosen shortlist of three PIM systems. Process complexity, user maturity, and organization size must all be taken into consideration during the decision process. For instance, choosing an "Informatica" type of solution would be overwhelming if your client's primary user group is between 1-2 and has poor technical support. It is because these flexible platforms require more development and customization, which would complicate adoption if you have a smaller team.
A tailored approach is crucial in these demos; we advise providers to steer clear of general feature tours and instead concentrate on client-specific demands. We assist providers in starting these demonstrations by enumerating all the difficulties. After that, we allow PIM providers to contextually demonstrate the features in the same sequence as the obstacles. In order for clients to be able to envision how they will use technology in the future, it's the entire PXM genesis process.
As a last piece of advice, distributing these demos lets clients take in the information without getting overwhelmed.
Contextualized Platform Rating
The appropriateness of a platform is assessed via a client-specific lens, taking into account elements such as user base and budget. Every PIM technology is assessed in a number of critical areas, and a weighted evaluation is given according to the customer's priorities. The items we grade with the client are listed below:
- Onboarding of supplier data
- Importing and updating data manually
- Data purification
- Data management
- Model of data Taxonomy
- Asset administration
- Product search Enhanced features
- Lifecycle of a product and workflows
- Translation and Localization Management Analytics
- Export and Syndication
- Paper catalog and advertising medium
- User interface and usability
- Product catalog effectiveness
- Personalization
- Integration of systems
- Costs of implementation
- Costs of licenses
Synopsis and Resolution Momentum
This thorough study is now complete, and it's time to condense the data into an executive summary that highlights the key findings. The customer has the freedom to choose the platform that best suits their requirements. After selecting the platform, we go right along to creating an implementation-ready Statement of Work (SOW).
Advantages Not Just for Selection
Many benefits are provided by the strategic PIM selection process, including:
- Tailored Solutions: Customers select a platform that best suits their particular requirements.
- Effective Adoption: Streamlined processes hastened adoption.
- Decreased Customization: It has less dependence on expensive customization.
- Reduced Design Costs: Careful planning reduces design expenses.
Prepare, Assemble, Execute
With our tried-and-true PIM Plus selection procedure, embrace the future of efficient product catalog administration. Let's equip your team for a smooth implementation journey with a budget between $20 and $50,000 and a timetable that can vary from one week (onsite) to 1.5 months (online).
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