How Does a PIM System Work?

Any visitor to a Wal-Mart store has to be amazed at the number of SKUs stocked in those huge stores. It’s only when you examine Wal-Mart’s e-commerce offer can you appreciate the real scale of what they’re managing. They now have over 70 million SKUs on their online marketplace.

What is a PIM system and how can you use it to benefit your marketing efforts? Learn more in this guide to product information management systems.

What Is a PIM or Product Information Management System?

A Product Information Management system or PIM system is a computer system and business process. It manages your organizational needs for information about your products. It handles this information in such a way as it can support all your channels, platforms and functions.

Whether you need information for e-commerce, retail stores or catalogs a PIM system provides it. Price lists, product information guides, and advertising copywriters can all draw their information from this one source.

The information is accessible in real-time and by whoever needs the information. It is updatable from whatever source the update arises. This means that it provides one version of the information.

A PIM system can include, integrate with or complement a range of systems. For example, visual assets relating to products could be stored in a product content management system. These could include images of the product for e-commerce sites, packaging images or images of advertising copy.

Why Have A PIM System?

Without a PIM system, organizations have no alternative than to accumulate information about products in several places at the same time. Spreadsheets, physical files, and databases will exist in each department.

The marketing department may have pricing information and the buying team may have cost information. The quality assurance team may hold product testing information while e-commerce product descriptions may be held by an e-commerce team.

This creates huge potential for error as information is not synchronized, updated or even archived consistently. A PIM system means these multiple systems are not required. Central storage, back-up, and accuracy can be maintained.

Master Data

A concept that arises when considering adopting a PIM system is that of “master data”. Whenever information is stored and used away from a central reference source it has the potential to deviate from the truth. There are then several versions of the truth.

The holy grail of PIM systems is to provide one version of the truth. It is the one place in the organization where information about products can be entered, changed or deleted. All information held in the organization must refer to the PIM system to be regarded as valid.

This means, for example, information held about a product dimension is entered on the PIM system and only ever changed on the PIM system. All other systems that use product dimensions would look to the PIM for this piece of information. As a result, the e-commerce website, the product testing records, product packaging designers, and the visual merchandising team operate from one version of the truth.

This master data approach takes strong operational disciple. All the functions that might conceivably change a piece of information must recognize the need to change the master data record. All functions that use information must recognize the need to use only the master data as their source.

The PIM Payoff

A PIM system is a considerable investment. It also comes with major operational change and learning for all data users across the organization. This article about PIM systems illustrates a successful application of the approach.

What are the benefits of implementing a PIM system?

Reduces Errors

Centrally held data with a disciplined approach to master data integrity reduces errors. Fewer mistakes are made because the data that many decisions are made with is more reliable.

Out-of-date pricelists and inconsistent product descriptions result in mixed messages to customers. This can mean that customer frustration and even complaints are the results. Fewer errors can impact customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and ultimately, sales.

Improves Efficiency

A central location for information makes accessing vital information easy. No more searching legacy spreadsheets or physical files for information. No more phone calls between functions to check information.

Access to information is determined by a user profile. Rights to enter, amend and delete information can be set in the system rules. This ensures minimal chances for the corruption of information.

There is no duplication of effort and so efficiency is improved. There’s also less reworking because of errors due to poor quality information. That’s another efficiency improvement.

Brand Consistency

Customer perceptions of the brand are improved because of consistency across channels. From inside an organization, a multichannel or omnichannel operation tends to be perceived as separate operations. Customers don’t necessarily experience it that way.

A customer may browse an e-commerce site for product information and pricing and then visit the “bricks and mortar” retail store to buy the product. They may then register a complaint through social media. To the customer, they experience the retailer as one entity.

The organization using a PIM system can deliver the brand consistently across all these channels. This is despite all the people involved being from different functions with little or no contact with each other.

Data Availability

Businesses often operate on a 24-hour basis. Marketing functions may work conventional day-time hours. Distribution functions may be operating at night.

Businesses may have buying operations in different time zones to their corporate headquarters. All these functions need access to information.

The master data available on a PIM system makes it possible for complex organizations to operate effectively. Accurate data is always available.

Happy Users

Being able to access data on a PIM system makes life great for users. It’s less frustrating when you can be confident that the information you are using is reliable and easily accessed. You can concentrate on the main purpose of your job rather than on maintaining data, checking data and correcting errors.

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