Dissatisfied employees, high return rates, and far too long a time-to-market – inefficiencies in product information management take many forms. In all cases, however, existing processes need to be optimized. Read this blog article to find out when to support the management, maintenance, and delivery of product information with a PIM system.

Are you tired of data chaos and Excel spreadsheets?

In many companies, the situation is the same: product development, marketing, or sales. Each department maintains its data in its system and some records even without system support. While smaller companies may still be able to get by with this to some extent, decentralized product data and maintenance of product data inevitably lead to data silos, duplication of effort – and data chaos. Product communication errors and lengthy correction loops are inevitable when files are hard to find or exist in multiple versions and formats.

MDM systems are designed to make critical enterprise data available to different business units and departments in a centralized, quality-assured manner. Ideally, all business-relevant master data is integrated into the system within the framework of MDM – from technical material data and logistics data to location data and supplier, customer, and competitor data. Such a multi-domain approach allows companies to consolidate their data and gain valuable insights that can serve as the basis for strategic decisions. This is especially important in today’s world, where companies need to be as flexible and agile as possible to respond to changing market conditions, and it can often be the difference between winning and losing.

Are you often frustrated by shopping cart abandonment and high return rates?

Is your customer service department overwhelmed with inquiries and complaints? Are you often frustrated by shopping cart abandonment and high return rates? Then you should consider a PIM system. Poor data quality often causes these problems.

A PIM system is a dedicated software solution that combines all relevant product information across the enterprise as a single source of truth and acts as a data hub. Modern PIM systems can map a product’s entire lifecycle—from importing individual product data to enriching it with marketing text and images to exporting the final product content—and ensure data quality with validation rules at every step of the process.

Need help exchanging data with business partners?

Product communication is complex. In addition to target audiences, product information must be delivered to a wide network of business partners, each with its own content and data format requirements. It is essential that the exchange runs smoothly because any discrepancy in the transfer of information can delay a product’s launch, reduce the success of customer contact at the touchpoint, or even lead to disputes between business partners.

Suppose you need help managing the complexity of product communication and providing efficient and accurate product data to your business partners. In that case, you should consider a PIM system. In a PIM system, data can be converted into the required format using templates, for example, and transferred directly through the system. This saves your employee’s work, time, and nerves.

Does omnichannel marketing take too many resources?

The art of omnichannel marketing is to load each available touchpoint with the appropriate product content. This means taking into account both the context of each touchpoint and the information needs of the audience. In addition, the content must be appealing—both textually and visually—to provide the final impetus for the purchase decision. Last but not least, all of this must be done in real time so that your product and brand messages do not get lost in the flood of content on the Internet.

Suppose you already use many different marketing and sales channels and want to open up even more for product communication. In that case, you are well advised to use a PIM system to ensure speed in the creative processes. A PIM system can easily enrich product information for all channels and target audiences via a user-friendly interface, such as image or video files from a DAM system – a dedicated software solution for managing digital assets. Automated processes and approvals also help speed up time to market, reduce resource consumption, and ensure brand consistency.

Want to expand into new countries and markets but need to know how?

Do you want to reach new countries and markets, but your translation processes are already taking too long, and the texts sometimes need to hit the right note? A PIM system can help.

As the number of relevant sales channels increases, more companies rely on PIM systems to bring their products to market more efficiently, quickly, and successfully than their competitors. PIM systems are primarily designed to optimize marketing and sales processes and, thus, the customer approach at the touchpoint. However, centralizing and standardizing data management and maintenance also benefits customer service, product management, and business partnerships.