What is PIM? Optimise, save, earn

Let's think about it, in doing our work we use different tools every day. An email program, a browser, Power Point, Excel, Teams etc. It is a natural extension of our desk. Because how else could we work? The days of working in a notebook with a pencil are long behind us. Now, even the phone is in some cases a sufficient tool to carry out daily duties. Why should our teams be any different?

Data tailored to the sales channel

In the area of product data, you might say that we have an ERP after all. But surely this is the most effective tool? For internal use for sure, but you see, now the world of commerce is made up of different channels that have their specific needs. And when you get to online sales, things start to get a bit out of hand with logic. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but what a product should contain in an online sale (whether B2B or B2C) is significantly different from the needs of stationary shops. Looking through the collections, it is the stationary shop that will successfully use the data of the online shop, but not the other way around. Therefore, in chains such as Media Markt, when you enquire about a product an employee will go to the online shop's website and find the necessary information for you there.

Source of data for shops

The situation becomes even more complicated when your customers are online shops. These customers need good quality product data, enriched with images, parameters, appropriate categorisation and so on. This is not unusual; the world is moving in this direction. However, this can be a challenge for traditional product data management processes. Of course, it also all depends on how many products you currently have on sale. If it's small volumes (a dozen or so), or the intensity of new introductions is low (a few once a year) then the problem probably doesn't concern you. However, in any other case, you should look into the subject, as the profits are usually significant.
What's in it for me?
There is a saying - time is money. We know this very well. Saving time in a company directly translates into profit. But how much profit will there be? I cannot tell you, because I do not have the data. However, you can easily calculate it yourself. Assuming that there are 5 people working on product data (not counting agencies which provide translations or photos) and if process optimisation and partial automation save 15 minutes of work for each person per day, we have the following profit:
15 minutes x 5 people = 75 minutes per day.
In a week this is already 5 x 75 = 375 minutes or 6 hours and 15 minutes - almost a day's work for free.
In a month 375 * 4 weeks = 1 500 minutes or 25 hours or 3 working days.
3 days of work per month saved by process optimisation and new tools. Not bad, and that's with only 5 people working with product data. Assuming on average and pessimistically 10 months working gives 30 days of work. A month and a half of savings. How much these people earn you know better than I do. You can calculate it for yourself very quickly. A few thousand savings a year is a lot and not a lot. And let's remember that we haven't counted mistakes and doing the same things several times. That probably accounts for between 15% and 20% of the additional savings. That's what I estimate by looking at cases after our implementations.

What to do with the time saved?

Now the important thing, the time saved can be spent doing other important tasks or improving your product data. Is your data of excellent quality? I don't know, again I need you to answer for yourself. Does it matter? Well, it does, because according to studies, the quality of product data is responsible for up to 30% of conversions or up to 40% of returns. In other words, good quality product descriptions - far fewer returns. This is either with you in the shop or with your customer. At the end of the day, you still make money.
Taking all the calculations into account, you may find that the cost of implementing a tool suitable for your organisation pays for itself after a few years. How long? Depends on how many of these optimisations are put in place, because the more, the less time you will have to wait for a payback. Given that the world doesn't stand still, it's good to have a tool that follows trends and provides new functionality to your business on occasion. These are additional optimisations that you can gain in the future.

Which PIM?

Let's talk about tools for a moment. In general, there is no indication of any particular one. Any PIM system can be good for your organisation. You just need to know exactly what it is supposed to do and have a partner (implementation company) that knows their job and the system they are implementing.
There are quite a few options available on the market. You can use a study by companies such as Gartner or Software Reviews (Link to the compilation) to make your choice. This is a good start to your search. You can also speak to partners who implement particular PIM solutions and talk to them about the strengths and weaknesses of a particular tool. It's worth asking to speak to someone technical, as sales will probably be fun to talk to from the first meeting.

Why Akeneo?

We run Akeneo implementations. We chose this system not by accident. They add functionality with a lot of dynamism and there are no performance issues there. In addition, there are various licences available - from free to enterprise, which is hosted on the Akeneo server. In addition, you can poke around in the system yourself. Perhaps not recommended, but possible. So far, we have only had 1 case where we had to go deeper than the configuration. This speaks well of the tool.
I am absolutely far from saying that Akeneo is perfect. On the contrary. We sometimes meet companies where we openly say that you have to look further because it won't work out. A case where Akeneo won't work is the high expectation for PIM to do more than the standard with product data. For example, it generates product offer catalogues. There should be separate software for this, but some people want to have this in PIM. We understand and respect that, but achieving this with Akeneo is difficult.
How do you choose a Partner for implementation?

A moment earlier I mentioned a partner who knows their job. The obvious you say, yes? Well, apparently so, but over the years of experience I have noticed that often good sales does not follow implementation competence. So how do you check if a partner has a clue? There are several ways, let's look at them:

1. In meetings, if a partner does not focus on your processes or is able to deliver an offer without conducting a workshop with the team that deals with product data on a daily basis - you need to start questioning.
2. If the partner, when asked, is unable to do a PIM demo for your team, or drives around the screen chaotically during the demo - you need to start questioning.
3. If a partner is unable to answer questions during the demo - you need to start questioning. An asterisk here, as it may be that very specific instances of your processes, require some thought as to how to bite it into the system. You always need to use common sense when assessing.
4. If the partner during discussions does not refer to cases from previous implementations - you need to start questioning.
   And finally - choosing the lowest bidder is often fatal. I know, I am a party to this sentence, but specialists are not cheap and implementation is not just about installing a system. Someone with strong analytical skills needs to quiz people on how they work to find a method to improve processes. Managing the implementation project, will also cost money. Because everyone has good intentions at the beginning, but the diversity in the team and the different dynamics of the work requires structuring. Set-up and training in your company, will also be a required part of the implementation. Remember that such an implementation is done once. In general, I prefer to spend more but have peace of mind. You like that too, don't you?

Quality product information is pure profit

Finally, it would be appropriate to close the topic somehow. PIM can help organisations a great deal. It all starts with the reflection that nowadays everyone uses special tools in their work. Those in product data should also have the chance to work with a dedicated tool that is designed for this one purpose and does it well. Otherwise it's hard. It's like eating soup with a fork. Well it can be done, but how much a person has to work with.
The world is moving towards collaboration and quality information. Customers expect that. They expect a good experience with our brand and products. The era where only a good salesperson is enough is irretrievably gone. Now the customer is alone in front of a computer or phone screen. And what he sees influences his purchasing decisions. Not only the quality of the product, but also how it is presented will determine the effectiveness of the sale. And this requires a team or teams that work together to create product data. Quickly and effectively. Because time is money.