Strategic Product Information Managment
Photo by Igor Miske on Unsplash
Introduction
Too often I hear marketing or ecommerce professionals try to solve their problems by implementing new technology, “I need a PIM” or “I need a CDP,” without really understanding what those technologies can do. Technology won’t solve underlying problems and may complicate them. Before starting a project, think about the problem you are trying to fix. Having worked extensively with ecommerce content and multiple Product Information Management (PIM) systems, I'm eager to delve into the strategic thinking behind implementing a PIM.
Content
In 1996, Bill Gates wrote an essay titled “Content is King,” saying, “Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.” This has been true for ecommerce, where sites with the best relevant content to help describe your products are the most successful in getting the consumer to convert. The question has always been, where do you put the content? At first, we just stored it on the website/ecommerce software. Later we got more sophisticated and there began to be “content management systems” or CMS built into the software you were using. That was great in the early days when we exclusively utilized the content on a website. Then we started selling in marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, and others. Now we need to deliver that content to multiple locations so what do we do?
PIM
What is a PIM? It is software that compiles, stores, and disseminates product information. The PIM was born in the 1990s as catalogers started to leverage their content for ecommerce. The need to be more efficient became critical. In the early days of ecommerce, catalogers rewrote or expanded the content from catalogs and stored it in the ecommerce system. As things progressed more and more content was generated that was only available to the website. Enter the need for a PIM as a place to gather content from across the organization, to have a “system of record” that all can get access to and utilize the content that has been created.
Photo by Maksym Kaharlytskyi on Unsplash
Filing Cabinet Metaphor for a PIM
We all have some concept of a filing cabinet, whether it’s the physical ones that hold papers and documents or the virtual file structures on our computers. When you file things you think about things like taxonomy, which involves deciding on the organization method - by project, year, or person, or do you simply rely on an efficient search? Size is crucial as well; many of us have encountered issues with insufficient space on hard drives or cloud storage. Retrieval frequency is another consideration – whether the files are merely archived or needed regularly. Sharing your files poses questions about accessibility and finding files for others who require them. These are high-level challenges you can have with a Product Information Management (PIM) system. Where is the data coming from? Who owns that data? How will it be stored? Is it consistent? Are there data policies around the use of the data? How will the data be updated? How many versions do you need? How will someone else look for something and find what they need? What are they likely to search for? Do you need to tag your documents and files? Getting a handle on the data - who owns it, where and how is it stored, who maintains it, and who is going to use it, is the first step in implementing a PIM.
Implementing a PIM
Once you have a high-level picture of the data, who owns it, who maintains it, and who will use it, you can dive into the details of implementing a Product Information Management (PIM) system. Three keys to implementing a PIM are data quality and consistency, integration into existing systems, and change management. From my experience, the best data comes from eCommerce/marketing teams who have tailored it for modern consumers. However, this data is often inaccessible to others in the organization or inconsistently maintained across products not offered online. A staggering 66% of B2B companies admit to having poor product data due to ineffective management. Integration with existing systems is another crucial aspect. Questions arise regarding the sources of data - whether from ERP systems or old catalog systems - and determining the system of record is essential for seamless content flow. Bi-directional updates and one-time loads are considerations that need addressing. Finally, you need to determine who will manage the data. If you’re moving to a PIM, you are likely moving to a more distributed model of product updates. For example, the marketing team has likely been making updates to the website, but the idea with a PIM is that some of this gets pushed upstream so that when product teams make a change to the product it “flows” through to the relevant parties. This will put a bigger burden on your product teams, so it’s important to ensure that they are trained and ready.
Conclusion
A PIM can help solve many challenges by giving you a place to store and retrieve your data. To be successful you need to think through who owns the data, who maintains it, and who is going to use it. Once you have the basics understood you can tackle implementing the PIM, focusing on data quality, integration into existing systems, and the change management needed in your organization. The technology we implement is only as good as the inputs into the system. Taking time to step back and think about those inputs will pay off in the future.
Resources:
“Content is King” — Essay by Bill Gates 1996 | by Heath Evans | Medium
The stumbling block in B2B ecommerce: bad data (digitalcommerce360.com)