PIM or Product Information Management is no longer a new concept. There are several PIM vendors on the market offering different PIM solutions. Companies realize more and more that customers are more demanding and want more and better product information. Therefore, companies need to organize their products so that they can offer and customize their large collection through many different channels. With all their product information centered in one place, companies can maintain better and more consistent product data.
If you want to select the right PIM solution, it is very important to be sure you know what you want. To make sure you are not left in a quandary about which PIM solution is right for your business, follow the steps below:
What does your business need?
Don't look yet at the various features PIM solutions have to offer. Gather a team of people who will work in the PIM system and brainstorm the things you want to include.
Search for different vendors
Go online, scan for PIM vendors and look at the different functionalities of their systems. Shortlist PIM solutions that fit your financial and functional needs and try their online demo (if available) to get acquainted with their interface. Most PIM vendors only provide access to their free community edition. Ask for a personal presentation of their enterprise edition and, if possible, access to an online demo. Be sure to adapt your needs to their system and not the other way around!
Feature List
Use the following feature list to quickly compare the vendors on your shortlist:
Usability
Data modelling
Product Hierarchy
Classification Hierarchy
Mass Update
Search
Multilingual interface
Translation Management
Transform Data
Staging / Online
Audit trail
Business rules
DAM/MAM/PAM
View
Edit
Workflow
Review
Business Process Management (BPM)
Workflows
Data quality completeness
Data quality profiling
Governance
Multichannel View
Integration
Import files
Import System
Export files
Export system
Print module
Portals
Supplier Portals
Custom Portals
Security
User management & Authentication
Authorisation, roles & privileges
Master Data
Golden record (matching & linking)
Stock & price data
CRM
Customer review data
Architecture
Cloud-based
Scalability
Integrations
Web
Custom development
Performance
Version upgrade
Pricing
Community edition
Enterprise edition
License
Options
Support
Discount
The die is rolled, or is it?
Have you gone through the previous steps and still can't decide which PIM you want to work with? You're not alone: many companies are on the fence here. Need help choosing your PIM solution and/or integrating your PIM with your e-commerce platform or ERP?
As a Digital Commerce specialist, PHPro can provide you with a professional approach to your PIM problem. PHPro is an implementation partner of one of the fastest growing PIM platforms:
A young, fast-growing company headquartered in France with offices in Düsseldorf and Boston. Akeneo is based on the Symfony2 framework. Since Akeneo is open-source, it is highly customizable to your specific business needs. Akeneo is available as a free Community version or as a licensed Enterprise version.
Watch the Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yAVvlc0_sg
Are you interested in receiving the full comparison list?
If so, please contact us. We will be happy to help you!