Introduction
Ecommerce is growing at an unprecedented rate. In fact, we are seeing changes in consumer behavior as consumers begin to research products before they even buy them. This has led to an increase in the demand for product information management systems that can support the ecommerce journey and allow for seamless integration between online shopping and brick-and-mortar retail outlets. While there are many benefits to implementing a PIM, one of the most common questions asked by companies considering such a system is: How can I get value from my PIM? To find out more about this topic, read on!
Measure Data Accuracy
You should be able to measure data accuracy. This is an essential aspect of almost any project, and it’s especially important to understand how well your new system works in this regard. You need to know if the data you’re using is right or not.
Measurement will help you identify problems before they become too big, and it can also help you see how well the solution works overall. This will allow you to determine whether or not the solution was worth it in the first place, which means that measurement can help with ROI (return on investment) as well.
Measuring data accuracy involves asking questions like: What is the problem? How does this impact our business? Are there other potential solutions? What does success look like for us? How do we get there?
Drive Integration Speed
Integration speed is a critical success factor for any PIM. The faster the PIM can integrate with other systems, the more value it can provide. The more integration points a PIM has, the more valuable it is.
In a nutshell, drive integration speed. If you’re considering buying a product information management system (PIM), make sure that it can integrate with your other systems quickly and efficiently.
It’s important to remember that a PIM is only as good as the data that it can pull in. The more data you can get into your PIM, the better it will be at serving your business needs. One way to make sure you’re getting the most out of your PIM is by making sure its integration speed drive.
Create an Internal Community of PIM Super Users
The best way to make your PIM system work for you is to create an internal community of Super Users. These are people who have made it their mission to use the system in all aspects of their job. The Super Users keep track of new product development, measure data accuracy and help facilitate communication with other departments about what’s going on in the company.
You can also use your PIM system as a way to measure ROI from an investment perspective by keeping track of how much time it takes for different processes to be completed and comparing that data against other methods (e.g., if a certain process used to take three hours but now takes two hours).
Measure New Product Time to Market
There are a number of ways to measure new product time to market.
- Indirectly, you can measure the time it takes for a new product to be released into the marketplace by looking at the amount of time that passes between when it is first defined and when it is available on store shelves or in your customers’ hands. This approach can help you identify opportunities where changes could be made to speed up this process, but doesn’t provide as much specific information about how long each step actually took.
- You can also directly measure individual steps in the release process with bar graphs and other visual representations, like those provided by PIM systems like SAP Business One’s Product Information Management solution (or any other PIM system). By using these visualizations, you’ll be able to see exactly how long each part of the product lifecycle took from start to finish—and possibly even identify areas where certain aspects could be improved upon if they require more effort than others
Measure Product Data Import and Export Efficiency
In this section, we will examine how importing and exporting product data can be time consuming, costly and error prone.
Importing: The process of taking product data from your external system into your PIM is referred to as “importing”. This is one of the most important functions of a PIM because it allows you to manage all of your business-critical information in one place. However, if the way that you import product data does not match up with how it was originally stored then it may take longer for you to fix errors or update information than if you had entered everything correctly from the start.
Importing Data from Multiple Systems
If your company uses multiple systems for different aspects of its business operations (e.g., sales/marketing CRM tools, manufacturing ERP applications), this presents additional challenges when trying to achieve efficiency with importing product data into your PIM because each system will likely have its own unique way of storing things like SKUs or product descriptions so there needs to be some kind of translation process before they can be integrated seamlessly into one platform such as an eCommerce site where shoppers are trying find products quickly without having any trouble finding what they’re looking for while browsing around online stores all day long!
Monitor the Number of Product Pages Viewed with a PIM
The number of pages viewed is an important metric for PIMs. It can tell you how many people are viewing the product information that your PIM has made available to them and whether or not they’re finding what they need. If the numbers are low, it may be a sign that your content isn’t helpful or relevant enough to answer the questions being asked by users.
There are two main ways to measure this: either by tracking how many times each page has been viewed or by counting how many times a user has clicked on links within those pages (i.e., if they clicked on “more information” after reading each paragraph). The first method is more accurate because it will account for all types of activity, including browsing activity; however, it’s also more difficult to implement because it requires additional programming on top of whatever analytics service you’re using at present (and may require additional software).
Develop Best Practices for Product Content Creation
A PIM is a tool that enables you to gather and share product information. But a PIM alone is not enough for your organization to reap the benefits of product information management. You have to have a clearly defined, documented and implemented strategy for using the system effectively. This requires a concerted effort from all stakeholders—from executives on down in the organization—to ensure that everyone has an understanding of why they’re creating content, what they’re creating it for and how they should share it with others within their supply chain or sales channels.
In other words, developing best practices around content creation means developing:
- A Content Strategy: What kind of content will be created? How often should it be updated? Where will it be stored? How should it be shared across departments and teams?
- A Content Creation Strategy: Who needs access to which tools or systems? Do they need training first or do we want them able to go right into production (or both)? What security measures do we need in place so only those people who should see certain types of data can do so without compromising confidentiality or intellectual property rights protection.
- A Content Governance Strategy: Who owns each piece of content once created (and who decides when something is no longer relevant)? Are there different levels/types/categories based on type (e.g., technical specs versus marketing collateral vs executive briefing sheets) requiring different levels/types/categories based on audience (e..g., customers vs vendors inside our own company).
Create a Global Content Strategy
A global content strategy ensures that your company has a clear understanding of how it will manage its content, and how that content will be used. It also enables you to analyze the impact of various changes in your organization’s structure, workflow and technologies on the delivery of your content. If you don’t have a global content strategy, consider developing one now by using these steps:
- Develop an overarching vision for what your company wants to achieve with its product data. This may include goals such as increasing sales or improving customer satisfaction.
- Use this vision as the foundation for developing a plan for achieving it through product information management (PIM).
- Estimate how much time it will take for each department in your organization to complete their portion of this plan; i.e., estimate how long it will take each department head or manager to receive training on PIM best practices, implement these practices within his/her area(s) of responsibility and train staff members in those areas accordingly. Also estimate how much time they’ll need after completing this initial training process before they’re able to meet with other departments’ managers/leadership teams so they can collectively develop strategies around specific goals related
Ecommerce will only continue to gain market share as time goes on.
Ecommerce is one of the fastest growing markets in the world, and it shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. And with its continued growth comes an increased demand for product information management systems. A PIM is a tool that allows ecommerce businesses to store and manage their product data in one central location, so that they can easily share it with other internal partners (like marketing) or external partners (like vendors). As more companies begin adopting ecommerce strategies, there will be an even greater need for a PIM system to help manage the influx of data being created by these new channels.
Conclusion
While PIMs can be a great asset to any business, they are not a cure-all. You need to take the time to understand how your company works and what kind of PIM would work best for its needs before making any decision. The key is to start small and grow from there as you learn what works best for your organization. Once you’ve decided on a PIM, it’s important to make sure that everyone in your company is trained on how to use it. Having the right tools for the job can help streamline processes and save time—both yours and your employees’.