PIM services IS the solution!
As eCommerce becomes increasingly competitive, many businesses are shopping around for a PIM solution. Business benefits a PIM can deliver include optimisation of workflows, efficiency of processes, or ease of data enrichment, leading to lower costs, faster time to market, lower returns and greater sales revenue.
But these benefits don’t just happen by subscribing to a PIM solution, and letting it perform its magic. Even so, many companies seem to think that is the case – that the totality of the investment required is a software subscription with some implementation costs.
PIM – transformational change
For those businesses who really think this through, what they are undertaking when they search for a PIM, is a transformation in the way they manage and organise their product data. PIM-driven transformation can lead to the benefits we mentioned, and renowned industry analysts like Forrester and Gartner concur in highlighting where costs are allocated in a typical successful PIM project, to realise the full value of the investment. For each £1 spent on Product Information Management software license fees, another £8 needs to be spent on PIM services.
There are three basic problems with the approach which many businesses adopt:
- They believe that the outlay on software is where their investment begins and ends
- They set unrealistic expectations with their investment case
- They don’t address the pressing issue – are they content just to lift and shift legacy processes and poor-quality data? Or do they want to achieve up to 10 times more ROI by truly transforming how they manage their product data?
That is why the services around a PIM project are so crucial. It is these services which will get you the 10x ROI, not just the software on its own, however excellent it is.
PIM services – health-checking and auditing
At Start with Data, we carry out an extensive assessment of the state of play regarding how you manage your product data at present. From that investigation, we can provide actionable insights into how healthy your current systems and management are. In practical terms, that means:
- Analysis of your existing processes
- The fitness for purpose of your existing solution for your product data management
- Pressing issues with your current processes
- Issues with current solution
- What your longer term aims are
This ‘health check concludes with our recommendations for steps you need to take to enhance and optimise your product data management
Download our Benefits of a PIM consultant guide
PIM services for investment cases– a dose of realism
At Start with Data, we use our experience to involve all stakeholders across the organisation whose roles and outcomes will be impacted by the success of your PIM implementation. That means addressing areas which have little or nothing to do with the actual technology:
- Processes which are costly, time-consuming, and lack the internal logic which engenders an agile approach to managing the product data life cycle throughout the organisation
- An inconsistent or non-existent data governance framework
- Siloed management of data, an an absence of cross-departmental collaboration
- Substandard product information due to inaccurate, missing, inconsistent and ultimately, unreliable product data
The resulting business case for your PIM will get the support and championing it needs, up to C-Suite level, if you can nail down measurable ROI:
- Efficiency gains in terms of the number of data sets managed
- The increase in number of SKUs which can be maintained
- Reduction in operational costs for users managing product data
We help you to deliver greater customer value. We shape product data management strategies, advice on enhanced business processes, develop a fit-for-purpose data governance framework and with our vendor partners, support you in all areas of your PIM technology solution.
What services will add value to your PIM project?
Strategy
Determine the right course to meet your business goals.
PIM Selection
Choose the right technology platforms for today and the future.
PIM Implementation
Deploy solutions that drive business results.
Product & Content Services
Deliver higher-quality, enriched data across your sales channels and systems.
Data Migration
Get a turnkey solution for delivering high-quality data as your systems landscape evolves.
PIM Platform Support
Keep your systems running smoothly and free up your internal resources
A PIM solution is a major investment. It’s not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ panacea for misguided practices or a less than coherent approach to business aims. You want (in fact, need) that money to be spent on genuinely transformative change. The services surrounding and supporting your cutting-edge technology solution are foundational to the success of implementing a new system or optimising an existing one.