PIM in the enterprise
The idea of consolidating product information into one database may not sound new to most of you. After all, shouldn’t data management be just another function of your company's Enterprise Resource Planning system? Have you ever asked yourself what the value of yet-another-layer of data management tools are in your enterprise?
Fair questions to ask; but you have also likely observed that a lot of time and money can be wasted in trying to extend the functionality of databases and warehouses beyond their original intent. ERP systems definitely have their limitations, other databases then have to be extended or new systems added to fill the gaps in functionality.
In reality, an ERP system either does not include all the relevant resource systems in a company, or it is not so flexible that it can be adapted as a one size-fits-all approach. Different organizations within a company may require different sets of data for example. Alternatively, each organization may require the same data, only tagged and packaged differently.
The ERP "product item master" list provides an ever-changing series of snapshots of the business process, but it is focused on basic product identification data – it may not include inventory or supply-side data, it is less likely to include all the attributes necessary to make it easily available for analytics or data warehouse archiving and searching. It typically turns out to be critical for day-to-day business functionality but is lacking when it is required for functions outside basic business operations. There can even be product item master data within your organization that is outside your ERP solution.
Product-relevant data can often be found scattered through additional departments and groups such as R&D, outside the purview of the ERP, or even 'locked up' on the hard drives of individual employees.
Step up to the next level – Product Information Management
This is the advantage offered by Product Information Management, the aggregation of product content from multiple systems into a single, centralized repository. A PIM solution will:
- Clean, standardize and synchronize multiple data types to create a single version of product truth
- Synchronize multiple item master lists into a single master list
- Feed and be fed by your ERP system
- Will feed other clean and accurate product data back out to other systems in other groups and departments
- Can provide a synchronized set of data at the appropriate level to overseas operations and other companies
Data consistency, accuracy and interoperability across the enterprise are key PIM goals. PIM handles data and takes it places that ERP is not designed for. A critical piece of the PIM solution is that internal data synchronization is vital – external data synchronization will follow when internal data is clean.
How does PIM work with other enterprise solutions?
If ERP doesn't have the comprehensive scope that a data management solution requires, does PIM?
As we have discussed, the key benefit of PIM is that it provides a consolidated version of product data 'truth'; synchronized, clean, concurrent, and effectively parceled out where and when it is required. This can have different implications for different business systems, as the table below shows.
| Enterprise solution |
Data issues |
PIM features |
|
E-commerce
|
- Large amounts of product data goes through various systems between supply-side, transaction processing, & customer channels
- Data propagates out to web sites, marcom material, retail material, catalogue systems, 3rd parties (e.g. resellers)
- Errors are highly visible, can affect margins due to product return, customer dissatisfaction, etc.
|
Sends the right data out to the "many" — a single piece of web content, or a catalogue system that distributes to thousands of points downstream; ensures each system has what it needs, when it needs it.
|
|
Business Intelligence
|
- Typically implemented as a 'filter' between data coming in from different systems business analysis tools
- Downstream from other product data needs
|
PIM will handle the data cleaning and metadata, not just for data analytics, but across the enterprise; BI tools can focus on specific interpretation
|
|
"Buy side" spend analysis
|
- Procurement data is rationalized to give a single view of purchasing internally, so cost savings and contract issues can be analyzed.
- Has specific requirements for procurement data
|
'Pre-process' much of this data further upstream, providing a clean and synchronous data stream for procurement and spend analysis.
|
|
Product Lifecycle Management
|
- Lifecycle process-focused and product data focused
- Little focus on other enterprise systems
|
PIM looks beyond the product development/introduction/management to ensure synchronous product data that is shared, not only in the product cycle, but in other systems that have come to rely upon it.
|
|
Global Data Synchronization
|
- Focused on standards for product data shared across partners and even across industries.
- Requires good quality data made available externally to agreed-on standards
|
Assuring good quality data internally with a system that is also capable of reconfiguring or adding metadata will ensure good data available outside the company
|
|
RFID
|
- Data is focused on product status, not the product itself
- The data will be used in SCM, transactional, and business analytic systems
|
Can ensure that the data being reported by RFID is properly reported and well-defined to enterprise standards, as well as ensuring its correct association between each department
|
PIM is not just a technology but a process
A successful PIM strategy will encompass data governance and process workflow solutions. By defining ownership of key product attributes and fields, PIM can enable process improvements across the entire product data lifecycle. We have witnessed 100% reductions in data entry staff related to product data and a decrease of many weeks in the new product development introduction cycle. By assigning field-level control to the business users who understand their product data best, you can achieve not just improvements in process, but also in quality and effectiveness.
FullTilt offers a PIM solution for your product data that is comprehensive and offers a workflow solution to enable process improvements. FullTilt Solutions CEO, Tim Wallace, describes the value of PIM: "If your organization spends more time and money on reconciling data rather than analyzing it, or if you believe that end-to-end data synchronization will assist in your business productivity and improve your margins, then come and talk to us."
|
