A Product Information Management System (PIM) is software that allows you to manage all your product information in one place and then share it efficiently across platforms and through multiple sales channels.
And that's handy, because the amount of product data is increasing rapidly. Consumers want more and more relevant information before they buy a product. A photo and a short product description don't do the trick anymore. Customers want detailed product information, how-to videos, reviews, and more.
If you have to get all that information from different sources and manually share it across platforms, you're wasting a lot of time. The risk of errors is also increasing. A PIM system helps you organize and share all that product data in an efficient way.
PIM stands for Product Information Management. With a PIM system, you can manage all your product information in one place. And you can then efficiently share all this information across multiple channels. Think, for example, of digital channels such as the company's webshop or channels such as bol.com, Amazon or other e-commerce platforms, but also brochures, leaflets, etc. And what's also useful: you can distribute the same information in different formats, from text files and PDFs to images and videos.
A PIM system helps you work efficiently. This reduces your time to market for new products.
No more searching through colleagues' folders or a jumble of excel documents. A PIM system is a central database where you can quickly find all your product information.
You can give multiple people access to your PIM system to view information, provide feedback, or edit. That saves a lot of endless e-mailing back and forth between different departments. This makes sharing product data a lot easier.
From the PIM system, you can easily share product information via relevant channels, such as your webshop, e-commerce platforms or marketing channels. That means less manual work. This saves you time and reduces the risk of errors or outdated product information.
Because you manage and distribute product information in one place, it's easier to ensure that this information is the same across multiple channels. And with consistent product information across all channels, you ensure an unambiguous customer experience.
You can link a PIM system to various systems within your organization, such as an e-commerce platform, AWC system, CRM, ERP system, your warehouse management, accounting programs, etc.
If you find that storing and sharing your product information becomes cluttered and takes longer than necessary, a PIM system is definitely a good idea. But it is even better to get ahead of those problems. Consider a PIM system in the situations below.
The more people involved with your product information, the more necessary product information management becomes. Think of different suppliers, colleagues from purchasing, sales, marketing, etc. With a PIM system, people get easy access to the product content they need. This is also useful if you work in multiple countries.
Do you have multiple digital channels and do you need to get all the information for those channels from different databases and share them manually? This takes you a lot of time and the risk of errors increases. With a PIM system, you can quickly share information from a central system on the right channels.
The more products you offer, the more complex it becomes to manage all product information properly.
When you purchase a PIM system, you can choose on premise whether in the cloud. On premise means that the software is on your company's physical computer server.
In the cloud, your company does not have to install software on its own server. The PIM software is on an external provider's server and users can access the Internet with a login and password. This way, you can manage your product information online, from anywhere with the internet.
More and more companies are opting for PIM systems in the cloud. But there are also plenty of companies that go for an on-premise solution. So what's the best choice for your company? That depends on your internal processes, the current IT structure in your company, the budget, and more. To help you get started, we've listed the pros and cons of both solutions for you.
With product information management in the cloud, you can access all product data from anywhere with the internet. This makes working remotely a lot easier.
A cloud-based PIM system is flexible. Whether you need more storage capacity or something else, a cloud-based PIM system can be quickly adapted to your needs.
The costs for a PIM system in the cloud are usually lower than for an on-premise system. You don't need a separate server computer, you don't pay high licensing fees, and you don't need IT staff for maintenance.
With a PIM in the cloud, you don't need an IT administrator to maintain the software on your own computer server. The provider maintains your software on their server.
You don't have to worry about updates. With PIM in the cloud, you always have the latest version of your PIM software.
You shouldn't think about it, but if your system crashes, you naturally want to have a backup of your product data. With PIM in the cloud, your product data is stored in the cloud and you always have an automatic backup.
A disadvantage of PIM in the cloud is that you are dependent on the speed of the internet. A slow internet connection can then be extra difficult. You may also not want to store certain data in the cloud.
Because the PIM is on your own company's physical server computers, you are not dependent on the internet. You can quickly call up (large) files and data without the internet. So even with a slow internet connection, you can keep working nice and fast.
All data stays in your company's private network and you have full control over the security of your product information.
Because the software is on your own server, you are responsible for managing it. That means you also have full control over management.
A disadvantage of PIM on premise is that you usually have higher costs, due to software licenses, IT management and server computer facilities such as emergency power supplies, cooling, burglary prevention, etc. Scaling up and down is also less easy. And working remotely is also a bit less easy with a PIM on premise, because this is only possible via a VPN connection.
But what if you don't want to store all your product data in the cloud? For example, because you can't or don't want to migrate all your data to the cloud or want to work partly with your own internal systems. Then you can also opt for a so-called hybrid cloudsolution. This means that you store your product data partly on your own servers and partly in the cloud.
AWC and PIM have similarities, but they are not the same thing. A PIM system ensures that all your product information is managed in one place and can be efficiently distributed across channels.
AWC is intended to organize your packaging process and control your brand consistency, packaging and appearance. With AWC, you have all the product information for your packaging and all your artworks in one tool.
And the good news is... you can connect a PIM system to AWC. 🔥
This way, you can combine the best of both worlds to work even more efficiently.
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