Top Nine Trends

The Top Nine E-Business Trendsfor the 21st Century

1. E-business will become a critical competitive strategy that will revolutionize the global economy.
2. Companies will learn to manage customers' relationships by virtually serving their needs "24 × 7"-24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
3. E-business that enables customers to personalize and customize products or services will flourish.
4. Using the Net to find new customers and to better target customer preferences will be a standard practice.
5. Producing, marketing, and distributing products or services online will be a cost-effective strategy for business.
6. Learning to develop and serve online communities with niche interests will be essential to building customer loyalty.
7. E-business models that provide greater choice for customers will change the traditional economics of supply and demand.
8. Ready access to the Net from multiple gateways-cable TV, satellite, wireless telephones, and other devices-will greatly expand e-business opportunities.
9. Highly efficient e-business virtual supply chains will intimately link manufacturers and producers directly to customers.

E-commerce is currently undergoing a paradigm shift. While in the past the focus was on the question of how the dealer brought a sufficient number to his products, the question now is how the dealer places his products where most customers visit. The questions of what criteria online shoppers use to organize their vendor selection and what roles are assumed by the range of goods, brand reputation/credibility and price in this process are also interesting.
One consequence of this change is that the number of channels through which products can be searched and purchased is steadily increasing. New marketplaces with new (technical) features and the entire subject of social commerce set the agenda. The growing importance of social commerce in recent months also shows that the ability to market the product to the customer is just as important as bringing the customer to the product.

A present study confirms the following:

Today, major marketplaces are of great importance to the majority of online shoppers with respect to searching for information and subsequently purchasing products. The fundamental principle of the dealer operating where the customers are continues to be true for stationary retail as well as for all e-commerce activities.

A well-designed online presence and a high SEO/SEM budget are no longer sufficient. Correct placement in the right marketplaces is vital. Such measures are of great importance, especially for unknown retailers and small specialty mail-order companies.

Price and product search engines and consumer portals are important sales platforms and constitute another lucrative channel for retailers.

The absolute transparency of the processes is not only customer friendly, but can turn new customers into important and long-running repeat buyers.

The following is clearly visible:

Consumers receive purchase incentives through an incredible amount of channels. The keyword is multi-channel sales. Shop owners must realize that e-commerce strategies have changed. The right points of intersection with large markets will later generate revenue. Moreover, the decision maker has to ask himself a fundamental question regarding budget distribution. SEO/SEM is important, but to reappear on the right pages is just as important. Optimal market positioning and good SEO/SEM practices are interdependent and must be strategically planned by each decision maker.

We carried out an online seminar in the USA on "eCommerce meets PIM" together with Bryan Walker(principal analyst at Forrester Research). We had a far bigger response to our invitation than we planned, with over 600 registrations.


Multi Channel Reality

Bryan used his presentation to clarify the meaning of product content in all modern sales channels. Multi-channel has long been a reality since its implementation. More than 70% of US consumers research first online before they – however they do it – buy products. 85% of US consumers use multiple channels. They purchase in stores but also, at the same time,over the Internet, by phone and more and more with mobile equipment such as iPhones and now even iPads.


Direct sales are changing the distributionchannels

Another figure shows how important it is for manufacturers to be have direct customer contact via the Internet: 46% of all consumers already research directly on manufacturers' Internet sites. In addition, more and more manufacturers are opening stores on the Internet. Production and retail are increasingly growing together. Or, put less positively:more and more retailers are facing direct competition from manufacturers. This represents a definite danger for retailers stretching far beyond the question discussed up until now of what influence Internet shopping has on the prices for specialist retailers with stores. Such questions are rather irrelevant to consumers. They click on the "checkout" which they completely trust and where they can get a good price. Trust is based on security. And security has lots o faspects on the Internet.


Limited investment in product content

Some of the questions that web providers have to answer for consumers online today, before they order a product, concern the product content. Perfect product descriptions; detailed pictures and videos; as well astests, reviews and ratings strongly influence people's decision to buy products. However, in relation to the relatively high investment inonline stores and customer portals, very little is invested in content management.  Distributors spend less than 3% of their costs on product information management. It's no wonder that many stores with productsthat don't display commodities (such as cellphones, digital cameras, etc.) are not successful. The customer gets an unsatisfactory idea ofthe product and is not prepared to go ahead with the purchase.


Multi channel PIM strategy

The Forrester analyst leaves no doubt that retailers need to draw a clear picture of their customers' behavior. Today, a retailer needs to know where their customers go on the Internet; where they get their information; what motivates them to purchase something; and why they have decided on a specific channel. But manufacturers must also understand that the product content they generate will be automatically replicated on the Internet and reappear in all channels without them being able to control this flow of information. They can, however,control the quality of their product information, creating a USP amongst their competitors. Bryan Walker recommends that retailers and manufacturers "develop their own product information strategies because your customers expect this from you."

When choosing the suitable PIM solution, he recommends that they look closely at the technology providers. I can only agree with him on this. The differences are quick to see when it comes to complex processes and large amounts of data. One more thing can be said: multi channel almost always puts you in control of complexity. Which is why the old IT themes of user friendliness,stability and performance still play a dominant role.


"e"

Following Bryan Walker's presentation, one can remove the "e" from the term "eCommerce". Commerce without the "e" no longer exists in the real world. I agree with his view that: "commerce meets PIM" and have forgotten the "e"already.

Globalization: a definition and impact as it relates to data and the digitization of all things business

Globalization is the ever increasing interconnectivity and interdependency of finance, politics, culture, the environment, language, currency, trade, industry, technology, social networks, travel, disease, thought, research, collaboration, information, know how, expertise, and business, across local, national, and international boundaries.
Factories are becoming virtual. Engineering and design centers have nothing but human thought and computers to capture the works into digitized form. Factory scheduling, supply inventory, demand planning -- all done using algorithms, computers, and data.

What does this mean for business as it relates to data? Everything! Because your data has become more relevant in more ways to more users across more boundaries than ever before. Your good data is returning more and more value every day, and your bad data is becoming toxic, viral, distracting, and negatively impacting your business, every day, every year, every time it is used. Bad data is a disease to business.

How is globalization affecting your business? How is your data enabling these effects? Is it crippling you? Does your data affect those connected to you as well? Can you measure these effects? Quantitatively? Qualitatively?
What if BP did not know there were worn out parts, poor maintenance scheduling, bad supplier contracts, and sub par safety manuals, procedures and tracking (presuming these combined may have had a hand in their disaster); could better data have prevented the Gulf oil spill catastrophe?

Maybe! But, only if BP also had the culture, processes, and reporting necessary to know there was a problem and also to then act to resolve the problem on time!
Sometimes it's the simple purchase orders that always seem to ship the wrong part to the wrong place - and it costs you time and money to redo the order, restock the item, reship another part, not to mention that it may have been only a $10 part, but the production line went off-line for two days! What did that cost you? Maybe you have thousands of purchase orders that never seem to be correct, that's man-years of effort being wasted.

It is time to begin thinking about implications, impact, costs, and how these are affecting your competitiveness when the global economy has become so intertwined.

You may think of your data as fuel for your business, and your business processes as the engine, and management as the driver - without good fuel, you won't go far. If your competition has high octane fuel, and an F-1 super car engine, he may beat you to the finish line. Even the best drivers in the world cannot win races with bad fuel or bad engines.

Good, clean, relevant, complete, correct, current data is the new "Holy Grail" of business. Your business is (or may be) ready for success, but is your data?

Source: Utopia Inc

Multi-channel 2.0??

Internet Retailer was a great and successful conference for both attendees and presenters.  For 3 days I danced the Product Information Management (PIM) dance describing to attendees the complexities of managing product information to meet the pace of business of tomorrow's multi-channel requirements.

I discovered Multi-channel is evident in strategies in all sizes of companies. While stores, print catalogs and fliers, websites, call centers and inside sales are still critical to success, sales channels have more than doubled in a short amount of time. Let's make a list...

Multi-channel 1.0:

• Stores
• Print catalogs and flyers
• websites
• call centers / inside sales

Multi-channel 2.0

• Mobile commerce
• Kiosks
• Social (Facebook, twitter, etc...)
• Aggregator Sites (Ebay, Amazon, Newegg, Overstocked, etc...)
• Multiple/Cross E-commerce
• Interactive TV
• Consumer Electronics
• ....

Front facing platforms (like e-commerce) are full of great tools to present products online, analyzing your customers, processing transactions, and bringing customers to the sale, among other neat tools. On the back end, ERP systems are necessary to manage pricing, transactional information, and the material master.  Although both necessary, neither of them enable the flexibility to centralize and manage ALL data (Item data and media assets) for all marketing and sales channels, at any time, anywhere in the world, for any channel, in any format, in any language, easily and automatically. This is key to maximum marketing effectiveness and sales success.

It's like water!

Imagine the time when villagers had to bring a bucket to a well or lake, fill it to the top, than carry it back by foot to the household to perhaps fill up another bigger bucket which will contain the same water used for everything.

Imagine modern-day water systems and plumbing. Front facing platforms like E-commerce are the streets and buildings, ERP is the body of water. PIM represents the pipes and tools used to provide cleaned and enriched water for all point, in any amount, in any temperature, for any use, in any disbursement format, at the exact time it is needed, instantly. I am quite happy with the convenience and flexibility I have about consuming water.

Water is the life blood of our planet. In today's information age, data is more and more the life blood of the organization.


PIM Overview Website

Below is an interesting interview between a leading provider of PIM solutions and a leader in e-commerce solutions. Read on...

The following Q&A was conducted with Greg Wong, CEO of Heiler Software (PIM Solutions), and Dave Magnoni, director of product marketing at ATG (eCommerce solutions). The two experts will join Forrester’s Principal Analyst Brian Walker during a webinar called “eCommerce meets Product Information Management”.

Question 1:  We hear it all of the time; companies spend seven to nine months tediously creating a general catalog, not to mention the cost and time it takes to create a targeted one as well. How can companies reduce this time and spend more effort targeting their customers?

Greg Wong:  One word: Automation. Using a single repository for all of your data helps the automation process because you are able to create and store customer-specific content and standard product information. Then, you publish it with the click of a button for both creative or structured flyers and catalogs, and only the final touches or pre-press work is done in Desktop Publishing solutions like Adobe InDesign, QuarkXpress, or FrameMaker.

Dave Magnoni: Printed catalog creation is generally done outside of eCommerce, but Web data and User Generated Content available online may be useful for the process. You can capture the right information online and keep this in synch with the product content.

Question 2:  Companies that are growing and increasing their offerings are overwhelmed by all of the data that they have to manage. How do companies with multiple sales channels (i.e. multiple Web sites, catalogs, brick and mortar locations) communicate their product and brand information efficiently?

Greg Wong:  Having one central system allows you to have the ability to synchronize your product information across multiple domains, targeted catalogs, and brick and mortar locations in one step, as opposed to updating each one individually. In addition, data is not replicated and data governance policies can be enforced across channels. The whole idea behind the Long-Tail theory is being able to expand your product line and increase revenue. You can do this easily with a PIM.

Dave Magnoni: Yes, having product information in a single master system is very helpful, and it provides a starting point for the commerce process. For example, master product information may be in one place, but different online sites may show brand-specific catalogs, or a single B2B site might show only products authorized in a given customer contract. The commerce engine will pull the product information, add information from other sources (like inventory levels), and provide an environment where the merchant can effectively communicate his or her brand to provide personalized information and offers that will ensure each visitor has the best experience possible.

Question 3:  Why is it important for eCommerce applications to work in-conjunction with a product information management solution?

Greg Wong:  Most organizations have either become or are becoming multi-channel resellers. With this in mind, there are many different source systems of data and many different output channels. eCommerce is one channel in the ecosystem; the job of an eCommerce system is to provide the best shopping experience to end customers, but not to be a data harmonization, data quality, or data management solution. By off-loading this to a PIM, eCommerce systems can focus on doing what they do best, generating revenue for retailers. Businesses will need their eCommerce applications to support their multi-channel initiatives as customers are becoming increasingly demanding.

Dave Magnoni: Online commerce involves selling and supporting many channels: multiple brand and country Web sites, mobile sites, in-store kiosks, agents who provide customer service, feeds to social media sites, etc. The PIM provides strong tools to make sure the information used for multi-channel online commerce is both high-quality and consistent across those many different channels. PIM also supports other channels, like catalog production, which are not usually driven from the online information. This improves the consumer’s experience and, in turn, improves business results.

The importance of eCommerce applications and PIM working in conjunction can be demonstrated in the use of search facets. These are valuable features that help customers filter a wide assortment of products to narrow in on those that they want to consider for purchase. High-quality information is needed in the product feed to ensure those facets turn out correctly on the Web, mobile or other sites that a customer is using. The PIM helps get the information right so the eCommerce experience can be flawless. 

Multi-Channel-Commerce

From the point of view of businesses that specialize in the acquisition, preparation, and distribution of product information, the motivational factors for the initiation of customer projects have changed massively over the past several years. Enterprise Product Information Management (PIM), which has become an uncontroversial, important business process, provides a variety of solutions to problems that occur as marketing and sales-related product information makes it way through the business landscape.

Looking back, the drivers of enterprise PIM have been on the selling side. Specialist solutions for output processes — print, in particular — had been available for many years. But it was not until people started to realize that PIM was particularly useful whenever data were generated by a PIM process based on a standardized, enterprise-wide repository that the solutions that exist in the enterprise PIM segment today were arrived at.


The subjects on which projects focused, along with Enterprise PIM, were the consolidation of supplier data, the creation of the "golden record" as an enterprise "place of truth", internationalization linked with a process-secured ("global-local") creation process, and of course in depth integration with the backend. Responsibilities also changed within corporations. The head of marketing's partially-automated print solution became the CIO's enterprise PIM.



Just as enterprise PIM emancipated itself between 2002 and 2004 by staking a new claim for the all-encompassing significance of product information as a business process, it is now on the cusp of a new stage in its development. The marketplace is increasingly focusing on enterprise PIM as the "long-lost brother of e-commerce".

But let's start at the beginning: what issues drive PIM projects today? Andrew White, a Gartner analyst, first introduced the "MDM era" as the successor to the "ERP era" in the fall of 2009. Gartner positions MDM as an enterprise-wide repository. In the scope of this repositioning, Gartner took the opportunity to coin a new term: "MDM for product data" instead of PIM.

Multiple channel distribution is becoming increasingly important, irrespective of whether the businesses in question are B2C or B2B-focused. Target-oriented distribution over different channels such as online stores, print catalogs, and point of sale opens up new target markets and increases awareness in the marketplace. It is precisely these developments in the area of multi-channel commerce which make the idea of a centralized PIM solution attractive. The key drivers are the long tail, multi-site, and changes in category management.

Long tail

Particularly in the area of distance selling, product selection policy has seen major changes. Previously, category management meant always having to deal with limited space. In a print catalog, only a certain number of pages were available. The logistics were also limited: storage limited the possibilities so clearly that most dealers attempted to find the perfect "catalog selection" with the highest number of top-selling items.

In our projects, we see these product selections in companies. It quickly becomes evident that compromises have been made in the selection of products. In most cases, only certain brands are carried, for instance. Or a segmentation of the product and target groups is performed. This is certainly useful for print catalogs, but online stores don't have these limitations!


In stationary retailing, the product range must be closely geared to reflect customer demand, due to the limited selling space. In doing so, particular account is taken of the demands of the majority, while anything that is not sufficiently profitable is often ignored. Many products remain unsold for this reason – it is precisely these which are the "long tail". The term derives from a graphical representation of a frequency distribution.

When one considers the margins, this distribution also has a highly interesting meaning: in most industries, the fast-moving items intended for the masses have a particularly low margin. Consider the market for music. What do you think has a higher margin: a top ten CD single, or a rare collectable album? The rare album, of course! This means that in the past, retailers had to forgo high-margin products due only to limited floor space, limited pages in catalogs, or perhaps due to limitations in their IT systems!

The long tail consists of a wide variety of products: a rare bottle of wine, special interest music, exotically spiced roasted peanuts, films that have been deleted from back catalogs, highly specific spare parts for which there is little demand. The list is endless. There is no shortage of products for which there is little demand. They are seldom available, however.

Compared to all other distribution channels, the Internet offers us considerable cost advantages. The digital mall consists of servers which can be readily expanded when necessary. Adding a new product takes little more than a few additional database entries. And perhaps a little space in a logistics center with efficient operations, or possibly run by the service provider – and in the case of purely digital products not even that: sending a digital music track over the Internet costs the retailer more or less nothing.

The only question is why retailers haven't been massively expanding their product ranges for years. Why are we seeing product selections numbering 300,000 items with typical B2C dealers, instead of 3 million items? The leading store systems and search engines are designed for these large product ranges. It would not pose any major problems.

There is a problem, of course: before products can be presented in a store, the product data must be obtained from suppliers and processed. In many cases, product ranges are also limited by the fact that the product data cannot be efficiently maintained.

It is here that the new PIM strategies are brought to bear: with an enterprise PIM solution, retailers can build and maintain extremely large product portfolios. For the first time, retailers can now use an integrated process: suppliers provide their product portfolios in electronic form. These data are checked and stored in a central repository. They are then structured and prepared for presentation in the stores.

Multi-site

In the past, a strong tendency towards vertical integration on the part of manufacturers has been evident in the retail sector. Manufacturers have not only set up flagship stores to attract more demanding customers and position their brands, they have also attempted to boost their turnover by setting up their own product presentations in retail outlets. This integrated product presentation is referred to as shop-in-shop. Retailers are showing an increasing tendency to set up brand and manufacturer-specific web stores.

Beside shops-in-shops, manufacturers are increasingly setting up target-market specific presences. If one investigates the online strategies of the large mail-order retailers, one finds both an increasing diversification of brands, and an increasing tendency to cross-sell. SportScheck sells a pair of Adidas sport pants in the Adidas-branded store on sportscheck.de while also cross-selling them on otto.de and on other platforms such as amazon, for example.

The complexity of handling product data arises from the multiplication of language, sales area, target group, brand specifics, and platform. With every additional website that requires product data, enterprise PIM gains greater importance as a central clearing house. Enterprise PIM is a precondition for the successful management of a large number of stores!

Changes in category management

Changes in the area of product selection strategies represent a further factor for the re-orientation of enterprise PIM. The massive growth of product portfolios in the marketplace has led to fundamental changes in the area of data management.

These changes are most clearly evident in the area of mail-order sales. In the context of a multi-channel strategy, PIM is typically positioned with the following process requirements: centralized data administration, increased automation, reduction of manual processes, reduction in media discontinuities, strengthening of clear responsibilities, early data capture, accelerated data availability, reduction of errors. In a real business, the following points would trigger an enterprise PIM project:

· Several employees are continuously occupied with copying and pasting image and text data from an existing database, in order to make them available to third-party users.

· Catalog page briefings (for print catalogs) typically involve the use of pen, paper, and scissors.

· Raw image data cannot be used for the design of web pages.

· 60% of all items in the web store were "re-digitized" from the print catalog.

· A call center employee has to check up to four systems simultaneously in order to supply the customer with all the required product data.

· In some cases, the same piece of text is translated multiple times per target language; and separately for online and print.

Growth of product portfolios has thus had an enormous impact on the data maintenance scenario. Until recently, back office staff may have manually maintained product group information article by article, but now this is no longer possible, or at least not as a sequential task. New processes are required here! In order to promote the "relevance" factor in data maintenance, we now import customer ratings from the various online stores into the PIM system. The employee simply navigates to the poorly-rated products. These are usually the products that have to be described more accurately... online stores thus provide an excellent source of real-time data quality ratings.

Organizationally, these changes in category management will lead to a restructuring of departments that have traditionally been responsible for data acquisition, maintenance and output planning. In many businesses, the publication specialists responsible for the print channel are organizationally separate from those responsible for the Internet channels. This often leads to redundant product data maintenance, and a failure to exploit synergies. The tangible indirect effects of this are different product presentations in print and on the Internet, different product portfolios, a huge manual overhead when transferring content between media, and redundant storage of product facts within the enterprise.

In the case of leading mail-order retailers, there has been a realization in the past few years that the convergence of presentation channels leads to a restructuring of departments. Reorganization serves two objectives:

· Simplifying and standardizing data creation. The purchasing department now has a new role as a supplier of highest possible product information quality.

· Publication planning is becoming increasingly flexible and will typically span multiple output channels. Any differentation between online and offline channels should be consciously avoided.

Conclusion

Following the emancipation of enterprise PIM as an independent business process, it now stands on the verge of a new stage in its development. Enterprise PIM (or Gartner's "MDM for product data") is once again gaining importance in marketing and sales: enterprise PIM is a prerequisite for successful e-commerce!

* Gartner Master Data Management Summit, October 5-7, 2009 Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 

Twitter, Facebook & Co are on everybody's lips.  Opinions are wide-ranging, from nonsense to mega-hype, on the significance of the micro-blogging services on e-commerce and multi-channel trading.
36% of online shops already have Twitter embedded, while 20%are planning to introduce it. This was the result reached by an investigation carried out by ibi research.

Many companies are already reporting that their turnovers could increase significantly through the implementation of social media channels.Interactive media increase dialog with the customer. Putting aside a purely sales-figure oriented mindset, they enable authentic and direct communication with the customer. New customers can also be made aware of product offers.

So is the phrase "the trend is your friend" particularly apt in this instance? Online social networks are growing and increasingly influencing communication, be that in the business world or the world of the consumer. E-commerce prescribers must analyze precisely and decide which of their target groups can be reached through this medium. At present the media is particularly applicable to a target group of technology enthusiasts who love to experiment.



The decision whether or not social media should play a role in your communication and business strategy, and indeed what that role should be, cannot be made by this report. This report does,however, outline the important factors.

This white paper takes a look at First Movers, who believe in social commerce and hope to discover what significance Product Information Management (PIM) has in this context.




Two thirds (67%) of customers who research a brand on Twitter are subsequently more prepared to buy that product. On Facebook this applies to 51% of users. There is hardly any distinction between the expectations of men and women. Females prove to be more prolific bargain hunters. The following figures from a study by Chadwick Martin Bailey support this notion:

Female target group: Why are you a fan of brands/companies on Facebook?
1.    In order to receive offers and discounts: 30%
2.    Because I am already a customer: 20%
3.    To show others that I like this brand: 15%
4.    For fun: 10%

Male target group: Why are you a fan of brands/companies on Facebook?
1.    In order to receive offers and discounts: 23%
2.    Because I am already a customer: 23%
3.    To show others that I like this brand: 18%
4.    For fun: 11%

With regard to B2B communication there has, to date, been a lack of clear evidence that a relationship between social networks and a decision to purchase really exists.

What is most clear is that customer feedback takes on an increasing significance in the world of web 2.0. A review posted online can be extremely exciting and effective, but only if I, as a retailer, am permitted to re-use this information. Staples, the office supplies discount store, has around 60,000 Facebook followers. On its fansite Staples publicizes its current promotions, as well as discount codes and discount deals. Customers comment on and review these deals. Here PIM supplies the appropriate product data.



Shoes allows customers to review their products on Facebook. Shoe customers can subsequently arrange the product list as desired. The Facebook user is sent to the linked store via a "Buy online"link.

Facebook is especially well suited for image galleries. Fashion store Mary & Paul demonstrate, albeit somewhat tentatively, what is possible. However, the fact is that, for fashion in particular, a Facebook shop window can be a way to reach potential customers. The appropriate images are provided by PIM using integrated Media Asset Management (MAM).

The Otto subsidiary Jungstil allows customers to select potential store products and displays them using (amateur) video content. This is more authentic in every way.

Jungstil goes even further: Customers have the opportunity to import "their" outfits onto Facebook. The photos are then commented on and reviewed by fashion journalists and bloggers. The winners receive prizes. Jungstil has thus created a direct channel to an unbelievably large community of fashion-loving customers. As far as some industry experts are concerned we could be looking at the "product managers of the future". There is a growing understanding that the female customer base in particular know which clothes they are going to be wearing in the coming summer.

Product data in social networks will thus be loaded with customer opinions and should be fed back into a Product Management System (PIM).This information then displays these allurements as soon as they can be used in other cross-medial sales and advertising materials. We are thinking along the lines of product fliers, mail outs or catalogs. These customer opinions also play an important role for product or category management in the selection of product lines.

This screen shows how customer reviews from Facebook are centrally stored in PIM.This top has an average rating of 5 stars, while the brand has 43,678 fans.




Direct customer opinions from the interactive web can be gathered and evaluated immediately. Which reviews and comments have been made by the target cluster-group, "German, 13-16 years old, female" can thus be precisely analyzed. In this way, product information management facilitates the segmentation of target groups in social commerce.

Today's customer is a hybrid. Evidence shows that he is using more channels to get information on products before a sale occurs. Multi-channel is therefore not just a fleeting trend but a compelling necessity. Experts also talk of so-called cross-channel marketing, which is used within a particular marketing channel to draw attention to further sales channels. For example, a mail order company will advertise its catalog via its website, and vice-verse. Or its store on Facebook.

With Youtube, Facebook, Buzz and Twitter, a further sales channel has arrived in the e-commerce world. With it the danger of data sharing, inefficient processing and inconsistent product communication is increasing. The call for a solution to put in place central product data management and central communication is being reinforced more strongly than ever. The Enterprise Product Information Management (PIM) system solves just this problem.

Undertake a 360-degree view mark on their product.

Not all businesses today create a passageway and transparent process in the Product Information Supply Chain. This starts with the data acquisition. In particular, the benefits of internal use in different areas is often underestimated. In sales, think and operate these companies and their product managers today often channel-specific. Both in the corporate organization as well as in daily activities.

The catalog department in marketing asks: How do I put my best articles in the print catalog? The e-commerce team, deals with how the display in the shop best conversion results? This, however, prevented successful multichannel commerce. For example, data is maintained for print catalogs, in an online search because of the lack of synonymous keywords but not found. This revenue potential will be wasted.
Successful Multi-channel trade and e-commerce need perfect product. Between data integration and the increasing number of different marketing and distribution channels, there is still much more. This is precisely where PIM 360° comes in.
PIM 360° begins with the integration of product information, including an organization's data management, and ends at the Multi Channel Trading - following the motto: Integrate - Manage - Sell.


What does PIM 360 exactly?

Data Integration: handler must also manage large amounts of data suppliers through professional workflow and through automated mechanisms can take in the assortment. Many suppliers provide product information in different formats. Whether CSV, Excel, Data Standards or BMEcat. Modern solutions can use these formats when importing in one step. PIM 360 but also ensured a deep ERP data integration. It is recommended to make product for master data leading from PIM system.


What is PIM 360 °?

Data Management: The topic Product Data Governance in the company is still often neglected. But therein lies a great business value. PIM 360 cares for absolute transparency and fast processes in the areas of purchasing, research & development, product management, logistics and finance. A distributed data storage multiplied with each new product results in data chaos. Be bad data quality to inefficient internal processes, but also to inaccurate analysis made on the inaccurate bases results in wrong decisions. PIM 360 makes sure that the correct information will end up with the right people and departments. Just for large, international companies who slumber here, there is enormous potential in terms of efficiency. Anyone who recognizes the resources in all departments, branches or subsidiaries by constant harmonization of different data silos or search effort can be bound to increase the productivity with 360 PIM in all areas.




Multi Channel Trading: In e-commerce PIM 360° means that Enterprise PIM systems can seamlessly operate the world's leading e-commerce solutions via standard interfaces: ATG, IBM and Intershop rank among the global players here. However, customized punchout catalogs or direct integration with e-procurement systems of large customers can also be served in this way.

Through the integration with a media asset management solution (MAM) is checked to the PIM, are placed in which advertising images. This helps to prevent the deletion of an image and video, is still used in other places. Are also various derivatives such as pictures in high or low resolution give the opportunity for print and online media automatically created, stored, and linked with the PIM.

In the sales, PIM 360 helps to sell more. In inside sales, field service or in the call center. As an internal information portal about all available products, it helps all sales staff make optimal use of up-and cross-selling potential. No more manual leafing through catalogs and price lists. The sales department always has the right offer at the hand at the right time. This increases customer loyalty, making retailers and manufacturers number one with their customers.


Consulting and Implementation: The panoramic view is also needed in the introduction of PIM solutions. A successful project methodology encompasses all facets of product data management: Not just sales, but data acquisition and data management too.

PIM stands for the complete 360° view of product information, from data migration and data management to multi-channel commerce.

Centralizes product information into one accurate system of record

Centralization of product information allows for multiple business units to access and maintain one true source of product data. This ensures consistency and accuracy across all channels and groups. Any changes that occur to this master product repository are instantly synchronized across the enterprise resulting in hassle-free communication between subsidiaries, groups, and customers. Businesses suffer from the pains of multiple databases due to both acquisitions and undefined ownership of data which often result in disaster when accommodating all consumers of product information. The PIM product master for global enterprises also offers strong internationalization and localization to support multiple languages, currencies, and unit-of-measures. PIM offers a seamless consolidation and cross-channel synchronization of product information while still maintaining ERP connectivity upholding other business processes and simplifying global operations. 

Improve quality of product information

In addition to a single repository, PIM enables the managing and maintenance of perfect data. Validation rules and logical quality checks allow data to be maintained at the highest level starting from the acquisition of supplier data. Mechanisms also allow vendors to get involved in enhancing data quality. Users are then provided with advanced tools to eliminate redundant, incomplete, and stale data with additional building tools for complex relationships. Understanding the market and the data necessary to capitalize on it is crucial in setting up the PIM environment to maintain perfect data for the diverse targets of use.

Repurpose data - Increase reuse of existing product information

Complex product information limits a company’s ability to reach out to individual markets through multiple channels. By defining structures, relationships, various-level attributes, classifications, and more, PIM enable the repurposing of centralized data. This is a growing critical factor that improves the ability for products to reach new markets nationally or globally, and allows data to be fine-tuned for additional revenue. Businesses are exploring new venues and incorporating very customer-specific campaigns. Rather than maintaining multiple databases and instances of each product, PIM drives the ability to repurpose and reuse data from the central repository to meet channel requirements for maximum sales with minimal effort.

Increase speed and success of new product introductions and promotions

With the ability to repurpose data, companies can instantly publish information and introduce new products. Using improved vendor connectivity, a single repository model, and cross-channel synchronization, PIM users will exercise more frequent updates. This means reduced invoicing errors and out-of-stock orders, increased revenues from more current pricing, and additional sales from quick promoting campaigns such as over-stocked deals or special event items.

Workflow and Access

Workflow is paramount to Enterprise PIM. The maintenance of data requires that various groups of IT teams, marketing teams, product development teams and sales teams, including project and product managers, buyers and management, are given necessary access for central repository data governance. PIM has the flexibility to provide individual access levels of viewing and modifying information, and processing data through systemized user-group approval workflow processes. It is important to note that advanced PIM allows for cross-group workflow and not restricted to only components within PIM (ex: notifications, process kits, escalations). These built-in mechanisms are necessary in cutting data management costs, ensuring top quality data, and providing optimal connectivity among all divisions.

Improve sharing and visibility of product information

Customers and partners demand higher quality information and more efficient communication. With the combination of workflow, access, a central repository, and market tailored data, sharing data is a click away. Internally, PIM solves connectivity issues when coordinating cross-departmental projects. Furthermore, customer care and sales teams have access to the most complete product information in order to easily enable up-selling and cross-selling and provide quotes and documentation instantly. Externally, PIM can be integrated through electronic catalogs online or directly with customers to provide direct access to customer-specific sets of data or entire master catalogs. Customers tend to navigate towards those who present the best visibility of information quickly to encourage better decisions.

Scalable

A PIM platform will maintain complex and unlimited masses of data. PIM enhances wider enterprise capabilities, and therefore, do not have limits to the level of complexity and volume of data that can be maintained. PIM is designed to withstand the most rigorous environments and does not limit growth potential. Businesses today spend budgets on the ‘band-aid’ or ‘keep-up’ approach to IT while PIM remedies growing pains, improve efficiencies, and even fuels growth. Today, there is ample room for even the largest enterprises to push the limits of performance of an Enterprise PIM platform. This differentiates PIM from standard product databases since typical ERP or home-grown solutions will attempt to accommodate expansion whereas PIM will deliver growth.

Ability to increase product offerings and support special orders

PIM drives new best practices to increase product offerings and assortment coverage. Potential suppliers and their entire assortments are incorporated into the central PIM management system where interfaces ensure that all information is kept up-to-date. Special on-boarding functions are provided for this purpose. Special orders are usually processed with dummy numbers in the ERP system. These include free-text orders, which only contain data referring to individual purchase orders (for example, item descriptions or purchase order texts). If another order is placed for the same product, the supplier item number therefore cannot identify it in the ERP system, so the search in the supplier catalogs has to begin again from scratch. Non-catalog items also prevent companies from systematically evaluating special orders and adapting their core assortments accordingly. If customers repeatedly request non-catalog items, it would make sense to incorporate these into the core assortment as standard products. PIM features such as automatic SKU creation, extended catalog search, and ERP integration allows organization to capitalize from large margins in niche product orders. Special orders intended to maintain and enforce customer loyalty now turn into significant revenue initiatives due to PIM tools.

Support for any type of data

Managing unlimited amounts of product data also means supporting any type of data. Data exchange is crucial and those who support the varieties will gain significant advantage. Enterprise PIM offers multiple formats through all 3 stages of importing, maintenance, and export. Media asset management of images, videos, sounds, MSDS and regulatory documents, and more is necessary and being able to maintain multiple relationships between structured and unstructured data. Also, no standards exist when supplier deliver data and PIM’s on-boarding and mapping functions allow for supplier catalogs to merge seamlessly into the master repository. This is coupled also with data quality control validations. Similarly, exporting individual formats to meet channel-partner requirements is imperative. These capabilities are revolutionary in transforming the way businesses gain an edge in managing and communicating product information.

Better leverage product information for marketing campaigns and advertising

A powerful database, PIM provides the combination of increased product quality in marketing campaigns and true automation of processes. Online shoppers attach great importance to product presentation and accurate product information when browsing. Therefore, professional media asset management is fundamental to ensuring effective product communication in both print and electronic channels. Built-in design systems within PIM allow businesses to automate the design and generation of print catalogs, price booklets, email and print flyers, and brochures. They have realized reductions in cost and time but up to 80%. Businesses can capitalize on this opportunity by increasing the frequency of campaigns without equally increasing the work.

Synchronize data with various data pools and partners

Organizations often face instructions to comply with global networks and standards (GDSN, GTIN, UNSPSC) or to comply directly with the multitude of manufacturers and partners. These instructions can be established within the PIM platform and accommodated as easily and quickly as all other export channels.  

Flexible Architecture

PIM tools compliment ERP systems. By integration, PIM will act as the master product catalog and communicate to ERP system to support other business functions such as reporting and transactions. Furthermore, PIM will be the powering agent in leveraging product information for e-commerce and will have dramatic effects on revenues and profitability.  A sophisticated database has the flexible architecture will support all integrations and data models with minimal customization. Most functions can be performed by basic administrators not limited to IT specialists.