Make product processes more efficient with PIM

What is your company's product process like?

The product process of companies can be diverse and can involve a variety of things that cause a lot of work. Product processes differ very much depending on whether the company manufactures its own products or acts as a reseller of the products. In any case, the goal is the fastest possible time-to-market. Product processes usually involve a lot of manual work, which increases the possibility of human error. Manual work steps are also often slower than automated ones, which also slows down time-to-market. The slowest steps are usually importing images to products and writing the actual product descriptions. A modern PIM system can be used to improve product information management and reduce errors.

Product creation

The process of setting up a product can vary a lot depending on the company. A product information management system can bring a lot of speed to product creation. The trend is strongly in the direction that the product life cycle begins in PIM, as creating a product there is remarkably fast and easy. PIM can also define the product rules required by ERP so that the product can be easily transferred to the ERP system as well. Suppliers can also be involved in PIM, so they too can offer products and product information directly to their resellers. Then PIM already has many options from which the company can pick the right products for it. Thus, PIM can act as a “product lobby” that filters products going to other systems, keeping its own product base as intact as possible.

Product enrichment

Product enrichment can be a multi-step process involving many different things. The biggest challenges related to enrichment are usually the image process and writing long product descriptions. The image process is usually manual, although it can be easily automated. Modern PIM systems have many options for automating this process. When logic is created in PIM, it saves huge resources on other work. The naming convention for images should be carefully thought out to get the most out of automation. With the right logic, you can even import your own images for products and items, so you can also get the right images for the variants at once. With the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, help can be sought in writing product descriptions of products, so that texts can be honed to be even better and more sellable. However, writing product descriptions is still mainly manual, but with PIM it is easier to maintain different language versions for different markets, for example.

Product ready for sale

Up-to-date and versatile product information enhances the customer experience. When the products start to have all the information required to sell them, it is advisable to check everything once more before exporting them into the sales channels. But it should by no means be done manually. Here you should take advantage of the features of PIM and product readiness rules. They mean different things that a product must have before it can end up in the public, for example, in an online store for customers to see. Once the readiness rules have been carefully thought through, they an excellent tool for monitoring the quality of product information. You can monitor the process of product enrichment and respond to potential bottlenecks. Each channel and product group can have its own readiness rules according to which the products progress. This can significantly reduce manual work and streamline the publishing process.

Measure and continuously develop your processes

The whole product process is a smooth workflow that should be defined in detail in the PIM project and to suit each company. In it, the right tasks and roles are closely compatible with each other and at the same time also to clarify the company's internal roles. The goal is to make the workflow in the system uncomplicated, logical and partly automated. It is possible to significantly increase the level of automation with a carefully planned workflow, which reduces human errors, reduces manual work, speeds up time-to-market and, in general, significantly increases transparency in the product process and is also measurable. Where a product process needs to be measured, it can also be continuously developed. Efficient product management processes are often also reflected in an improved service experience for customers.