Learn how a Product Information Management system (PIM) can support complex B2B eCommerce activity, working with your ERP and eCommerce system to multiply the effectiveness and efficiency of your whole eCommerce operation.
Businesses use ERP systems to manage everyday business processes including accounting, inventory, supply chain operations, distribution, project management, human resources, customer relationship management, general communication, and collaboration—all with a single view of data across the enterprise.
A Product Information Management system (PIM) is a specialized tool designed to support complex B2B eCommerce activity, working with your ERP and eCommerce system to multiply the effectiveness and efficiency of your whole eCommerce operation.
A PIM system handles and automates the updates, volume, and complexity of modern-day B2B product data more effectively than an ERP, while also providing a range of functions that make an eCommerce manager’s role so much more productive.
One can be forgiven for assuming that an ERP should be able to handle all the product data you would need to run an online web store. In reality, that is not the design function of an ERP—and in an online environment, the data is the product. While it’s true that for smaller volume/limited eCommerce operations, one can run an online operation using an ERP plus an eCommerce system alone, using a PIM lets you supercharge the combined effects of both systems. A PIM empowers sales and marketing operations teams with levels of depth in their product data that an ERP can only dream of providing.
A PIM helps organize product-related information for the purpose of marketing and sales, helping ensure that everything is accurate, appropriate, consistent, and complete. While this may not be so difficult if you have 100 products, the complexity increases exponentially for 1000,10,000, or 1 million plus products—especially when you add in multiple channels, multiple geographies/languages, and regular, specific pricing updates.
This content might include items like product specifications, product use case descriptions, catalogue numbers used by different manufacturers for the same product, product lifecycle information, technical specifications, digital assets and rich media like video, product metadata, and information collected from internal or external sources that could also support a sale.
A PIM platform offers organizations features designed to automate repetitive tasks, streamline processes, and validate work—including checking for data gaps and reporting anomalies. The aim of a PIM is to help provide accurate data from the best source while moving that from the manufacturer, through the distributor, and finally to the best prospect in the form of a clear, effective product webpage.
Maybe the best way to understand how your eCommerce system works with a PIM and your ERP is to compare their respective benefits:
| ERP Automation - Boosts Operations | PIM Automation - Boosts Sales and Marketing |
| Productivity and efficiency gains | Decreases time-to-market |
| Fast accurate reporting (accounts and operational) | Boosts omnichannel commerce |
| Reduces costs | Reduces costs |
| Deeper insights (past, current and forecast) | Improves conversion and average order value (through detailed and appealing descriptions) |
| Better communication (internal focus) | Better communication (external focus) |
A PIM system takes in product information from an ERP system (and several other systems), then enriches it to make it effective for marketing and sales. In contrast, an ERP system offers benefits largely in operations. When an ERP and a PIM system work together, they offer efficient, complementary benefits for your business.
For manufacturers who use multiple channels to reach their target market, as well as tiered distribution, and/or their own eCommerce platform (in addition to distributor web shops), the product data can be seamlessly parcelled out to the appropriate spot. In addition, if a company maintains data in multiple languages, the task of selecting and deploying the proper language becomes much more straightforward.
The use of a PIM also allows interdepartmental collaboration. A revision change created by an employee from the engineering department can easily be noted and added to the proper data files by a member of the engineering group. A packaging or shipping-related change can be inserted by the operations group. And the marketing department can quickly add new SEO terms to the data without interfering with the work of others.
So, to turn the heat up on your online sales and marketing activity, get the data out of your ERP and into a PIM. Add a dash or two of enriched information, combine the two systems for maximum results, and serve hot to your customers and prospects through the right channels.
Long known as a leader in the digitalization of industrial business and one of the pioneers in the use of PIM systems in their own work, KYKLO by Epicor is offering a PIM system that towers above the rest. Here are some reasons why KYKLO by Epicor can make a difference for your business:
KYKLO has real-world experience with the types of products sold by manufacturers in electrical, industrial, automation, fluid power, and related spaces. The features built into the KYKLO PIM system are designed specifically for your environment.
KYKLO has successfully tested their PIM solution to manage a library of seven million SKUs, each containing enhanced data, SEO-based properties, pictures, product revisions, and shipping weights. This surpasses the needs of even the largest manufacturer.
When a manufacturer purchases the KYKLO PIM system, they receive not only a world-class Product Information Management tool but also the entire library of products KYKLO has developed for their product offering. This makes additional enhancements easy for the manufacturer and creates a proven competitive advantage for the company.
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