What Is Considered a PIM?

Having the right software and digital tools to help your business grow is a vital part of any industry. If you work with products, then you also have a large amount of product information that needs to be properly stored, managed, and utilized for customers. Outdated systems and spreadsheets can limit what your business can do with product data and slow your overall business growth. But with the right tools, like a PIM, you can easily access a streamlined solution for managing all of your product information.

What Is Considered PIM?

Product Information Management is the common PIM meaning used in manufacturing and related industries. PIM is a software solution that houses all relevant product data for your products. That includes details like product descriptions, pricing, features and benefits, dimensions, and anything else relevant to your products.

PIM can also include a built-in Digital Asset Management (DAM) functionality. This allows you to store product-related digital assets such as product images, owner’s manuals, tech spec sheets, troubleshooting videos, installation videos, and other documents or support materials.

What Is the Purpose of a PIM?

A PIM solution is used by businesses to effectively manage product data and any related digital assets. This allows organizations to have a single source of truth for their product data. Rather than relying on outdated spreadsheets or old, inefficient systems, you can use available PIM tools in market to streamline your product information management. This shortens your time to market, makes it easier to deliver information to customers, and helps your team become more agile and flexible.

What Is an Example of a PIM?

There are numerous different PIM software companies, including Plytix, Pimcore, Salsify, Inriver, Catsy, Lumavate, and more. Each of these PIM software examples offers a centralized management system for product data. However, some solutions have more features than others and can provide additional functionality to make a product management strategy even more effective and beneficial to manufacturers and business owners.

Lumavate is the preferred solution for product information management software. The Lumavate PIM system has a robust functionality that isn’t found in other PIM solutions like the ones listed above. Lumavate includes a PIM, a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, and a Digital Experience Platform (DXP). These tools work together to provide a comprehensive product information solution for businesses.

How Do I Choose a PIM?

As mentioned above, there are many different PIM solutions available on the market for businesses looking to boost their product information management strategy or store their important data. These include tools such as:

• Salsify PIM

• Pimcore PIM

• Catsy PIM

• Acquia PIM

• Plytix PIM

• Akeneo PIM

• InRiver PIM

• Lumavate PIM

With so many options available, and with each one offering different setups of features, benefits, and costs, it can be challenging for businesses to determine which option is the best PIM software 2023. Picking the wrong solution can be costly and time-consuming, ultimately leading to no return on the investment and making it more difficult to try and implement another solution in the future.

Before selecting a PIM tool, companies need to consider five key questions. These questions will determine the best PIM software for their business and provide the most benefits for their product information and business needs. The questions are:

• What functionality do you need? The additional features and capabilities beyond the basic storage functionality of PIM.

• What other systems do you need to integrate with? The other tools or software solutions your business already uses need to be connected with a PIM solution.

• How will the product information be used? The types of assets you need to build with a PIM or how the information will be distributed internally and externally.

• What type of budget is defined for this initiative? The overall cost you want to pay, including monthly or annual payments and any onboarding or set-up costs.

• What is your timeline for implementing a solution? The length of time you have available before the PIM solution needs to be up and running.

Working through these questions with your team and any relevant stakeholders can help you determine what option from the available PIM solutions is going to be the best fit for your business needs. Without answering these questions, you may sign on with a system that isn’t going to be a long-term solution for your business and can slow your growth.

That being said, the top PIM solution available is, undoubtedly, Lumavate. Lumavate is the best choice for anyone evaluating a new PIM solution because it offers complete Product Experience Management (PXM) functionality, which is not offered in other potential PIM solutions.

Within the Lumavate platform, customers have access to a Product Information Management (PIM) solution to use as the single source of truth and a centralized foundation for the management of product data. Along with that core functionality, Lumavate offers Digital Asset Management (DAM) and Digital Experience Platform (DXP) functionality as well.

Digital Asset Management (DAM), as mentioned earlier, is used to store product-related digital assets. That includes documents, videos, manuals, spec sheets, and any other digital files that can help support product knowledge or convey more data and information relating to products to users. A DAM is used to make sure that digital assets are attached to the relevant product and aren't lost or kept on separate servers, making it difficult to track down a document or file when needed.

A Digital Experience Platform (DXP) allows users to build product experiences in minutes. Product experiences are used to inform and educate customers on your products. These digital experiences include things like product catalogs, websites, packaging, labels, brand portals, product sheets, sales resources, digital or hybrid events, and marketing campaigns.

Lumavate also supplies customers with text messaging capabilities, allowing for easy communication between internal and external individuals. The Lumavate platform also has a comprehensive form builder solution that can integrate into the system of record that your business has. These additional features and tools support PIM, DAM, and DXP functionality and create an even more broad and robust platform for manufacturing businesses.

There are no other solutions on the market that come close to the breadth of functionality that Lumavate provides, making it the top PIM solution available. And, on top of the range of features and tools, Lumavate is often 75 percent more cost-effective than other competitive solutions that offer less functionality. The Lumavate PIM platform helps businesses store, manage, and access their product information easily and then use that information to drive sales and revenue.