MOVING FROM DEVELOPING TO PRACTISING
DEVELOPING
You have a PIM solution implemented and it is likely owned by one singular team. There is work to do to get more teams across the organisation and senior stakeholders understanding its value and to adopt the tool more effectively. The idea is to remove manual processes at this stage that could be better added into workflows or tasks.
You are not creating many varied versions for different channels, only your own D2C and the distribution of this content to further channels such as retail is mostly manual and done outside of PIM, or via another system, which is taking longer to get product to reach the digital shelf.
People – With various teams engaged with the tools but still a lack of executive sponsorship and equal levels of expertise across region, brand or organisational group. Look into building collaborative case studies to present to senior stakeholders and increase interest. If resources are fully internal and proving inefficient, demonstrate the benefits of outsourcing resource to support the data input, management and governance of data, and gain budget approval from stakeholders.
Process - Some teams are working similarly, but it’s ad hoc and not yet part of a regular workflow. Aim to standardize processes and establish workflows to replace remaining manual steps. Identify product content-related tasks (like approvals or changes) happening outside PIM / PXM and streamline them within the tool for operational efficiency.
"Managing the full product data lifecycle—from creation to enrichment, validation, and syndication—is key to success with PIM. A comprehensive end-to-end process ensures that data is always accurate, up-to-date, and ready for distribution across all touchpoints, increasing operational efficiency and customer satisfaction."
— Practical eCommerce, How to Structure Your PIM for End-to-End Success
Technology – You have now selected a PIM / PXM vendor and are implementing it or have an existing PIM you want to expand into PXM for broader content use. When implementing aim to input quality content that is as complete as possible by ensuring that from the outset it is organised well and is "clean". The creation of data governance, hierarchies and taxonomy rules will assist with this. It's critical to have effective scalable methods for content input (consider more automated connections from your above channels sources e.g., ERP or DAM).
