PIM Selection Services

Your customer’s experience with your website is only as good as the data behind it. 

All the beautiful user experience design will be for nothing if buyers are not able to find what they want. This is a big deal for smaller collections. But when there are millions of SKUs how do you manage it all?

A Product Information Management (PIM) system connects your internal and external product data sources to your various digital sales and marketing channels. Choosing the right PIM system is a critical decision because it will help you get your product data right and—just as important—keep it right. 

What We Do

• Gather High Level Project Requirements
• Customize Evaluation Criteria based on Client Needs
• Identify a short-list of PIM software vendors based on defined criteria
• Setup and Facilitate Demos with PIM software Vendors
• Complete Scoring, Compile Scorecard Results and Make a Final Recommendation

How We Do It

Assess Readiness

Whether you are looking to replace an existing PIM system that is no longer meeting your needs or moving to formal PIM software for the first time, it is going to be a big deal – in terms of time, money, and people. Where does this initiative fit into the overall digital strategy? Is there budget allocated to the project? These questions and more need to be asked and answered prior to diving into the PIM software selection process. If this discussion hasn’t already taken place within the organization this will be our first step. Read about our 8 step process for PIM readiness.

Gather High Level Project Requirements

Once ready to go, we start talking to people who are close to the project to understand what is important to them. What goals do they want to meet in the future? How do they envision the new PIM system will help? The number of people we interview will vary depending on the size and complexity of the organization. We’re specialists in working with large complex systems, so you can be sure we will engage with exactly the right people.

Customize High Level Criteria Based on Client Needs

This won’t be our first rodeo. So, we’ll come in with a comprehensive set of templates with questions, both quantitative and qualitative, to ask each vendor. However, we will take time during the project to ensure that the questions and weighting reflect what you need from a PIM software solution. We want this process to end with an easy and obvious choice for you to make.

Identify a Short List of PIM Vendors Based on Defined Criteria

There are upwards of 50 different PIM software vendors to choose from. Based on our experience, most of those will be quickly discarded knowing that they will not meet your most important needs. This will narrow the field to something closer to 10. Within a couple weeks of starting the project we’ll be down to the 5 or so who we will invite to demo their PIM solutions for you.

Setup and Facilitate Demos With Vendors

We do the ‘cat herding’ to get the right people on the calls to view the vendor demos and pitches. We facilitate the demos, too, to serve as your advocate and make sure that your needs are understood, and your concerns are heard.

Complete Scoring, Compile Scorecard Results and Make a Final Recommendation

We take everything we heard from you, all the information provided by the vendors and run it through our scoring system. Then, we produce an easy to understand scorecard that will result in a top one or two candidates that best meet your needs.

What You Get

The length of this project will generally run between 4 and 6 weeks, depending on the size of your team and the number of PIM software solutions that are evaluated. At the end of the process you'll get some tangible deliverables that will enable you to make a decision about something that is likely to be a significant investment in time and money. You want to get the decision right. We can help you get there.

These are the decision tools we will provide you with:

• Requirements Traceability Matrix
• PIM Software Evaluation Results (Scorecards)
• Selections Recommendations
• Executive Readout and Investment Summary

When is Getting Help With PIM Vendor Selection the Right Move?

Consider these questions. If you answer yes to 3 out of 4, you are ready to move to up to a PIM or upgrade your existing system.

• Do you have a lot of products in your catalog (10's of thousands and up) with complex relationships?
• Do want or need to centralize your data for every sales channel?
• Do you struggle to control the quality of your data (duplicate control, completeness)?
• Are you currently managing product information across multiple spreadsheets?

Why Choose EIS

Our PIM experts are the best in the business working with large scale B2B and B2C clients. Our experience with many different systems allows us to help you choose the best PIM software solution, without bias, to advance your business and technical goals.

We're excited to work with you and provide you with:

• an objective, external perspective.
• a fully streamlined process from requirements through vendor evaluation.
• a trusted partner who will be there with you for your entire PIM journey.

Additional Resources

Blog: How to pick the right PIM software for your ecommerce business

Blog: 8 steps to PIM readiness—Are you prepared to make the jump?