When you have chosen a PIM-system that best suits your organization, the next step is to implement and integrate it into your organization. To do this successfully, you will need to pay attention to your business and processes regarding data management. In this blog, we will tell you what steps you need to take when integrating a PIM-system within your organization.
Seven steps of integrating a PIM-system
Integrating a PIM-system is sometimes a tricky process as it goes further than only a technical implementation. For the integration process of a PIM-system there are seven steps you need to follow:
- Draft an action plan: determine a vision and strategy for your PIM-system. Start with mapping your current situation: where is data stored now? What is your goal? With this in mind, you can work towards the desired situation.
- Process and organization: identify which product data is necessary for you to run your business and what teams are involved. Align all involved teams as process and organizational design are just as important as the PIM-system.
- Set up the system: make sure you know the functionalities of your PIM-system. Determine how the flow of your product data will take place and check whether you need the support of additional PIM functionalities, for example, a DAM module.
Need help with integrating a PIM-system? Make an appointment with our consultants. - Import your product data: migrate your existing data to your PIM-system. Depending on how your PIM-system is interfacing with other systems, you can do this either manually or automatically.
- Preparation before going live: perform multiple tests before publishing your data. Make sure synchronizations are working correctly, create work instructions for the users and train the PIM-users.
- Going live: collect, enrich and publish your product data to all relevant channels. Before publishing your data to a data pool, make sure your data is validated.
- Maintain: to ensure continuity, you will need to set up a team that will work with the PIM-system. Make sure this team consists of people who know the products and the corresponding data. Within most PIM-systems, you can assign roles and create organized workflows. We advise appointing a data manager. The data manager can coordinate data management within the organization.
Find an integration partner
Most organizations aim to finish the integration process as quick as possible. However, when you invest extra time in setting up your PIM-system correctly, all your processes will be up-and-running much faster in the end.
Integrating a PIM-system is sometimes a tricky process as it goes further than only a technical implementation. A PIM-system changes the way data is managed within the organization. This means internal processes need to be re-designed. An integration partner can support you through the entire integration process. A good integration partner will not only address technical issues but also provides support in the design of new processes.