How to Successfully Implement Your Product Data Management

Taking care of your product data is like taking care of your own garden: if you do not take proper care of it, then you cannot see any growth. According to the market research company Gartner, companies lose more than 14 million US dollars each year due to poor or incomplete data.

This is a reason for getting a comprehensive overview of your own product data management. In this article, we show what exactly product data management is and how important it is for you and the growth of your company. With a few tips and the right tools we support you in the proper organization of your product data and show you how to meet the increased demands of your customers.

What is Product Data Management?

Product data management allows you to capture, manage and provide important data for your products. Using various software, you manage all process-related information and product data in a central system. The information includes CAD data, models, parts information, manufacturing instructions, requirements, notes or documents. In addition, with product data management, you can provide company-wide information about all data important for the product lifecycle and their genesis process. This helps you implement methods and rules as part of operational coordination and information systems.

What is Product Data?

But before you get to the organization of your data, we'll show you again in detail exactly what product data can be. Specifically, this includes all incurred data or documents from automated or manual processes. It also includes all information that describes a product in more detail. This could be the appearance, functions, or texture of the product.

Further specific examples of product data include the following:

• CAD Data: 2D drawings, 3D models
• Office Data: Text documents or tables
• Project Data: Information about the product or customer
• Assets such as images or videos
• Manufacturer's specifications
• Supplier's specifications
• Product descriptions, such as weight or dimensions

Why do you need Product Data Management?

It doesn't matter whether your company is an industrial manufacturer, an electronics dealer, or a fashion boutique – data is important for every sector. And companies need a lot of it in order to work efficiently internally and externally. In order to meet the demand for high-quality data, you should rely on a system that records your data accurately and completely.

By using software, you can within product data management:

• maximize the quality of product development
• minimize time and costs in product development
• reduce errors, such as in production of wrong versioning
• allow traceability, e.g. by logging processes
• automate processes
• centralize and consolidate product data

Implement Product Data Management Correctly with these Tips

We have summarized the most important tips for you to be really successful in product data management. They provide you with a basis for more growth and success of your data.

Monitor your data flow

To get the data flowing in the first place, you should use suitable software, which can also be connected to other systems. We show you which ones are suitable in the lower part of the article. Once this basis is in place, regularly check the data. If your goal, for example, is to create a unified customer experience to advance your trade, then you should be able to respond quickly to changing and complex datasets, processes, and requirements.

Use your data in a familiar environment

Both internal and external data is growing at an incredible speed. It's a big challenge to have to manage it across independent systems. A small change in one place can mean that the data is no longer synchronized with each other and their processing suddenly becomes a larger effort for you. Here too, make sure you choose a system that meets your requirements and whose multi-domain capabilities will support you in product data management. A good system, which you can work with and that advances your product data, can also differentiate you from the competition in the long term.

Connect your data management systems

Internal data management and external content provision are separate disciplines that are often located in different parts of a company. By linking these two areas, you can keep an overview of your entire information inventory in order to deliver a powerful experience that drives your business. By combining them, you can manage information quickly and seamlessly, thus bringing together different areas of your company. Centralized management of your data also helps you manage the assignment of roles, rules, and rights centrally, thereby making your product data management more error-free.

Keep marketing plans in mind

Even though you manage your data in a central system, you should not lose sight of the plans of other departments. For example, in your product data, also record information such as trends and keywords that your customers are searching for. The marketing department, in particular, focuses on this data, which you can directly include and support.

Time is Money

In a fast-paced time, there is a great expectation that new products will be brought to market as quickly as possible. With the growing selection, the demands of your customers also grow. It is therefore even more important to have a smooth, efficient and error-free process in product data management. Even the smallest errors can cost you important sales. Thus, an accelerated time-to-market becomes more and more of a key success factor for you and your company.

Translate your data

If you work in an internationally oriented company, then you should also translate your product information e.g. into different languages and currencies. Here too, with efficient and correct translations, you support the various departments and company locations.

These Tools Support You in Product Data Management

As already mentioned in the tips, the basis of your product data management is a central system with which you can manage your data across departments. On our software review platform OMR Reviews you will find in the category Product Information Management (PIM) appropriate tools that support you in product data management. A PIM imports your internal and external data sources into a platform, on which you can check your data for completeness and correctness based on specified rules. One of the more than 20 PIM software is Syndigo, which we would like to introduce to you in more detail now:

SYNDIGO

As an Active Content Engine, Syndigo supports the continuous flow of data and content across the entire commerce ecosystem, thus accelerating information so users can increase their profits. The software serves a total of more than 50,000 global users within more than 12,000 global brands and manufacturers. Syndigo is a market leader in master data management, product information, digital assets, content syndication and analysis in many key industries, including food, foodservice, hardlines, home improvement/DIY, oil & gas, pet, health and beauty, automotive, apparel and health products.

Further Tools for Product Data Management

On our software review platform you will find other PIM software that supports you in product data management. For a deeper look, read the experience reports of our users on the following additional tools:

• Pimcore
• Contentserv
• Syndigo
• Akeneo
• Plytix
• inriver
• Kontainer
• e.bootis-ERPII
• 4ALLPORTAL

Conclusion: How to successfully position yourself with Product Data Management

Data is everywhere and important for every department. A PIM helps you keep track of all data and important processes or procedures for you and your colleagues. In addition to that, in product data management, work with multiple teams in a central system and as error-free and efficient as possible. Use our tips for effective product management to meet the fast-paced and growing demands of your customers.

In further parts of our series on product management, we will show you exactly how you as manufacturers or retailers can use the information from your product data management and thus promote your company in the rapidly growing e-commerce environment.