Vision:
- Remember that PIM platform selection is an important decision but PIM readiness is equally important.
- Beyond software costs and choosing a systems integrator, remember to focus on employee buy-in and change management to make this implementation successful in the long run.
- Get started. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to roil the globe, digital capability is crucial.
- Share the long term vision & objectives with your teams before jumping into the weeds.
Planning:
- Include business stakeholders and BUs at the earliest stages of your PIM investigation; it will help with adoption.
- Secure a team of PIM Champions from each BU.
- Create a PIM “walk-about” informational deck to help tell the PIM story to your organization (contact us to see a model!).
- Create Enterprise Rules/Governance for the PIM.
- Include the notion of performance measurement on day one of PIM activities.
Resources:
- Assume that the PIM project owner might not be your long-term PIM owner.
- Assume any non-dedicated project resource will not always “make time” for the PIM project; they have day jobs that take precedence.
- Remember that the PIM is a part of the Marketing Technology Stack. Use that framing with your marketing team.
Training:
- Train marketers on the necessary data logistics. Just because they work with the data daily does not mean they are fully informed.
- Take the time to understand where and how the product data is going to be used. Pay attention to gaps between old and new processes, workflows and process mappings.
- Encourage the core PIM team to provide a definition for all product attributes they want in the PIM.
- Coach all PIM core teams on how to build a data plan, execute and budget for their data strategies.
- Assume that your existing data rules to manage product information will change.
- Think about the output objectives (website, catalog, app, etc) of each of the attributes you create in the PIM.
- Testing is key as you begin ingesting data from your BU’s into the PIM. It’s most likely the very first time this data has “lived” together.
- Remember that all BUs may not work from the Master Data model. Certain sets of fields can be BU/Region/country/category-specific.
Make sure it goes right
Contact us for 30 minutes of free consulting. We will go through the checklist to help make sure you have everything in place for a successful implementation.
