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Investing in product information management directly affects both the company’s competitiveness and the efficiency of internal processes. At the heart of success is a management model that takes product information management into account as part of the company’s strategy and authorizes the loss of responsibility through clear processes. Product information management is managed with an open and long-term approach.

Product information management is not an IT project. It is a strategic choice, and requires leadership, implementation, and patience to succeed. What are the biggest pitfalls of product information management and how can they be avoided?

“Implementing product information management is a change process. The process usually starts where the pain is greatest, that is, where data management is at a concrete level. However, the change cannot be confined to one unit but must cover the entire company with its different levels. It requires a change in practices, but in particular, it requires the ability to lead change. The change must be led in the long run” says Minna Andersson, Canter’s Head of Sales and Marketing.

When a company’s mission is to create more impressive product experiences, it also materializes for the end user – through the implementation of organized product information management.

The importance of product information plays a major role in the customer’s purchase decision. As many as 76% of the respondents to the “Product Information Management in Finland in 2021” survey conducted by Canter and the research office Vastakaiku considered the importance of product information and product contents to be highly important for the customer’s purchase decision.

“Easy access to information also affects the customer’s place of purchase. Product information enriches content, creates new marketing opportunities and thus makes the company stand out from the competition,” says Panu Erola, Vastakaiku’s strategic research consultant.

Change is an opportunity for leadership

Permanent change requires long-term leadership. Good management is a prerequisite for success in the implementation and systematic use of product information management.

“As the process progresses, a wide variety of emotions arise. It can be a major crisis for a professional who manages an organization’s knowledge, a place of inadequacy for another, and a growth experience that inspires professional enthusiasm for a third. The awakened emotional states of all must be recognized and taken into account, as change requires mental endurance and encouragement. Only then can the organisation’s joint development in product information management continue,”Andersson explains.

Challenges posed by Covid19

Respondents to the Product Information Management in Finland survey estimate that sales of digital channels will double in the coming years. The biggest growth was in e-commerce, digital services, applications, websites and social media.

“Corona put the companies in the middle of a new situation. One had to learn to act quickly in a way that was only a goal for some companies within a few years. Dare to step into a new norm paid off. Online trading and virtual events became part of the everyday life of companies,” lists Katariina Tenhunen, CEO of Vastakaiku.

57% of companies with product information management in use experienced improved competitiveness during the pandemic, while only 33% of those without product information management felt that their competitiveness had improved. 84% of respondents consider centralized product information management to be a critical factor for future success.

The pitfalls of Product Information Management

Product information management must be based on a strategic understanding of what is to be done and what is to be changed. If the overall picture is not stopped, development becomes challenging and easily drifts into sub-optimization.

Another major stumbling block is the lack of understanding and support.

“There may be people within a company who are willing to drive change, but without the support of business management, the enthusiasm of those cannot be harnessed and implemented for others. Lack of support also automatically affects resourcing. When an issue is not seen as significant at the management level, it is also not allocated working hours or a budget,” says Andersson.

It is never too late to wake up to the current situation and strive for change in product information management.

Organizational attitude and understanding

Nothing comes by commanding or waiting. But with leadership.

Many of the respondents to the survey pointed out that their own desire to invest in the product information management process was dampened because other staff did not see the issue as important. When the overall picture is not clear, it is not possible to detect its far-reaching nature either. This, in turn, only makes the moment standing and tempos about doing. It is especially important to focus on what is being developed and with what mentality.

“Product information management should be at the heart of the business and have peace to develop. Perseverance and thematic advancement create the foundation on which to develop a strong future,” says Andersson.

How to influence the attitudes in the company and create commitment?

In a company where information is power, the introduction of product information management can cause its own challenges and a sense of being threatened by some individuals. Then it is paramount to communicate what is happening and why, how product information management helps everyone – including those responsible for information – and how many positive things it can bring to everyone’s job description as information sharing becomes open and transparent.

“An employee can get more pleasant and extensive work tasks when time is freed up from copying and reviewing information to other things. People are involved in change when they know how they can benefit from it,” says Andersson.

Excerpt from the Product Information Management in Finland 2021 survey

“how has the competitiveness of your company changed in the market with the corona pandemic? 1 – very much weakened, 5 – very much improved

Top left: (companies with) PIM in use
Left center: (companies with) PIM not in use
Lower left: All respondents“

Dialogue and transparency

The product information management process requires a two-way dialogue from the organization; horizontal and vertical, but also transparency towards customers and partners.

“It is essential for product information managers to make their own work visible in the organization and to be able to communicate openly upwards so that management stays on the map and knows how critical it is,” says Patrik Palatz, CEO of Canter.

Organization and responsibilities

If the division of responsibilities for product information management is unclear, it will inevitably pose challenges.

The absence of a person in charge of product information management in one’s own unit can also lead to a detached and decentralized understanding, in which case the entire organization suffers from sprinkled information and its management.

“Everything starts with business and organizational DNA. What kind of management system does the company have? It’s not worth bringing too different a new way to everyday life that goes against an organization’s normal corporate culture,” Palatz explains.

Who or what team is responsible for data and knowledge capital development, who is responsible for information and content themselves? Data ownership can be decentralized, different sections can be responsible for different content. However, so that everyone has a role to play and everyone is communicated transparently within the organization.

“When responsibilities are shared in an organization in an organized way, things work,” Canter CEO Palatz continues.

It is important to remember that it is not just a project but bringing product information management into the organization is a strategic choice. It has to be kept in mind all the time.

In what role can the person in charge be responsible for product information management? In some companies, the responsibility lies in marketing, in others at the IT end.

“The key is to find those executives who are committed to the knowledge capital development project and architectural development. However, strategic development plays a key role, so the dissemination of information through key personnel should take place for everyone, everywhere,” Palatz explains.

Operating models and processes

When a company invests in product information management and knowledge capital development, it begins to show in everything it does. The information is better up-to-date and comprehensively displayed and the information is available to all departments. The system supports doing and and doing business.

Clear operating models and processes support the management of product information management and ensure consistency in everyday life. Agreed operating models play a big role.

“The product information management process is teamwork. Management openness and the systematic advancement of the matter with the support of team leaders, as well as general communication bring results over time. The understanding of goal setting and the message cannot be outsourced to the recipient of the message, therefore the clearest possible communication and open atmosphere support the process in the best way,”Palatz concludes.

At its best, product information management creates a lot of opportunities for a company. As customer needs grow and they increasingly demand information service in addition to purchasing behavior, product information management is an essential tool for maintaining and growing the customer base.

“Product information management creates competitive advantage and differentiation from competitors,” Palatz sums up.

5 tips for the Product Information Management process

Product information management must be managed: commitment comes from leadership.
Involve the entire ecosystem from the start – documentation saves time and effort.
Product information management requires a lot of resources at first, but over time it makes life easier and eliminates unnecessary duplication.
Everything is done with the customer in mind.
One thing at a time: not everything can be done right away, it is an ongoing process.

The text is based on the Product Information Management webinar held on March 25, 2021, which you can watch here (in Finnish). The topic of the webinar is Managing Product Information Management – typical stumbling blocks and avoiding them. The webinar will also cover the Product Information Management in Finland research conducted by Canter’s experts and the research agency Vastakaiku Oy. The main goal of the study was to map what is the current state of product information management, challenges, significance for the company’s competitiveness and what product information management will give the company in the future.

The respondents were mainly professionals and experts working in product information management who have to look at the issue from a management perspective. The study obtained an even distribution of companies of different sizes from different industries.

Tips for localizing product sales

2.9.2020/in Blog/by Canter

Global competition is getting tougher by the day and many companies have no choice but to enter the race to succeed. In this blog I cover a few concrete steps to localize product sales for different markets.

Challenges in multilingual product marketing

During my career, I have worked in a few companies operating in international markets in marketing and sales digitisation positions. I could start by sharing my own experiences with typical pain points related to product sales localization.

When I started my career, it was quite typical that salespeople took a huge amount of time to hunt for product information from different sources when preparing quotations for their customers. The basic product information was maybe found on the website or brochure, but the technical specifications had to be asked from product development, the technical fit was checked from the data sheet, the images were searched from marketing and the prices were asked from the supervisor. In addition, there were huge differences in country-specific access to information. For example, in a country where the R&D department was, there was much more information available than in those where only sales offices existed. A lot of valuable sales time was wasted looking for product information.

In marketing, managing translations was hopeless. I remember how translation excels were sent to each country, and one could never be sure which part of the data was translated and where the translations were lacking.

Multi-channel content management in general was challenging. The information had to be manually updated on each sales channel, and since updates to different channels were handled by different people, you could never be sure whether the website had the same information as brochures and quotations.

My current job, I have noticed that many companies are still struggling with these same challenges, and the overall management is not made any easier by the fact that the pace of change is accelerating all the time. Information is changing, more channels are emerging, more languages are taken into use, local requirements and regulations are changing all the time. But you have to keep up in order to stay in the race.

Fortunately for me, at some point I was able to get acquainted with centralized product information management, i.e. the PIM system, which functioned as an internal product information bank. There, translations could be managed centrally, and from there, the information was automatically updated to all the sales channels where the information was needed.

Centralized product information management PIM is an in-house collaboration platform that gathers information from where it can be found, enriches it and organizes it to better meet customer needs, and automatically publishes it to serve customers through various sales channels. Once the information is exported to the PIM system, it is automatically displayed correctly in all online services, applications, stores, and materials.

Localization of product sales in practice

Below is a picture of the PIM user interface. There are several ways to import data to be localized into the PIM system:

Translations can be done directly in the user interface
Translatinos can be uploaded to PIM from excel
Translations can be imported from other systems or databases

If needed, PIM can also be used together with external translation services:

You can fetch translations directly from PIM UI as machine translations, either from free, open services or from a translation partner.
Translations can also be fetched from the translation partner’s translation service, which is based on the company’s own term bank
PIM can be integrated into the translation partner’s customer portal, from which even more demanding translation work can be ordered directly to PIM

In PIM, it is easy to view versions of product information in different languages side by side. At the same time, you can monitor the enrichment rate of mandatory content. What information is found and what is missing.

Missing data can be filtered into different table views. In the figure below, for example, the products of a specific product manager that lack marketing texts in Finnish and English are filtered. This makes it easy for that product manager to fill in the missing information.

Similarly, the PIM system can control country-specific differences. For example, the Key Flag is needed in the Finnish market, and the Swedish market may have its own regulations or legal requirements.

Product Sales Localization – An Advanced Example

Finally, one practical example from Central Europe, from a paint manufacturer whose products are sold in many different countries. As is well known, paints are products with different regulatory requirements in different countries. Therefore, it is important that all country-specific product information is always correct wherever it is displayed. The label of a tin sold in Germany must have certain symbols and in England others are required.

This paint manufacturer has a centralized product information management system, from which information is published to every label, marketing material and price list, and there is always a certainty that the information is correct and up to date.

This company has taken the use of data to the next level. They make customer-specific materials using centrally managed data. The catalogues for consumers and professionals are different. Contract customers’ catalogues only have their own products. Even labels are made partly on a customer-by-customer basis. All this is possible when product information and its localisations are centrally managed.

Recommendation index NPS 79

12.6.2020/in News/by Canter

Our annual NPS survey has been conducted and once again, thanks to our lovely customers, we received a very high willingness to recommend Canter! Both our NPS values and the number of respondents increased from last year.

2018 – NPS 79

2019 – NPS 77

2020 – NPS 79

In an NPS measurement, the customer is asked how likely you would recommend Canter to your acquaintance or colleague on a scale of one to ten. The calculation of the NPS number adds the promoters who gave 9-10 and subtracts from this number the dtractors who gave 0-6. Most of our customers are clear promoters and no detractors were found.

Our NPS rating is clearly higher than the industry average, as you can read in this article, for example.

Here are a few free comments on the study:

Personnel is very professional and knowledgeable. Attitude is wonderful and positive. Customer-driven product development.

Very good experience for many years of the PIM tool you have provided.

It has always been fast and good service. The problems have been resolved quickly. The customer’s needs are taken into account in the development work.

Always get help and suggestions quickly and the service is very friendly.

E-Commerce

28.4.2020/in /by Aura Suviranta

Verkkokauppaa on kehuttu varsinkin siitä että, siellä on helppo antaa tuotteesta mahdollisimman paljon infoa, kuvia, ohjeita ja käyttövinkkejä kuin kivijalassa. Mikä sitten avuksi kun halutaan lisää myyntiä?

35% lisää liikevaihtoa lisämyynnillä.

Muistatko kun menit kivijalkaan ja hyvä myyjä myi haluamasi tuotteen lisäksi lisätarvikkeet mukaan? Lähdit kaupasta mukanasi tuotteet mitä et edes tiennyt tarvitsevasi.

Suurimmassa osassa verkkokauppoja tehdään ristiinmyyntiä ja lisämyynti on unohtunut kokonaan. Esimerkki: Olet juuri löytänyt itsellesi elektroniikkaliikkeestä itsellesi täydellisesti sopivan 50″ television. Haluat asentaa sen kuitenkin seinälle, etkä paketissa mukana tulevalle pöytäjalustalle. Kumpi vaihtoehto mielestäsi lisää asiakkaan ostohalukkuutta:

Ristiinmyynti: Verkkokauppa näyttää että muut asiakkaat ostivat tehosekoittimen saman tuotteen kanssa.
Lisämyynti: Verkkokauppa näyttää viisi vaihtoehtoa erilaisista seinätelineistä, jotka sopivat juuri sinun televisioosi.

Amazon tekee lisämyynnin avulla 35% enemmän myyntiä suosittelemalla asiakkailleen relevantteja tuotteeseen liittyviä tuotteita (lähde McKinsey). Toinen merkittävä lisämyyntiin vaikuttava asia ovat tuotekombinaatiot, joiden avulla tuotteet myydään kokonaisuutena. (Luvut ennen Covid 19 aikaa).

Lisämyynnin on todettu nostavan asiakastyytyväisyyttä, kertaostoksen kokonaissummaa ja parantavan selkeästi katetta.

Rakenna verkkokauppa asiakkaasi ympärille.

Verkkokauppa = paikka josta voi ostaa tuotteita tai palveluja itsenäisesti 24/7.
Jotta verkkokaupasta voi ostaa itsenäisesti, on sisältöjen oltava laadukasta, ihan kuin paras myyjä olisi kertomassa tuotteesta ja suosittelemassa oikeaa ratkaisua jokaiselle asiakkaalle.
Ostamiseen ja ostopäätökseen liittyy vahvasti lisämyynti, jolla suositellaan tuotteeseen liittyviä tuotteita joista asiakkaalle on oikeasti hyötyä. Tuotteita jotka liittyvät oikeasti ostettavan tuotteeseen.

Personoitu asiakaskokemus on avain menestyvään verkkokauppaan.

Postin tutkimuksen mukaan nettihankintoja tehneet suomalaiset pitävät tarkkoja tuotekuvauksia ja kuvia (93 %) verkkokaupan olennaisimpana ominaisuutena. “Monipuoliset tuotetiedot ja -kuvat alkavatkin olla verkossa toimiville kauppiaille välttämätön menestymisen edellytys.” (lähde Postin verkkokauppatutkimus)

Tilanne on haastava. 80% yrityksistä uskoo tarjoavansa erinomaista asiakaskokemusta kuitenkin ainoastaan 8% asiakkaista on kuitenkin samaa mieltä. (Lähde Bain & Company)

Mikä sitten on ongelma? Miksi se on niin vaikeaa?

Unohdamme usein verkkokauppojen käyttäjinä, että verkkokaupoissa on usein kymmeniä tuhansia ,tai jopa satoja tuhansia tuotteita joihin kaikkiin liittyy paljon erilaisia tietoja, kuvia, videoita ja lisätarvikkeita. Kaikkien tuotteiden hallinta vaatii resursseja ja manuaalista työtä, siksi verkkokaupan taustalla on oltava järjestelmä joka mahdollistaa lisämyynnin ja tuotekombinaatioiden hallitsemisen ja tekemisen kustannustehokkaasti.

Ratkaisu on olemassa.

Tuotetiedonhallinta, eli PIM (Product Information Management) on keskitetty ”hubi” jossa hallitaan kaikkea tuotteisiin liittyvää tietoa ja aineistoa. Sieltä tuotetiedot päivittyvät automaattisesti verkkokauppaan sekä muihin myyntikanaviin.

Yllä olevasta kuvasta on havaittavissa että PIM järjestelmällä ei tehdä ainoastaan lisämyyntiä ja tuotekombinaatioita, sillä hyödynnetään kaikkea tuotteisiin liittyvää dataa.
Datan avulla verkkokauppa monipuolistuu. Tuotteiden löytäminen on nopeaa ja varmaa, laajojen filtteröintiominaisuuksien, sekä Adeona PIM järjestelmässä vakiona tuleva Elasticsearch hakukone mahdollistaa nopeiden, ehdottavien hakujen toteuttamisen käytännössä mihin tahansa verkkopalveluun.
Hyvin mietitty tuotetietomalli mahdollistaa tuotetiedon esittämisen niin, että asiakas löytää helpommin juuri hänelle tärkeän tiedon, esimerkiksi mitan. Ja tämän tiedon avulla voi myös suodattaa kaikki omiin tarpeisiin soveltuvat tuotteet.

Miksi verkkokauppa-alusta ei riitä?

Mieti skenaariota jossa täytät jättimäistä exceliä, mutta et voi hyödyntää Excelin automatiikkaa. Joudut tekemään manuaalisesti kaiken, eikä sinulla ole mahdollista nähdä kokonaiskuvaa työn etenemisestä.
Verkkokauppa-alustoissa ei ole työkaluja, joiden avulla pystyt hallinnoimaan systemaattisesti tuhansien tuotteiden valikoimaa. PIM järjestelmällä seuraat työn etenemisestä, rikastusasteita, puutteita sekä saat käyttöösi muita hyödyllisiä työkaluja jotta työ on sujuvaa ja selkeää.

Lisämyynnin tekeminen verkkokaupassa vaatii ihmistä tekemään linkityksiä tuotteesta toiseen. Muutamien tuotteiden linkkaaminen toisiinsa on mahdollista, mutta usein tuotteita ja eri variaatioita tuotteista on tuhansia. Tämän takia taustalla on oltava PIM järjestelmä jonka avulla linkitystyö on nopeaa.

Bundlet eli tuotekombinaatiot. Toisiinsa liittyvät tuotteet voidaan niputtaa yhdeksi kokonaisuudeksi, jolloin asiakas löytää toisiinsa sopivat tuotteet helposti ja usein myös edulllisemmin. Ilman PIM järjestelmää tuotekombinaatioiden tekeminen ja ylläpitäminen on todella haastavaa.

Ristiinmyynti perustuu dataan jota saadaan kerättyä automaattisesti verkkokaupassa asiakkaiden tehdessä ostoksia. Tämä ominaisuus on usein vakiona verkkokauppa-alustoissa, mutta se aiheuttaa myös ongelmia / haasteita sen suhteen ettei asiakas löydä helposti esim. puhelimeen sopivia suojakuoria tai kuulokkeita. Asiakkaalle suositellaan jotain mitä muut asiakkaat ostivat. Joku asiakas saattaa tilaa tehosekoittimen puhelimen kanssa ja toinen tietokoneen, olet kuitenkin itse etsimässä halpaa liittymää tai panssarilasia, joten sinulle esitetty data ei auta tekemään ostopäätöstä. Päinvastoin.

PIMin avulla myyt enemmän kaikkialla.

Mitä jos haluat laajentaa tuotteiden myyntiä esim. Amazoniin tai haluat hyödyntää jälleenmyyjiesi verkkokauppoja? Kun yrityksellänne on PIM järjestelmä, sitä pystytään hyödyntämään tulevaisuudessa kaikessa myynnissä. PIM järjestelmästä saadaan vietyä kaikki tuotetieto automaattisesti eri myyntikanaviin ja järjestelmiin.
Kansainvälisen kaupankäynnin perusedellytys on käydä kauppaa paikallisella kielellä, kieliversiot ja niiden hallinta tehdään luonnollisesti keskitetysti PIM järjestelmässä, hyödyntäen esim. käännösautomatiikkaa järjestelmän sisällä.

PIM järjestelmä on monikanavaisen myynnin ja hyvän asiakaskokemuksen perusedellytys.

Tuotetiedonhallinnan kaupallisia hyötyjä

The commercial benefits of Product Information Management

11.2.2020/in /by Aura Suviranta

Worforce is the company’s most expensive resource, but also one of its greatest potentials.
In 2020, we will live in a time where artificial intelligence and digitality in general have helped us for so long that we do not always remember its existence.
However, there is far too little use of technology in traditional jobs that a machine could do faster, more accurately and more productively.

Aku Varamäki writes in the Future Proof workbook (2019) as follows:

“Technology frees up employee time for important and meaningful work tasks. At Telia, employees have been able to report tedious routines related to their own work, and now software robotics helps customer service representatives perform many tasks, such as contracts or reports, while the customer service representative focuses on the most valuable job, namely customer service. Software robotics has brought the company annual savings of five million euros, but most of all, it has eliminated uninteresting routines. “

Think about how much more can be achieved by leveraging technology in the right way. Utilizing technology and efficiency does not mean that someone gets fired or jobs are cut. Automation streamlines work, which increases efficiency which in turn enables business growth that creates more work and jobs.

Technology to aid sales and marketing

At Canter, we are able to do the same for your company’s sales and marketing as what happened to Telia’s customer service. With Adeona Sales Tool’s publishing automation, basic sales and marketing tasks can be speeded up and even eliminated. This leaves time for those important and meaningful tasks.

Customer and employee experience

Today, customer experience is the company’s most important competitive advantage and something that stands out. It is difficult for a product or service to gain a competitive advantage, which is why every company needs to focus on the customer experience. With a personal and personalized customer experience, it is possible for a company to succeed. When a company’s sales and marketing are able to take into account the needs of different customers and serve accordingly, the customer base is easily widened.

Employees have a desire to develop and develop their own ways of working. Who wants to do tedious, routine, and simple work tasks year after year? Tasks whose process can be made more efficient with the help of modern technology so that a week’s work can be done in a day or a two-hour task can be done in three minutes.

For the employee, the meaning of the work rises to a new level and everyone enjoys it when they get to do that real and meaningful job. It’s not just about making work more efficient and the company’s savings, it’s about taking the company’s most important resource into account – the relevance of the work to the individual.

The development of many successful companies has stalled once it has reached the point that it is doing well and customers and orders are coming in comfortably. At this point, it is imagined that there is such a foothold that it is not necessary to develop operations according to customer needs. Can companies really afford to wait for a competitor to appear? Customers should always be offered their best, and not only when it is noticed that competitors are doing things better.

The roles of sales and marketing have changed and change will be required of them even more in the future.

Even if your company makes the world’s finest products and is the hottest brand in the industry, it doesn’t change the fact that retailers don’t sell all of your products.

Retailers have different customers who all have their own needs. Of the 5,000 products, a single retailer will sell 5% of your products. The same is done by another dealer. These two retailers have completely different products in their selections. Do you provide them with the same 620 page PDF product catalog or do you personalize your own product portfolio for them? If you can’t serve two different resellers according to their needs, what do you do when your company has 500 resellers all with their own needs?

Situations like this are a fact. In a perfect world, retailers would keep the entire product repertoire in their selections, however, the retailer selects the products according to the needs and requirements of his customers. Sales have changed so that power has shifted from the seller to the buyer, the customer. The change in sales requires a renewal of sales and marketing, emphasizing the benefits and advantages brought by technology. With the help of our Adeona Sales Tool software, the tedious, slow and routine tasks of sales and marketing with various offers, price lists, catalogs, brochures, etc. are completely changed.

So what does marketing do when you no longer have to fumble and make 24/7 different sales materials? The focus and added value of marketing can no longer be the making of catalogs and brochures. Marketing focuses on what it should be, getting new leads, and the famous big picture, branding the company, and enabling sales.

What happens to sales? The sales focus is then more clearly on the customer. Creating the best possible customer experience, focusing on serving the customer in an individual way. The best thing about our software is that anyone can make the materials the customer needs at the touch of a few buttons. For example, field sales in the customer interface are able to make customer-specific materials themselves according to the customer’s needs, within minutes of the customer visit.

This is basic stuff, say many, but unfortunately only a few manufacturers or wholesalers are able to serve their customers this way.

Skaalautuva, monipuolinen tuotetiedonhallinta

Versatile and scalable product information management

14.1.2020/in Blog, Blog, Blog/by Janne Costiander

Just over a year ago, at the end of October 2018, we released a new generation version of the Adeona PIM product information management system. The first year with the new product generation has been encouraging and has further increased the belief that we are on the right track. Here I describe a bit what has been done in the background and what has happened during the first year.

Better user experience and cloud-ready technology

A few years ago, we made a big decision. We wanted to significantly innovate the Adeona PIM product, both technically and in terms of user experience. After various reflections, we came to the conclusion that we wanted to renew the product by practically completely re-creating it. We had a few different reasons for this:

better user experience and fully browser-based interface
flexible, cloud-ready technology that enables technical scalability, different delivery models and easy upgradeability
technologies that are comfortable and efficient to work with and that help attract the best talent to work for us
making things faster: how to create new features faster and deliver them to customers

API and performance design background

Right from the start of designing the new version, it was clear to us that the product would be built strongly on API thinking. API means a programming interface through which, for example, different applications can transfer data. In our product, we would use an equally well-documented public API, whether it was “our use” (e.g. conversation between the user interface and the server) or the use of the API e.g. by a customer or even an e-commerce partner. Right from the first version, this idea has been liked, and we’ve received a lot of positive feedback from the interface documentation, as well as the clarity and ease of use of the API. Our API is a REST API where data is passed using JSON messages.

Right from the start of designing the new version, it was clear to us that the product would be built strongly on API thinking. Another design-guiding principle was to maximize system performance, even with large product volumes.

Another design-guiding principle was to maximize system performance, even with large product volumes. There are a lot of PIM products in the world, or the like, that work well for maintaining a few hundred products, e.g. in the background of e-commerce. Our customers often have tens or even hundreds of thousands of product items, so we want to support much larger product volumes and still allow for a good user experience and great performance. Several of our technology choices support this, but solutions have also been made in the system architecture in this regard.

We use both a traditional relational database (PostgreSQL) and a strongly index-based search engine (Elasticsearch) in the background of the system, which take advantage of their best aspects. The relational database helps e.g. ensuring data integrity and search engine for fast searches and fast streaming of data, e.g., integrations. Our PIM architecture has logic that indexes changes to the relational database to the search engine in near real time. The user interface, on the other hand, has invested in flexible and easy-to-use Excel-based export and import features.

Delivery model according to customer needs

Our customers are of all sizes and operate in different industries. Some of our customers want all of their systems in their own (or their partner’s) data center. On the other hand, more and more people want their system as an operating service. For these reasons, we want to be as flexible as possible with the delivery of the system and support different models.

In the background, we have commercialized system delivery, regardless of whether our customers want the system from us as a service (SaaS) or for their own environment. The productisation uses container technology (Docker), which allows the technical environment to be standardized and, on the other hand, easy and flexible upgradability to be supported. In addition to the use of containers, we have also productized e.g. automatic verification of system information to an off-site cloud service (Google Cloud Storage), regardless of where the system otherwise runs.

We have commercialized system delivery, regardless of whether our customers want the system from us as a service (SaaS) or for their own environment.

With the new product version, more and more of our customers want their PIM system from us with the SaaS model. In this case, we are responsible for the entire system and the customer only uses it and utilizes the system data, for example via the API.

Continuous updates easily and quickly

One of our goals for the new product generation was to enable quick and easy upgrades as well as faster development of new features. Life with the new product generation has started nicely and since the first official version release (10/2018) we have made a total of 12 version releases, i.e. about one every month. These updates have included about 500 new features or improvements.

Each new version release has been available to each of our customers approximately one week after the release. Upgrading is quick and easy. The Adeona PIM interface has a “PIM News” feature where our experts write tips on new features and how to use them.

It is also important to us that the components behind the system are updated. In this way, we avoid collecting so-called technical debt and in the coming years we would have to make huge upgrades. Adeona PIM utilizes numerous open source libraries and application components. Many of them are updated and evolve rapidly, and we make sure that we are not left behind.

Development together with our customers

The Adeona Community user community, which consists of our customers, is actively involved in the development of Adeona PIM. In 2019, we organized two workshops where, together with our customers, we designed new features and prioritized features that are already in development. By 2020, we hope our community will continue to grow and receive even more valuable feedback for product development. Come and join us!

Canter

Product Information Management (PIM): who is this suitable for?

20.12.2019/in Blog/by Patrik Palatz

The market for PIM software and consulting services has been strongly growing for many years worldwide. Researchers expect growth to continue. For example, Mark Smith, the Ventana Research supervisor, claims that by 2021, 50 percent of product organizations will use a modern, dedicated PIM environment to control product processes and to offer high-quality product experiences.

The popularity of commercial PIM software has been growing for a long time, also here in Finland. We have been helping our Finnish customers in Canter with product information challenges and developing our Adeona software with them for over 15 years. We’ve learned a lot on this journey – also when PIM fits in and when it doesn’t. We have also learned that every organization and its situation is unique, so there is no single truth. Here are a few points of view and my thoughts on why you should at least think of these so that you can use them.

Product information is more important than ever…

Implementing an impressive multi-channel customer and product experience that stands out in a constantly changing operating environment has no longer been a trivial task. This challenge affects particularly commercial operators and the consumer business, where cycles are short and consumer preferences are constantly changing. Manufacturers and brands compete for customer favor and for the money by using, among others, visibility, by launching new, improved products that match consumer trends, and by using new business models (the recent generalization of direct-to-consumer concepts is one example of this). Managing a solid brand and the product experience for manufacturers and brand owners is, at the same time, challenging and important.

Numerous studies tell that an accurate and inclusive product information when shopping online is one of the most critical aspects of the shopping experience.

Retailers and chain stores, in turn, compete for the same customers’ favor with their own strategies and strengths. As online shopping has grown more and more, stores have had to innovate their operating models and develop forms of purchase that meet the needs of their own customer target groups to be able to compete well. Numerous studies show that accurate and inclusive product information when shopping online is one of the most critical aspects of the shopping experience. Effective management and transmission of product information in these equations is key. In addition to their own systems, information must be made available to trading partners, either directly or by transmitting sectoral data banks.

…also, in business to business and internally

Investments in digitalization projects are also rapidly growing in many B2B industries both here in Finland and worldwide. New service concepts, ease-of-use, advanced e-commerce, expansion into new markets, and process automation that extends organizational boundaries, are examples of development targets. Companies aspire to create value, engage customers, and stand out from their competitors using these tools. From the perspective of PIM, in the B2B field, there are additions such as the management of customer-specific selections and pricing. In my experience, efficient production of print and other product communications (catalogs, price lists, offers, documents, etc.), both generally and customer-specifically, is still typically an important part of the sales and customer service toolbox.

However, when we aim for the top-notch customer experience, we sometimes -and unfortunately- forget the perfect employee experience. Why should your own staff settle for any worse user experience when running back-office tasks than the final customers experience in an organization? Or why wouldn’t the seller have the most inclusive information resources available in a service situation because customers know more about products than ever before? The more the members of an organization are able to walk in the client’s shoes and use all available information in an easy and quick way to perform their tasks and serve the customer, the more likely they are to have a positive impact on both employee and customer experience.

Why is the question relevant right now?

PIM systems aim to help with the trends and challenges described above. In my opinion, there are three things that make this question particularly interesting and topical:

Modern, scalable cloud-based solutions have made PIM software platforms available to businesses of all sizes at a reasonable price. What is a quite understandable and a demand-driven consequence when considering how universal the problem we are discussing is.
Businesses have come up with new uses for PIM systems. With them you can address the challenges of efficiently processing and integrating highly structured and unstructured information. On the other hand, this is reflected in the broader concept of the product, which has spread the use of PIM to industries and scenarios where it has not been used before. And on the other hand, PIM has replaced certain processes and use cases that were previously the responsibility of other systems in many companies.
Many things in the digital world rely on high quality data and semantic information. Whether it is the development and usability of information-intensive digital services or the automation of different processes or the teaching of algorithms, high-quality and solid data is invariably needed in the background.

What problem does PIM solve?

The PIM system is designed to act as a central stock for product information, simplifying the process of managing and enriching product information, and speeding up the release and synchronization of high-quality, up-to-date information into different channels.

The main functions of the PIM system could be roughly divided into three parts:

Data flow management: how to import product information from other data sources in a controlled manner, and how to transfer data to other systems and channels in a controlled manner so that different systems understand and interpret the information correctly and do not need to enter the same information in two places.
Organizing and enriching information: how information imported from different sources and manually maintained is classified and organized by selection, product type and product group. How products are categorized, linked, turned over and narrated into compelling content, solutions and packages generating additional sales for sales and marketing, as well as for different customer groups, market sectors and contexts.
Channeling and publishing information: how categories and products are directed to the right selections, how the right information goes to the right channel and target audience in a controlled and timely manner, and how various commercial materials, campaigns and electronic catalogs are created from products and selections thanks to automation.

Why should perfect product information only be available for customers? Your own salesperson is likely to have better results when they have inclusive product information available in a service situation.

Who is PIM suitable for?

PIM can be for your business if some of the following apply to your case:

In general

products are marketed and sold in many channels
there are at least hundreds of products in your product range
impressive product information plays a key role in your business
product information is needed to get organized
the goal is streamlined PIM and its transmission
the goal is to manage, harmonize and make transparent the quality of product information
the goal is to optimize and automate content processes

Product information and selections

there is a need to manage different products and information related to them. In addition to a physical product, the product may be a service, a recipe, an apartment, a software, material, training, a reference, etc.
there is a need to manage different commercial product structures such as product families, assortments, collections, product sets, etc.
there is a need to control the links and relationships between products (e.g. spare parts, accessories, replacements, up-sell, cross-sell, etc.)
files management (pictures, videos, documents, etc.)
there is a need to manage sortiments and sales catalogs
there is a need to localize product information: managing content in multiple languages, and managing country/market-specific information and product versions (e.g. currencies, voltage, units)
there is a need to monitor the stage of preparation and enrichment levels
there is a need to make mass changes to data
there is a need to define and grant different levels of access rights to information
there is a need to benefit from taxonomies and standards when managing product information

Architecture and integration

product information needs to be easily and safely communicated both internally and externally
there is a need to get from one part of the truth of product information to one truth across the organization
existing systems do not bend or are not worth bending

– managing rich and multilingual product information

– modern goal architecture

existing background modes should not be integrated into foreground systems and electronic services
there is a need to open up a modern data interface for product information for application developers

Who is PIM not suitable for?

PIM doesn’t necessarily have to be for your business if some of the following apply to your case:

our company only sells in one channel (successfully)
our company doesn’t do marketing or sell at all through the internet
our company is small and in its early stages
the product range is small
product information is managed in one language only
you don’t have to regularly communicate product information with your partners
products are so simple that they do not require inclusive information or management of commercial structures to present and sell them
the whole business works well enough with existing systems and Excel

Does one size fit all?

It is self-evident that there are differences in software. The strengths of one platform may be focused on certain capabilities and those of another platform can be focused on others. There are also differences in the operating and delivery models of service providers. Some platforms are quickly deployed as cloud computing services through supervised introduction, while others require more boost from their organization, for example, to operate technical infrastructure and systems. Therefore, when choosing a system and a partner, it is important to start with your own (business) needs and to start with at least a current mindset of analysis.

When choosing a PIM system, user experience should be a key selection criterion. It is essentially much easier for people to get interested in incorporating their work into a system that is easy to use.

I believe the importance of user experience can never be overemphasized because, at least in my experience, it usually has a direct impact on the successful implementation and adaptation of the new procedure and system among end users. New generation software usually has an intuitive user interface designed specifically for people responsible for products and their sales and marketing. Many basic use cases are also often commoditized as features. At the other end of the line segment, there are platforms in the true sense of the word that begin to define data modeling and processes at a very low level and may require technical qualification and code knowledge. This means that you can comfortably find the supply for different needs and preferences.

PIM is not an IT project, but a strategic choice

Taking a more holistic view of commercial PIM, the matter is, of course, about a broader set of tools and technologies that are connected to the company’s strategy, organization, management and processes, just like any other function or competence. And accordingly, no three-letter abbreviation is a silver bullet for all the challenges. Each company must face problems like scarce resources, so they look for process efficiency and future critical capabilities in all operation sectors. The most common business benefits (that companies seek through PIM) are better customer experience, increased gross margin of sales, faster time-to-market, expansion to new markets, and intensifying teams and operations.

Contact us if you got interested or if you wish to talk more about this topic from your company’s point of view. I will gladly have a conversation about these topics.

Product information and its management by seven C principles

23.5.2019/in Blog/by Canter

Product information and its management is much more than just product related parameters. Product information is a very broad concept and can contain anything that makes it easier for the customer to buy and use the product. Product information includes videos as well as instructions for use. Product Information Management is not rocket science, but when managed well, it can produce significant results.

C for Canter. I have collected here seven C’s describing the seven important things that enable successful product information management.

Collect

To be able to manage the product information required by the customer, it must first be gathered in one central location. Generally, this centralized location is a so-called PIM, or Product Information Management system. Typically, product information can be found in a variety of Excel charts, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and other systems, supplier websites, web servers, printed catalogs, price lists, etc. With modern interfaces and integration tools, product data collection into a Product Information Management system can be highly automated.

Connect

An essential part of Product Information Management is the management of product information flow in the company’s IT infrastructure between different systems. Therefore, product information management should always start by looking at this entity. The first thing to look into is where the product information is and where it should be. Next, phase is to consider what is the optimal way to collect information, how to enrich it for customer needs, and how to publish it to all the channels where customers need it.

Collaborate

Many different people are involved in product information management. Collaboration between different people and making the collaboration more productive, are some of the key themes in Product Information Management. Product Information Management ensures that once a particular content provider has entered content into the correct system, that content is instantly available to all people and channels that need it. The roles and responsibilities are defined together at the beginning in the specification phase of Product Information Management implementation.

Content

Quality over quantity is certainly true in Product Information Management. Everything starts with the question of what product content does our customer need? Deepening the thinking to the next level and thinking about what content a customer needs at different stages of his purchasing journey is also wise. Customer’s attention is awakened with completely different content (eg, a research result that underlines the customer’s need) than when supporting the purchase decision (eg product’s technical performance) or product use (eg maintenance instructions).

Product information management should therefore take into account the customer’s purchasing journey as one dimension when classifying product information. In addition, you should definitely invest in the quality and quality management of your product content.

Commerce

Business is based on commerce and the ultimate goal of product Information Management is to sell more products. Removing the barriers to purchase will increase sales. An online store where products can be found easily with versatile filters and it is easy to compare them, provides a good platform for buying. This kind of online store needs well-managed product information, whose parameters have been thought to support the customer’s needs.

Another aspect of trading is speed – how quickly new products are ready for sale in sales channels. When the Product Information Management process is designed in such a way that updating data to one place makes it automatically visible in all the sales channels, it is easy for the customer to buy products as soon as they are in stock.

Channels

Product information is needed in surprisingly many channels. Over the years, product catalogues and price lists have been complemented with a huge number of other channels, such as various online services, newsletters, price tags, packaging labels, product cards, promotions, store displays and product advertisements.

Each channel has its own purpose, and this is reflected in the required product information. On the shelf edge label, the price of the product may be in the lead and the most viewed information. On the website the most important information may be the product picture gallery. Although different information are being published for different channels, they should still be centrally managed and just filtered per channel. This will save a huge amount of duplicate work and ensure a consistent product experience for the customer between different channels.

Customers

The seventh C, to which the list ends, is the Customer in its own right. Product information management is done for the customers. At the product development and manufacturing stage, the company may have PDM and PLM systems in place to manage products more from an internal process perspective. The PIM Product Information Management system is there for the SKUs of these ERP, PDM, and PLM systems to be transformed into content-rich, customer-friendly products that are easy to buy.

Conclusion

With Product Information Management, existing product information is gathered and enriched to serve the customer’s needs in all shopping channels. Product Information Management brings together all the related people, background systems and sales channels to ensure that the customer is always served with the right product content. Product Information Management increases sales and is above all good customer service.

Artificial intelligence, PIM and online stores

23.1.2019/in /by Aura Suviranta

When a system works independently without the help of a human and applies the information it has gathered to guide its own activities, we talk about artificial intelligence. There are also other definitions for artificial intelligence, but the previous sentence works as a suitable down to earth expression. There are numerous ways of using artificial intelligence. Self-driving robot cars or automatically generated propaganda videos are not directly related to Product Information Management (PIM), but instead an analysis of e-commerce traffic and product recommendations would benefit almost all our customers.

An online store can thus collect information about which products, product information or videos its visitors have viewed. The information can be combined with a customer profile and purchase history. By combining information, opportunities for additional sales can be found.

Example: A person responsible for product information management may think that a webshop visitor who has purchased a chainsaw also wants to buy a safety helmet. But when the e-commerce data is collected, it may appear that more often a buyer of a chainsaw also buys a small ax. Thus, when artificial intelligence advises an ax to a chainsaw buyer, additional sales opportunity that could not be detected by human resources is automatically utilized.

Similarly, along the path to purchase (= the customer journey from rising awareness to becoming a product owner) it would be beneficial to be able to communicate to the customer exactly the way they want at each touchpoint. At its simplest, one could show a product video instead of a product image on an online store product page or one could highlight the technical features of a product instead of a milieu image.

The design and implementation of such variable content and providing it to different online store user groups has traditionally been laborious and required not only human resources but also interviewing, identifying and categorizing clients. It has been necessary to manually combine this information with sales figures and customer data.

Thanks to artificial intelligence, no work days are needed for data collection. Instead, the artificial intelligence software is harnessed to collect and organize data. It selects relevant product recommendations for each visitor and shows them in the online store. At present, artificial intelligence is mostly used by large players, but it is becoming easier and cheaper to deploy this kind of solutions. That’s why you should keep artificial intelligence in mind when setting up an online store.