6 daily tasks in erp which become a lot easier with a pim system

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6 daily tasks in ERP which become a lot easier

with a PIM system- This is how you make ERP easier with PIM

26 daily tasks in ERP which become a lot easier with a PIM system

Content

03 Meet the product manager, John, and Lisa from marketing

04 1. Creating a new product entry

06 2. Update and modify the product information

08 3. Preparing new products for sales

10 4. Use data from the ERP on other channels (output)

12 5. Printing out data from the ERP

14 6. Finding product information in the ERP

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Meet the product manager, John, and Lisa from marketing

John and Lisa work in a wholesale company that supplies the food industry with machines and equipment for maintenance. Let’s call them Acme Inc.

John and Lisa each have their own way of working with product data, and part of that data lies in the company’s ERP system. At Acme Inc. they are happy with their ERP solution, but handling product data is not always as easy as they might like.

In this e-book, we’ll go through 6 scenarios from John and Lisa’s work day at Acme Inc. and look at how they could do their jobs faster and better if they had a PIM system for product information integrated into their ERP system.

1.Creating a new product entry



The new product line is different from the rest of Acme’s products since it also contains a number of cleaning products which have environmental labels. That type of information has not previously been relevant for the rest of Acme’s products, but it is necessary to include it in the registered product information in the ERP system in order to sell them.

Since the current ERP system does not contain an input field for environmental labels, John will first have to create one. In order to change the system, he needs to get a hold of Acme’s ERP consultant and getting the new products into the system is therefore delayed.

1. Creating a new product entry

Acme Inc. Is about to launch a new product line for the dairy sector and therefore the products need to be entered into the ERP system.

John has two options: Either he can import the data via an excel file, or else he can enter the product into the system manually. Since he is dealing with a whole product line, John chooses to import the product information.

WITH PIM If Acme Inc. had a PIM system, John would instead have uploaded all product information into the PIM system. Since the PIM system is not limited by pre-defined input fields, it is possible to get all the product specifications in without a hassle and the environmental label would just be another thing to easily put in. The ERP system should only contain transactional data, and John can now ensure that it does, since he can keep the environmental label out of the ERP system and let it remain in PIM.

Now that John has all the relevant product informa-tion registered, he can quickly proceed with getting the new product line ready to be marketed together with Lisa.

ADVANTAGES: • Saves time when making new product entries • No need to adapt the ERP system• The product can be entered and made ready in

PIM before they are moved to the ERP system (onboarding)

2.Update and modify the product information



Acme Inc. has the certifications saved in a database but have not previously had to enter them into the ERP system. John must therefore start updating every single product with the relevant certification. Since we are talking about a line of products with a large amount of variations it is very time-consuming to update them all and there is also the risk that he will not update all the information correctly.

2. Update and modify the product information

Some time after the new product line for the dairy sector is launched, it turns out that there is a need to edit the product information. New legal requirements demand that one is able to prove that the manufacturers of certain machines are certified according to a series of international standards.

WITH PIMIf Acme Inc. had a PIM system, John would have been able to do the same job by simply updating a single field in the PIM system.

By registering the relevant certification on a general product level, the PIM system automatically makes sure that the information is passed down to all the sub-levels of the product. The new information can be synchronized automatically with the ERP system so that Acme Inc. can be sure that they are compliant with the regulations when describing the new prod-ucts to their customers.

ADVANTAGES: • Saves time when updating or adding information

to products.• Removes the risk of making mistakes when hav-

ing to change a lot of different data fields in the ERP system.

3.Preparing new products for sales



It’s important to be able to market the full line of spare parts, but in reality, it is doubtful that Acme Inc. is going to sell every single product since a large part of them are niche products.

It is therefore not optimal to have them all take up space in the ERP system, but just in case, John sees no other recourse than to enter them all into the system.

Acme Inc. has acquired a new product line that John has high expectations for. It is a large line of spare parts, and to make it possible for Acme Inc. to market the new products, John enters them all into the ERP system.

WITH PIMWhat John really needs is a ‘sand box’ where he can place his new products and work with them without impacting the ERP system before there are buyers for them.

He would have had that with a PIM system. Whi-le the ERP system is based on transactional data that cannot be deleted and therefore takes up space, it is possible to quickly change and/or de-lete data in a PIM system. The PIM system is a better option for readying products for sale, and John can give Lisa from marketing the opportu-nity to market the new products based on all the relevant data, even though they are not yet ente-red into the ERP system.

When the individual products or product groups are ready to be sold, they can easily be transfer-red to the ERP system.

ADVANTAGES: • Time-to-market is significantly decreased• The ERP system is not cluttered with irrele-

vant data

3. Preparing new products for sales

4.Use data from the ERP on other channels (output)



It’s time consuming work, and at the same time, Lisa knows from experience that there will be more work in main-taining the product information online. Acme Inc. has previously experienced issues with two sets of data when the product information on the website was not updated concurrently with changes done to the data in the ERP. Since Acme Inc. sells to several different markets, Lisa has to maintain the information in 5 languages which only makes the update process even more cumbersome.

4. Use data from the ERP on other channels (output)

Now it’s time to market the new product line to the dairy sector, and Lisa from marketing is about to put the products on Acme’s website.

Besides the raw data from the ERP system, Lisa also needs pictures, product descrip-tions and PDF data sheets to download for the individual products. These are spread across various databases and excel sheets, so Lisa’s first task is to gather all the product information and convert it into formats that she can use in Acme’s CMS.

WITH PIMIf Lisa had a PIM system that was integrated with Acme’s CMS, the job would look very different. A PIM system can handle all file formats, so if Lisa had the opportunity to work with product information in a PIM system, it would have been easy for her to select the information that she wanted to publish on the website and simply click “Publish to web.”

The continual maintenance work would also be completed much faster, since by changing the information in one place she could let it carry over to all pages where this information was used – and in all languages.

ADVANTAGES• Simpler and faster publication of data on the website, e-commerce platform, in catalogues, etc.• No issues with double data and obsolete product information

5.Printing out data from the ERP



The customer would like a data sheet that contains a technical description and a couple of pictures, and the-refore the salesperson needs Lisa’s help in creating the offer.

The next day, he calls again. He needs almost exactly the same information, but this time for a new client with a different price agreement and a couple of extra pro-ducts. Lisa therefore has to edit the material in the offer again so that it matches what the new customer needs.

5. Printing out data from the ERP

Lisa from marketing once again has one of the company’s sales staff on the phone. He needs to send an offer to a client, but he is not satisfied with the price list that he can print out from the ERP system.

WITH PIMOne of the great advantages of a PIM system is the opportunity to very quickly print out or make PDFs that are customized for the recipient. Instead of calling Lisa, the salesperson now simply selects what template in the PIM system he wants to use and what product information to include. The PIM system makes it possible, through live bulletins in the ERP system, to take into account differentiated prices in an easy man-ner and therefore he can quickly update the offer sent to the customer.

ADVANTAGES• The option to use ERP data in advanced for-

mats for print outs• Better sales offers than competitors• Customer-specific price lists and brochures

6.Finding product information in the ERP



The type of filter used is not registered as a feature in the ERP system, and John can therefore not perform a quick search in order to get an overview. Instead, he has to go through Acme’s product database and a number of excel sheets where the components of the machines are registered.

The next challenge arises when Acme acquires a new type of filter to replace the one with the reported issues. Now, Lisa from marketing has to start manually changing the information on the filter in all the places where it is mentioned on the website.

6. Finding product information in the ERP

Two customers have complained about problems with a certain filter in one of Acme Inc.’s products. John needs to get an overview of how many of Acme’s machines use this specific filter in order to let the customers know that there may be issues with it.

WITH PIMIf John had a PIM system, he would have all the product information readily available and he would have had the opportunity to do a quick search for the problematic filter type and get an overview of all the products that contained it.

The opportunity to perform a search and the overview it gives also means that John won’t end up in a situation where he accidentally enters the same information twice due to him not being able to immediately find it in the ERP system.

The PIM system also demonstrates its value when Acme gets a new type of filter to replace the one with re-ported issues. In PIM, Lisa can quickly replace the old filter with the new one and she can be sure that going forwards it is the correct filter type that is displayed on the website and in all other materials.

ADVANTAGES• Saves time when searching for information• Avoids polluting the ERP with double information

Perfion – Single Source of Truth

Perfion PIM has been developed for com-panies that communicate through many channels and in several languages and that have a complex product structure with a lot of product data.

As the world’s only 100% standardized solution for Product Information Manage-ment, Perfion PIM provides you with the basis for optimizing your company’s pro-cesses so that you can lower time-to-mar-ket, gain new market share and always deliver the information that your custo-mers need.

With Perfion, you’ll have one single source for all your texts, technical data, files, pictures, videos, etc. This gi-ves you full control over all product data on all sales and marketing platforms.

Perfion’s open API makes it easy to integrate the solution with your existing IT systems – anything from your ERP system, InDesign and Office package.

Perfion PIM is easily integrated with all existing ERP so-lutions and is also easy to integrate with Microsoft Dy-namics.

6 daily tasks in erp which become a lot easier with a pim system

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