Constellation ShortList™ Product Information Management (PIM)

About This Constellation ShortList™

If customer data represents the “source of customer truth” for an organization, and solutions like customer relationship management (CRM) and customer data platforms (CDP) collect, manage and institutionalize that truth, then a product information management (PIM) system is the source of “product truth.” PIM solutions aggregate, organize and distribute information and detail about products in real time. But perhaps most importantly in this age of AI and experience, this product information is now a critical source of data.

For every product an organization sells, there are dozens of individual attributes that collectively describe a product across tangible and intangible details, even subjective attributes. And this compilation of individual attributes can be a source of exceptional business and customer signal.

Product is a collaboration across multiple teams, highlighting the need for a single repository that must catalog and organize everything from product descriptions and details, SKU numbers, item numbers, material lists, colors and dimensions, keyword descriptors, product groupings and classifications, often in multiple languages to serve global customers. As immersive AI-driven e-commerce continues to grow, PIM solutions, especially those that seamlessly integrate with enterprise resource planning (ERP), sales enablement tools like configure-price-quote (CPQ), and digital asset management (DAM) will become must-have tools in the stack.

Threshold Criteria

Constellation considers the following criteria for these offerings:

• Multimedia file storage including images, documents and video
• Ability to support localized and international sites and content
• Ease of use for product onboarding, ongoing management, enrichment and governance
• Flexible data fields to capture technical and use data including specifications, measures, ingredients, material sources, dimensions, descriptions, how-tos and tutorials
• Capacity to collect, clean and prioritize data across complex landscape of SKUs
• Robust taxonomy to enable product classification across multiple filters
• Easy-to-develop workflows and role-based alerts and collaboration
• Flexible editing including bulk, automated, bulk editing and import/export
• Life-cycle management and controls, version variation tracking and handling
• Quickly and easily establish product relationships
• Distribution and connection across all engagement channels including commerce, social, mobile and web applications
• Role-based access and cross-functional collaboration
• Automation tools to improve efficiency and effectiveness, data quality, updates and cross-channel publishing
• Dynamic product expansion and enrichment
• Capacity to manage complex catalogs and large volume of products and brands with frequent updates
• Distribution and content syndication for commerce in both B2B and B2C environments
• Connectivity and API marketplace for quick, seamless connection to ERP, PLM, CRM, CPQ, DAM, CMS, CDN and DX platforms
• Capacity to manage large media assets of any format
• Flexible interface for updates, previews and reporting
• Workflows for collaboration and cross-organization access and utilization
• Automated update and ingestion of data from product, partner suppliers, photographers, agencies and procurement
• AI and ML to optimize information and asset intake
• Generative AI to aid in automated content generation for product descriptions, information detail at scale

Constellation evaluates more than 40 solutions categorized in this market. This Constellation ShortList is determined by client inquiries, partner conversations, customer references, vendor selection projects, market share, and internal research.

• Acquia PIM
• Akeneo
• Catsy
• Contentserv PIM
• inRiver PIM
• Pimcore
• Plytix
• Riversand
• Salsify