Most companies don’t start their PIM journey thinking about packaging legislation, bill-of-materials structures, or Digital Product Passport batches. They start with a website or a spreadsheet problem. But as Stephan Spijkers, Adam Sutton, and Martin Post discuss in this webinar, the moment a business starts working with a real PIM, the requirements grow, and a system that can’t adapt becomes the next bottleneck. This session looks at how Perfion’s configuration-first design handles that growth, and includes a live demo of building a new data entity from the ground up.
Speakers:
Stephan Spijkers – Co-Founder, PIMvendors.com
Adam Sutton – Senior Channel Manager, Boyum IT (Perfion)
Martin Post – Co-Owner, Sheph Solutions
A PIM Built to Be Configured, Not Customized
Perfion’s core pitch is that it’s a 100% standard platform that still bends to fit each business. Instead of bespoke development, companies define their own entities, attributes, and relationships through configuration, then adjust as needs change. Martin Post points out that most customers’ data models look nothing alike a year or two into using the system: needs shift, integrations get added, and the underlying structure has to keep up without a rebuild.
Flexible Data Modeling for Genuinely Complex Products
Whether it’s coffee machines with packaging variants, automotive parts with OE references, or wholesale products with multiple supplier records feeding one “golden” product, Perfion handles relational data beyond the basic product record. Martin demonstrates this live, building a new packaging entity and linking it to a product category in a few clicks, no development ticket required.
Regulation Is Forcing Data Models to Change Whether Companies Want It or Not
Stephan raises a point that’s easy to miss: even businesses with stable internal data models are now facing outside pressure from regulations like the PPWR and the Digital Product Passport. These requirements add new attributes and relationships almost overnight. A flexible, relational data structure isn’t a future-proofing nice-to-have anymore, it’s what keeps compliance manageable.
AI That’s Built In, and AI You Build Yourself
Perfion ships with AI support for product descriptions, SEO content, and image alt text. But the more interesting layer, according to Martin, is the Actions module: a low-code environment that lets teams call external AI services, automate classification, or even generate product images and video. The distinction matters because, as Martin puts it, everyone can generate text now. The real advantage comes from using AI to get more complete, differentiated data, not just faster copy.
Dashboards That Turn Vague Status Into Actionable Work
Workflow dashboards give every role, marketing, IT, purchasing, a clear view of which products are missing what. Stephan frames this as the real value of a PIM: it’s not a system of record, it’s where the product data process actually happens. Counting how many products exist in the system isn’t useful. Knowing which ones are missing a translation or an image, and who owns fixing that, is.
One Source of Truth Across Every Channel
From Amazon’s shifting attribute requirements to Shopify, Magento, and print catalogs, Perfion’s channel management keeps a single master record while adapting output per channel. Adam notes that B2B buyers increasingly expect the same consistency and polish they get from B2C brands, and that starts with the data feeding each channel actually matching.
ERP and PIM Working Together, Not Competing
Perfion supports both ERP-first and PIM-first workflows, with native two-way integration into Microsoft Dynamics and SAP. Martin’s view is pragmatic: figure out which system handles a given piece of data best, then let that be the source for it. The PIM doesn’t need to replace the ERP, and the ERP doesn’t need to handle marketing content it was never built for.
Why a Local Implementation Partner Still Matters
Adam and Martin close on why the Boyum-Sheph partnership works: Perfion provides a flexible product, but customers in the Netherlands still benefit from a partner with direct, on-the-ground experience across industries like automotive, textiles, and FMCG. Product flexibility and partner experience end up solving different parts of the same problem.
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