Unlock the Power of PIM Workflow Management

A PIM database does not keep product data current. The workflow does: who may change a record, which status it has to reach, and what happens when it stalls.

Any exchange of data between two parties is already a workflow. It can be fully manual, fully automated, or a mix, and it is usually at least partly automated. The same idea shows up outside product data, in order handling, inventory, and staff records. Designed well, it shortens the path and tightens quality control. Designed badly, it adds delay and errors. PIM workflow is that design applied to product content.

What you are designing

Workflow management is designing, documenting, watching, and adjusting the steps of a task so each step is done the same way, correctly.

A trigger starts it. The trigger can be an employee, a supplier, a customer, or a partner, in person or through a channel. Change an ingredient in a recipe and a maintenance step in the PIM should start, because the published product is no longer the product you sell.

Onboarding a product is the same class of work as onboarding a hire. Existing customers need to hear what changed. Features and benefits have to be clear. Staff need to know how to use the product, and support needs the material to answer questions. If that path is short, customers understand the product soon enough to use it.

Two ways to build it

One workflow is rights and roles, for a person and for a group. Only someone with the right role can view or edit a given record, so a product in progress is not changed by whoever opens it.

The other is status. A product moves through gates. Content has to meet the gate before the status changes. That is what makes a record ready to release, rather than merely present in the database.

Four workflows you will actually run

Product content for online sales is collected from several teams, systems, and sources. The PIM has to assemble that and hand it on complete. Each workflow below is a set of steps. They only work as a set.

Product onboarding

Brand, color, size, cost, weight, and the rest of the commercial facts have to be in the system before a customer can trust the page. Status messages matter too: an estimated ship date, or a pre-order flag, so the buyer can follow the item from creation to receipt.

Content updates

After onboarding, the PIM team writes and updates the description, specifications, video, images, and 360-degree photos. Review is part of the step. A wrong fact becomes a review and a return. When the content is accepted, the product is ready to syndicate.

Lightning demos from inriver, contentserve, and KatanaPIM show how this looks in a live system.

Channel syndication

The hard part is being present on more than one channel with the content distributors and vendors require. The PIM builds one listing that meets those channel rules, instead of a separate composition for each. The same content can then carry location and channel requirements, which is the omnichannel case: the buyer meets the product on more than one platform.

Handoffs

Sales and marketing need the next person to know the record moved. Notifications at set points confirm the data is current and start the next automated step.

What you should see

A workflow in place is what produces:

• Teams working on the same record instead of side copies
• Fewer missing fields at launch
• A faster path to publication
• Brand content that matches what was approved
• A digital experience built from that approved content
• Approvals that move instead of sitting in an inbox

Choosing a PIM around this kind of workflow is work we do with organisations.