As the PIM & MDM Practice Lead at Codifyd, I have the privilege of attending various MDM conferences throughout the country and bringing back new insight so I can better serve our clients. These conferences give me the opportunity to keep up with industry trends and avoid “tunnel vision expertise” as the area of MDM evolves year after year.
The most recent event I attended is the MDM & Data Governance Summit earlier this month. This event is the leading conference in this space, and it’s held twice a year in New York City and San Francisco.
Going to the conference last week in New York City really cemented my ideology because I know this is the evolution of our space. I’m truly excited to continue evangelizing, consulting, implementing and growing with my clients to achieve true financial growth and operational efficiency.
In this post, I share some of my ideologies around PIM and MDM, solidified by the MDM & Data Governance conference I attended in NYC.
The Benefits of Product Information Management in B2B
My work life revolves around solving data problems – mostly in the B2B world and typically with the core data elements around product content. Centralizing and mastering data within the product world can be life-changing for a company. These actions create enterprise organization within departments, efficiency in mastering product data, and overall revenue growth once that beautiful master data is leveraged into a variety of syndication efforts such as e-commerce, custom digital catalogs, and 3rd party procurement.
With a calculated roadmap that matches business goals and the right tools in place, a robust product information management program can turn a business around in ways that organizations may not initially realize.
Solving Data Challenges with Product Information Management
Over the years, I’ve worked with hundreds of clients to achieve their data goals. In the recent years, we hear these stories over and over again from clients:
“Get our products on Amazon ASAP!” – says the manufacturer
“Help us refine onboarding processes to compete against Amazon!” – says the distributor
“We need a way to enrich product and SKUs to be purchasable online!” – say both
We love taking data challenges head-on. In the case of product information management, the first step is typically to identify business gaps and select a PIM, and then it’s time to roll up our sleeves and create a process to pump life into their product set to 1) increase revenues across the board and 2) stay even in the ever involving digital marketplace.
Master Data Management for B2B Manufacturers & Distributors
But what about the rest of your data? How do we take one element and layer it into an overall Master Data Management philosophy and governance against your vendor data, customer data, competitor data, and other ancillary collected, otherwise known as “Big Data”?
Master Data Management is not pigeonholed around products for B2B manufacturers and distributors. Customer Master is not exclusive to service industries in the financial or healthcare sectors. Organizations must expand their horizons to build on top of PIM and all the inefficiencies included. They must accelerate growth through targeted and curated offerings to current and prospective customers.
It’s time organizations get motivated to act on “multi-domain” master data offerings. Let’s leverage actionable and predictive analytics that cross data paths between all elements described.
With an equipped tool belt packed with industry knowledge and data expertise, Codifyd is ready for the next frontier. Join us in the new wave of data efficiency.