Home Blog How Building PIM Functionalities into ERPs Could Backfire

How Building PIM Functionalities into ERPs Could Backfire

Have you been considering integrating ERP and PIM to improve customer experience and product management in your enterprise business? Do you know how building PIM functionalities into an existing ERP can backfire? Here we explain why it is so critical you do your research before you attempt to build PIM into your ERP.

How to explain ERP and PIM

Both an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Product Information Management (PIM) system can consolidate complex data. Your ERP combines different data sets and records to create a holistic view of your business. ERPs can locate and extract data related to a wide range of internal and customer-facing business processes.

The types of records that ERPs will access include:

Transactions, income and expenditure
Supply and stock records
Project management, activity and critical path details
Production planning information
Human resources management and payroll
Risk identification and management data
Compliance records and mandatory reports

An ERP can access information from these diverse systems to give you a clear understanding of how different business factors are influencing your business activity. For example, you could run a report to determine how product launches or project delays influence your overall output or sales.

Your PIM tool can also access information from several sources to present an accurate picture of activity. However, rather than scanning records from multiple business functions, it is focused primarily on product and stock details. PIM systems are designed to create and capture rich product records and present product information to both consumers and internal users.

What are the similarities between ERP and PIM?

The similarities between PIM and ERP include that they both:

Have the capacity to assess and collate information from multiple sources
Act as centralised data repositories
Rely on the identification of a golden record or master record to ensure accuracy

What are the differences between PIM and ERP?

The differences between PIM and ERP are:

ERPs are focused on internal data, while PIMs present data internally, and for customers and print
ERPs deal with workflow and business process data, while PIMs handle records related to technical specifications, product variation and customisation options, and product digital assets like images, video and manuals
ERPs prepare reports and provide a snapshot of business activity, while PIMs distribute product information throughout marketing channels such as website and social media

What are the benefits of combining ERP and PIM?

For some businesses, the integration of the ERP and PIM is beneficial. Adding a PIM component within an existing ERP framework can enrich the ERP modules looking at product information, supply and profitability. Some additional benefits of integrating ERP and PIM include:

A reduction in data silos and isolated product records that a basic ERP can't access
Improvement in the availability of information for customers across public-facing channels
Greater capacity for omnichannel marketing
Improved capabilities for business growth and scale with a unique system that can manage many thousands of complex product records and files

What are the challenges of combining ERP and PIM?

Despite the benefits of integrating ERP and PIM, this combo of corporate systems only works for some. Integrating these systems can lead to unexpected complications for both businesses and customers.

Before committing to deployment on a combined ERP and PIM solution, ensuring that your business would benefit from this arrangement makes the best business sense. Assessing the suitability of your data network and hierarchy will help you understand the opportunities and risks that this integration would create.

Determining ERP and PIM requirements

Your existing tools and setup may influence the overall effectiveness of combining PIM and ERP. If you have an existing PIM and are seeking to gain further business insight with the addition of a comprehensive ERP, you need to ensure that a potential ERP solution can manage PIM data.

Many PIM systems have additional modules and enhancements that will improve their performance and may give you the output you require. PIM systems are a fantastic tool for e-commerce enterprises seeking to expand product offerings, build brand and enhance customer engagement. PIM systems like Pimcore have additional capabilities in:

CRM - Customer Relationship Management
DXP - Digital Experience
DAM - Digital Assessment Management

Adding PIM to an existing ERP

If you have an existing ERP and are seeking to expand your product information or use data to enrich sales offerings, then adding a PIM tool may be a good choice. However, it pays to get some advice specific to your existing solutions and data structures. Because of their slightly different objectives, usage and audiences, establishing two systems that operate in different ways can be risky.

Some ERPs can access PIM or PIM equivalent modules, or, are flexible enough that a PIM module can be developed in line with specific business and user requirements. However, this option should be approached with caution! Because of their internal focus, many ERPs are not designed to deal with PIM data.

Some ERPs have been expanded to include Retail ERP, which is designed to assist with activities like payment processing, sales automation, and inventory management. Although it may suit smaller retailers and brick-and-mortar store operators, Retail ERP is quite restricted in comparison with PIM.

Adding ERP to an existing PIM

In the other scenario, adding an ERP to an existing PIM may be an option, depending on your business's function, size, industry and complexity. Introducing an ERP across an existing PIM may require the deployment of an additional integration tool. This addition can add both expense and complexity to your project. In this case, depending on your overall objectives, adding additional modules or capabilities to your PIM and extending its capabilities may be a better option than running an ERP as well.

Risks of building a PIM within an ERP

Attempting to build a PIM within your existing ERP may require extensive customisation and expensive development work. While the outcome can be something tailored just to your needs, it also, unfortunately:

Increases the risks of bugs and faults
Means you may repeatedly need to source external development support
Makes you more reliant and dependent on third-party developers
Can create a system that is too complex for you to manage without support
Creates a higher level of system complexity

PIM systems may handle many thousands of product records, attributes, files, images, and options. Adding an extremely dense and complex data set to an existing ERP may make the ERP much deeper and denser. Forcing an ERP to deal with big data can lead to performance issues.

PIM systems already access and collate data from various systems and repositories; it is part of their core capability and capacity. Deploying a tool that consolidates information within another tool that also consolidates information can cause data hierarchies and attributes to become complex.

While ERPs are designed to manage data from multiple input points, the density of PIM software can slow systems down. This may lead to additional maintenance or development costs. In worst-case scenarios, system response time can be delayed or disrupted. The resulting data access outages can prove costly for your productivity.

Usability and User Experience

As outlined earlier, ERPs and PIMs have different audiences and users. ERPs work solely within the organisation, while PIM data is accessed by customers and external parties like vendors, suppliers, printers, designers, and contributors. Combining data designed for internal staff with records that are more widely accessible can, in some cases, lead to complexities for both types of users. Data interface points like user dashboards and interfaces can become overloaded, reducing overall ease of use and design simplicity.

Building a PIM within your ERP may mean that employee on boarding and training take longer and that you may be required to deliver advice, support, and training to third parties (such as suppliers and contributors), which can become costly and repetitive.

Compliance concerns

No matter your industry, you will be responsible for data retention, record keeping and compliance with rules and regulations. Customer information and sales figures generated by your PIM may be subject to separate and unique data requirements. If compliance requirements differ, your ERP may not be able to apply unique retention processes to only some portions of the entire data set.

What is the best way to combine ERP and PIM?

Rather than trying to customise your existing ERP with a complex PIM capability, finding a simple and high-quality PIM to integrate with your existing business operations and tools makes much better sense. A practical and capable PIM like Pimcore will ensure you get the best of both worlds of PIM and ERP.

Because Pimcore is open-source, you will always have ready access to enhancements and improvements. You will become part of an international community of users who benefit from Pimcore's capacity to provide:

Exceptional product handling
Trustworthy data through high performing data quality management
Efficient data management and modelling
Digital asset management and storage capabilities