The role of product information management systems

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The product information management system is a system that manages product information for sales promotion and marketing. It is located between the core system and the front end, and takes in the master data managed in the core system, fleshes it out as "product information" to be presented to customers, and then distributes it to customer contact points (channels).

The timing of handling "product information" varies depending on the industry and business model of each company, but B2B companies will likely add and update information in bulk when they launch new products, etc. What should be emphasized at this time is an external interface for bulk registration and updating of product information, as well as a function that allows bulk updating on the screen.

When it comes to distributing product information stored in a PIM system to each customer touchpoint, it is important to have the ability to precisely specify the targets overseas chinese in worldwide data of linkage according to the requirements of the partner site or system, as well as the ability to process part of the data.

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PIM systems are required to "aggregate and link product information from multiple sources" and "link to various delivery destinations" rather than "storing and managing data" like MDM (Master Data Management). In that it requires linking with many external systems, it is a system that is well suited to cloud computing and service provision.

Advantages and precautions of cloud-based PIM systems
So, let's consider the advantages and points to note when building a PIM system using the cloud or as a service. For the purposes of this article, think of "using the cloud" as "IaaS/PaaS" and "as a service" as PaaS/SaaS.

Advantages and points to note about cloud computing
The advantages of moving a PIM system to the cloud include reduced infrastructure operating costs and ease of connection with other cloud services. Since there is not much need for severe auto-scaling like with an EC site, it is difficult to find any notable advantages over overseas chinese in worldwide data on-premise systems, but if the PIM product supports distributed architecture, the advantages of moving to the cloud can be utilized. For example, SAP Commerce Cloud allows distributed operation of instances with different roles, such as for the front GUI and for back-end processes. The advantage of this is that you can reduce usage costs by adding instances that are necessary when the load is high and stopping instances when they are not needed. However, there are concerns that the configuration and operation will become more complicated, so care should be taken. PIM systems often require multiple external interfaces for input and output, but it is important to note that moving to the cloud may impose restrictions on the integration method. When operating a PIM system in a cloud environment, the feasibility of integration with other systems becomes even more important.