Summary

This document describes PIM and puts PIM in relation and comparison with product catalogs in ERP systems or retail systems. It specifically describes how PIM is used together with Avensia Storefront.

The description of PIM will be very focused on a specific product, InRiver PIM, since it is a market leading software still growing fast, and is very popular among users for its simple and intuitive interface. However, the information in this document can be applied to any competent PIM solution on the market.

Avensia Storefront uses by default the product information management module in Dynamics AX for all product enrichment. But in large installations and in organizations where the product enrichement isn’t a central point in the company is an external PIM system required.

Description of product catalogue

A product catalog is a database with product information. On top of the database is often software added to communicate and use the product information. The user interface is often part of the software using the database, such as an ERP system. The look-and-feel of the function will be homogenous with the rest of the system.

The process of enrichment can often be improved using simple search features, imports and exports with Excel, import of images and similar features. The drawback is that the software using the product information database is created with a purpose and scope of another feature than product information enrichment. An ERP system is created for enterprise resource management and not so much for product information management as a pure PIM.

The product information management module in Dynamics AX is a product catalog.

Description of PIM

PIM is an abbreviation of Product Information Management and is much more than a product catalog. PIM is also using a database where the product information is stored, but the big difference is that the PIM software supports processes, work flows, and systems for integrations that improves the product information enrichment.

The whole purpose with PIM is to have a tool that keeps track of what product information that is fulfilled and what is not. The software will support work flows and parallel process to make for concurrent editing of product information. It will indicate what mandatory information that is missing, and when the product information is complete.

By using an approach with channels is it possible to create the same experience of a product regardless of sales channel and language. A channel may be a web site, a brick-and-mortar store, a printed folder or any other sales connection that exposes product information. It is also common practice to enrich and campaigns using PIM to be able to share the campaign between the channels together with the product information in a consistent manner.

The functions and features in a PIM are all focused on one thing – to enrich product information. The PIM software developers are specialized in this area and do create a solution that is optimized for this purpose.

The reason to use a PIM

To be able to describe when a PIM system is needed, and when it’s not do we need to understand the organization that creates the product information, and the end users that will consume the information in the channels exposed.

In an organization where the product information is spread in the organization is a PIM software always needed. Product information such as images, technical specifications, documents, translations, prices and other financial information are spread in the organization in different divisions and departments. The PIM system will collect and gather the product information from the different isolated areas in the organization into one product information base that all will share.

Organizations that have channels over many countries are usually in need of a PIM system since the product information that is shared often is equal, but always differs a little, between the countries. It is recommended to have the same product information in all channels, and that is where the PIM system will come in handy. With a PIM system will the enrichment of product information be optimized and the difference of the product information will be visible to the product management so it can be centralized and homogenous. Information spread in countries will be translated using effective translation processes.

In a manufacturing business will the PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) system not be enough for the marketing and sales information needed in the channels. The product information is often imported from the PLM system into PIM where marketing information is added to the PLM information.

Images and similar assets may be created and managed in a PIM system to simplify the process of editing and adding visual information to the product information. In a very media intensive business will a DAM (Digital Asset Management) system support the PIM with references to the actual visual media. The enrichment of the product information will however still be managed in the PIM system.

Last but not least will a PIM make for parallel processes in the product enrichment. Many editors may share the product information and update it. The PIM system will keep track of the information shared and updated and prevent that information is overwritten.

The PIM system keeps track of the product completeness and knows what information that is mandatory to be able to publish the product information to the channel. A product that is not complete will be indicated in the PIM system so that the management can decide to complete it, or to expose it to the channels. The completeness feature of the PIM system is a tool to find, view and validate product information.

There are administrative interfaces where the editors can see the completeness of the products and what information that is missing. They also may see what assigned users that hasn’t completed their tasks.

Information that is used in PIM

The PIM system will not handle all product information. Some information is never moved into a PIM system. Information such as prices, discounts, stock information and warehouse information are fetched from other systems. The reason is that the information is updated in a high frequency that makes it inconvenient to use it in PIM. The PIM system will be a bottleneck in the work flow and integrations of the solution.

The main principle is that PIM always contains marketing and sales information, and nothing more.

With extensive and rich product information will the product be exposed in a homogenous way in all channels. The visitors and customers will recognize the products in all channel. Most users today expect to find the same information in any channel using cell phones, computers and touchpads. Product information is an important parameter in the conversion of the visitors.

The key of success is to plan the product information and use a PIM system to minimize any risks that incomplete or missing product information is exposed in the channels.

Information models

The process of setting up a PIM solution contains several steps where the data modelling is one of the most important and most complicated steps. The data model describes the product information that will be used in the solution. A product contains one or more attributes that describes the product. An attribute may for example be a colour or a size. A product is assigned to one or more categories and the categories may be used for navigation in an online channel. Each category may have attributes and it may also have attributes that are inherited by the products assigned to the category.

A product may have attribute for name and description, and a category may have attribute for size and colour. When the product is assigned to the category will it inherit the attributes from the category and will hence contain name, description, size and colour.

InRiver PIM contains a wide range of attributes, hierarchies and entities that are modeled when a PIM solution is setup. It is used for enrichment of assortments, categories, channels, definitions and much more.

The actual values of the attributes are set by the editor when the products are enriched.

Product information in Avensia Storefront

There is a product information management module in Dynamics AX and Dynamics 365 for Operations that is used with the retail module in Avensia Storefront. The module has features that covers most requirements of a PIM solution but lacks the support of processes and workflows needed in a bigger product enrichment solution.

In those cases, where Dynamics 365 for Operations doesn’t support the requirements of product management, an external PIM software will be used with Avensia Storefront. Using an external PIM software challenges the integration between the products and the workflow of how product information is enriched.

Most common in a retail solution is that a product and variant is created in the enterprise resource planning system (ERP) with lowest common denominator for the retail solution. Products and variants are defined in ERP with simple properties like identification, name and description. The products and variants are exported to the external PIM system for enrichment. Fields, media, groupings, relations and specifications are added to the products in the PIM software and exported to the channels where the information is exposed to the customers.

The product information is never sent back to the ERP system. The external PIM manages all distribution of product information to the channels in the retail solution.

Price information is rarely sent to the PIM system since the price calculation is a business logic that is handled by the commerce system and the ERP system. In some occasions the price may be part of the enrichment and displayed in the channel. It could be information like recommended price, or discounted price, that will convince the customer that it’s a good deal.

When the retail solution is planned it is important to identify and define the following important parts in the omni channel setup. Most PIM systems has features and functions that also are available in Dynamics AX and it is very important to define which system that is master data system for the different data segments.

• Channel definition. Where are the channels defined and created? With Dynamics 365 for Operations the channels must be defined in AX to make for omni channel support in the solution. The channels defined in AX may be exported to the external PIM so that the product management can enrich the products depending on the channel. Products are enriched differently in a retail channel than in an online channel or print channel.
• Navigation hierarchy. The navigation hierarchy is very important in the online channel but may differ in a retail channel. In Dynamics 365 for Operations it’s mandatory to assign a navigation hierarchy to the online channel. That is why a navigation hierarchy must be defined in Dynamics. The navigation hierarchy may be exported to the external PIM to allow the product management to enrich and extend the navigation and the products in the navigation.
• Assortment. An assortment can be shared between many channels in Dynamics 365 for Operations. An assortment is mandatory for a channel, and a channel can use more than one assortment simultaneously. The assortment will be exported to the PIM system and used in the channels and hierarchies defined there. The external PIM may define assortments of its own that are exposed in the channels.
• Dynamic attributes. Dynamics 365 for Operations has a feature where attributes can be assigned to products and navigation nodes. The attribute values are assigned for each channel and is handled as a field in PIM and online solutions. The dynamic attributes are part of a product data model and it is important that attributes that are displayed in channels are defined and assigned properly in Dynamics 365 for Operations before the products are sent to the PIM system. The recommended approach is to use the external PIM to create dynamic attributes in the enrichment process, and not use Dynamics attributes.
• Media. Media may be attached to articles in Dynamics 365 for Operations. The recommended approach when using an external PIM is that all media are attached to the articles in the PIM.

Navigation

Navigation must be created in Dynamics since it’s a mandatory configuration of the online channel. The navigation may be one single, empty, root node and sent to PIM where it is enriched and built as required by the channel. However, there are rules that are based on the navigation hierarchy in Dynamics. A simple example is the discounts that may be defined using the hierarchy in the channel.

E.g. Buy x from this category and get y off from items in that category.

A discount rule like the example above requires two important things that must be fulfilled in the solution:

1. The navigation hierarchy in Dynamics 365 for Operations must include the categories.
2. The PIM solution may change anything in the navigation hierarchy, but if the categories in the channel hierarchy are removed from the web channel, then the discount rule may be unpredictable. When an item is added to a cart will the cart price rules check the discount rules of Dynamics and use the hierarchy from Dynamics and not from PIM. Then the discount may apply or not, and it is the PIM editor’s responsibility to ensure that the visitor of the web channel understands the discount rules.

Integration

There are two ways to send product information from Dynamics 365 for Operations to the external PIM. The method to use depends on how the channels are defined in the retail solution, and which system that will be the master system of channels, assortments and enrichments.

If the external PIM will be used to enrich all products in all channels, then the product information can be exported using DIXF from the Product Information Management module and read by an inbound connector in the PIM system. This method will export all products released to the legal entity to the PIM system. There is no connection to assortments, channels or dynamic attributes. This is not the method that is recommended to use with Avensia Storefront where the channel is a fundamental feature, and will not be discussed further in this document.

With Avensia Storefront it is very important that products and variants that are sent to PIM are assigned to assortment and channels so all omni channel features in Dynamics 365 for Operations are supported. That is why the export of products to PIM are handled as a standard publishing to a channel in Avensia Storefront. Products are assigned the channels and published, all with standard functions in Dynamics 365 for Operations and supported by all AX 2012 R2 and R3 versions. The Avensia Storefront Connector responds to the publishing and reads the channel information and prepare it for the PIM system.

The default behavior in an Avensia Storefront solution is that all products are sent from Dynamics 365 for Operations to InRiver PIM for enrichment. And when the products are enriched enough for the channel they are sent to Episerver to be exposed in the web site.

However, Dynamics 365 for Operations considers the products as enriched and complete for distribution when the channel is published. So if there are other channels, like Point Of Sale (POS) that uses the same information, will the products probably be exposed in this channels since they may not use the external PIM.

If this scenario applies then there are other ways of implementation of external PIM:

• The POS system may use the same enriched information that is exported from InRiver PIM when the information has been completed.
• Products are created in Dynamics 365 for Operations with enough information to be exposed in the channel. Then the products are sent to the channels AND to the external PIM. Then products are exposed in the channels immediately and updated when the enrichment is completed in the external PIM.

Avensia Storefront PIM integration in detail

Avensia Storefront Connector is a five step connector that reads information from Dynamics AX channel database through Dynamics e-commerce Framework and the Commerce Runtime. The information is validated, transformed and patched before it is written to Episerver. In a scenario where an external PIM is present in the system map, the connector will work slightly different.

The stage database

Avensia Storefront Connector uses an internal stage database where all product information is stored during the publishing phase of the channel. The information is read from the channel database and written to the stage database after being converted to Avensia Storefront internal Data Transfer Objects (DTO). The rest of the publishing steps are using the stage database and the information is finally written to Episerver.

When an external PIM is used, however, the information is never written to Episerver. It is read from the channel database and stored in the stage database, but then the connector ends the publishing phase. The channel is still in published state in Dynamics 365 for Operations but the product information is not written to Episerver. It is waiting for InRiver PIM to read it.

The external PIM system has an inbound connector that has been developed by the PIM supplier. The connector calls Avensia Storefront Connector through the standard API exposed by Avensia Storefront, and gets the product information from the stage database.

The PIM system enriches the product information and when the enrichment is complete, publishes the product to Avensia Storefront Connector through the standard API exposed by Avensia Storefront. Avensia Storefront Connector writes the published information into another instance of the stage database and then completes the publishing task that was ended during the first step. It transforms and writes the enriched product information to Episerver using standard API of Episerver.

A retail solution with Avensia Storefront includes more channels than retail online channels. In the case of retail channels for brick-and-mortar stores, call centers or markets, the Avensia Storefront Connector is used in the same way as for an online channel, but he connector writes the result to a database or cache solution instead of Episerver.

If the product flow requires a very short time to market will the alternative flow be used where the product information is sent directly to Episerver to be exposed in the web site, and on the same time sent to the external PIM for enrichment. When the enrichment is done, or while in progress, will the product information be updated in Episerver by the external PIM and Avensia Storefront.

This approach of integration has some very important benefits.

• There is no customization needed in Dynamics 365 for Operations.
• Only standard features and standard software is used in Dynamics 365 for Operations.
• Conflicts that may occur if a user updates a product in Dynamics that has been exported to PIM is not an issue. It will be properly updated when exported to PIM in next cycle.
• Avensia Storefront Connector standard API is used. Future upgrades to other PIM systems, or removal of external PIM system will not affect the integration.
• Episerver standard features and functions are used.
• Avensia Storefront standard feature and functions are used.
• System upgrades from Microsoft, Episerver and Avensia is supported without any version conflicts.
• The solution supports incremental updates as default from Dynamics 365 for Operations publishing feature, and also full reload of product information.
• All publishing is initiated by Dynamics 365 for Operations.

InRiver PIM

As said in the ingress of this document will much focus be on one specific PIM system, InRiver PIM. The information is however still applicable on any modern PIM system.

inRiver is a Swedish company that was founded in 2007. It is a well-recognized, award-winning, and growing company with an extensive partner network. The company is headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, with offices in Chicago, London, Amsterdam and Stockholm and sales offices in Phoenix, Taipei and Istanbul.

More than 220 customers uses InRiver PIM worldwide and more than 750 brands uses the solution for their product management.

The enrichment processes in InRiver PIM are optimized to move the product from start to end as quick as possibly. Preferable using parallel processes by many editors.

InRiver PIM Windows client

InRiver PIM uses a Windows Client for the users that prefers to use big amounts of data simultaneously and that uses the desktop screen. It is the preferred client to use when workspaces and views are important.

The way of work is that products are searched and filtered and then enriched. There are search and filtering features in the client that simplifies the work. In the Windows client is the drag-and-drop the most used method of work. Properties, images and assignments are created by dragging and dropping objects.

Another well used feature is to export product information to Microsoft Excel for enrichment in a matrix format, and the imported back into InRiver PIM. There is a plug in for Excel distributed with InRiver PIM.

InRiver PIM Web client

The web client is preferred in an environment where computers with mixed operating systems are used. The web client does not offer the same screen resolution as the Windows client. There are some minor differences in the features between the web client and the Windows client. For users that are working with image editing will the web client not offer any help.

Content Store

The content store is a feature in InRiver PIM where the product information is exposed in a public interface where partners or other external users easy may browse and download product information and images.

By selecting some products in the Content Store is it possible to create a unique printed catalog as a PDF file that contains the product information and images of the selected products. The file may be sent to a partner, customer or other recipient. There are templates available to create a catalog with desired look and feel.

Supplier onboarding

The supplier onboarding is a feature where suppliers may upload product information to InRiver PIM. The product information is defined by the attributes in the product model defined in InRiver PIM and also includes images and other media and attachements. The upload process is managed in a work flow where the uploaded information must be validated and approved by a dedicated person before it is available in InRiver PIM.

Searching

The search feature of InRiver PIM is optimized to find and filter information related to products and product information. The editor may search for products using any attribute or field, relations, variants, missing information and products in/not in a completeness state. Searching for missing information is an important feature. It is used to find products that are missing some attribute value, an image or in a specific state.

The queries used are easily saved to be reused by a specific user or shared with any other editor that has access to the queries. The queries may be used to generate notifications that are sent to users to notify that there are new tasks or incomplete tasks that needs to be handled.

Bulk updates

Using bulk updates may the user update attributes of products that matches a search criterion. In InRiver PIM there are work flows ready for bulk updates where information is validated when updated to ensure high data quality.

Completeness

The PIM system keeps track of every product and knows where in the process of enrichement each product is. That ensures that the user does not have to find products with missing information and eliminates the risk that products that are not completely enriched are published to a channel.

Each entity may have zero or more completeness rules. One rule may determine if a product is ready for translation. Another rule if it is ready to be published to the print channel. Each channel and market may have rules of their own.

This feature is used in the automated processes in InRiver PIM to assign tasks to users automatically, but is also used as a very powerful search option. A user may get a notification when a product is ready for print but lacks a high resolution image.

Intelligent links

InRiver may connect entities based on rules. An example of the connection may be that products of a status, category and price group automatically are assigned to a certain product category in the online channel. Using this feature will ensure that products are exposed in the right categories and it removes a lot of administration required by the users.

Preview in channel

There is a feature in InRiver PIM to preview the product in a channel. The preview uses a template created by a web developer using the same design as in the channel. InRiver PIM inserts the product information into the template and the user will see the product as displayed on the page in the channel.

Product sheet

InRiver PIM creates a product sheet as a file. The product sheet is created using a selected template and a selected language. Templates are created by the editor and may be shared between the users. Advanced sheets, like exploded view, can be created.

Mass production of documents

Using Avensia PDF Generator for InRiver makes for mass production of technical sheets, security sheets, performance declarations and similar product sheets. By using translatable phrases and the product information from InRiver PIM will the content be minimized but still contain the mandatory information.

The PDF document is created when it has been reviewed and approved. The document is created using templates with customized design and layout. The PDF files are stored in InRiver PIM and published to the channels or external systems. The PDF documents are automatically updated when product information included in the documents are changed in InRiver PIM. This is an automatic process that ensures that the sheets exposed in the channels always contains the latest information.

Merchandize on media

Images with hotspots can be used in multi channels. An image is created and used in several channels such as print and online channels. For the online channel are hotspots created that redirects the visitor to specific products. It could be an image of a kitchen with kitchen tools and furniture. Clicking a tool redirects the visitor to the tool’s product description page.

This feature is used to create inspiration images or campaign images.

Planner

The planner in InRiver PIM is used to plan and ensure that campaigns and activities are completed in time. This is very useful when campaigns are published, when retail stores are opened and to plan how products that are included in these activities are completed on time.