What Is a PIM Position?

What Does the Acronym PIM Stand for?

In asset management, PIM stands for product information management, and it refers to how product information is organized and stored. When your team needs details to accurately market, sell, and service products, a PIM solution houses all product information in one location.

The success of manufacturing companies and sellers can rise and fall on not only the number of products they offer, but also the minute details behind each product. This is why product management has morphed from basic spreadsheets to sophisticated platforms that can be accessed by multiple departments across an organization.

Product information management starts with understanding the role of product data across the many departments of a company. Marketing needs to know the product specs for advertising. Accounting needs to know the price of each item for bookkeeping. Production needs to know the exact parameters for manufacturing. Shipping and receiving need a benchmark to ensure they're handling the correct products. This is why PIM plays a pivotal role in everything from customer satisfaction to the bottom line.

Without effective product management, companies are more likely to either confuse similar products or store related data in separate locations. If you’re searching for ‘PIM system meaning’, the goal of the technology is to replace outdated tools with smarter templates and more intuitive capabilities. When the team knows where to find all the information related to a product, it’s easier to develop comprehensive strategies.

For brands that can struggle with maintaining unified messaging, particularly if their products are somewhat loosely connected, PIM can help both employees and customers alike solidify their understanding of where they fit in their industrial sector.

What Does a PIM Do?

A PIM solution can store and manage your product data, which can include its SKU, features, benefits, dimensions, and functionality. If you’re looking for PIM software examples, companies like Lumavate build platforms that give your sales and marketing teams all the fuel they need to pitch units to different target demographics.

For instance, let’s say that a company offers two similar SKUs with slightly different use cases. When it comes to products that are very close in both look and function, it’s easy for customers to become confused. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for marketing and sales teams to do the same.

With a PIM solution, it’s easier for a marketing team to write and illustrate more detailed ad copy for each product, ensuring people understand the differences. It’s also possible for the sales team to speak to customers on their level, providing specific examples of how they can use a product within their organization and recommending one product over another based on individual needs.

Some PIM software examples, such as Lumavate, also have digital asset management (DAM) functionality built into a PIM system. This feature allows companies to store any digital assets related to the product, including owner manuals, how-to videos, photos, and spec sheets. With PIM, multiple authorized users can log in and update the product data in real time. Once the information is updated, people can also view the historical changes in context with the larger product line.

So if the company needs to increase the price of the product and the customer service team needs to be alerted about the price change in real-time, they can trust the PIM solution is accurate when they quote the details to the customer. As technology advances, these platforms can be updated to further streamline the company's workflow. It's important to choose a software provider with the reputation and capabilities to keep their systems current.

Why Do Companies Need a PIM?

Companies need PIM platforms because the older organizational systems are simply too chaotic to keep track of. Think about how your product data is mapped and stored right now. Maybe everyone is supposed to use a single spreadsheet, when in reality there are multiple files and folders for each line of products (or maybe even for individual products). Maybe systems only update at midnight, which would mean sending out emergency memos if product information changes in the morning.

Consider how one manufacturing team may have a very different system of organization than another, which can result in files and folders on an individual’s hard drive rather than a central location. Plus, if your company has vendors or third-party suppliers, the system can fall apart entirely. PIM can help bridge the gap. These solutions make it possible to bring all of the information together for total brand consistency.

For instance, let’s say that the engineering team decides to upgrade the strength of the plastic on a full product line. This decision doesn’t change the SKUs, but it does change the benefits and potential use cases of the products. With PIM, a sales and marketing team will be able to describe how the product changed and why. Instead of simply saying that a product is now ‘stronger than ever’, they can add richer details about when to use it. They can assure customers that while the product may not have been appropriate for their needs before the upgrade, the company has made enough strategic adjustments to broaden its scope.

What Is a PIM Position?

Updating records for all products is more than asking individuals across the company to make changes to the records as they go. A PIM position refers to the people in charge of collecting and updating all of the production information. It’s a designated role that goes above and beyond the standard call of duty.

A PIM manager job description might include collecting all information on descriptions, pricing, features, and benefits, as well as troubleshooting videos, uploading spec sheets, and creating new how-to materials. A PIM manager salary depends on anything from the number of products an organization has to the types of job duties they’re asked to perform. Typically, if you’re applying for a PIM position, you’ll need to establish yourself as a subject matter expert for the product data that you oversee.

For organizations with smaller product catalogs, they might choose to pull different people from different departments to create a PIM team. This team would have the same duties as a PIM manager, but it would be spread out to avoid having to hire a designated person for the role. Regardless of how a company manages their platforms, the fundamentals remain the same. The people in charge will need to not only have a solid idea of what products are offered, but they'll also need to have enough contacts within the organization to update the changes as they take place.