To counter the competition from online vendors and simultaneously expand the traditional strengths of its own business model, over-the-counter retail has to break new ground. Portaltech Reply has therefore developed a Product Information Management (PIM) platform based on hybris to optimise product management and sales processes, while allowing for the integration of different locations and partners as well as comprehensive marketing activities. The solution has successfully been deployed to assist an association of furniture retailers faced with local competition and the pressures associated with Digital Transformation.
Associations of retailers – for example in the furniture industry – are faced with the challenge of having to standardise the management of product master and supplier data for their various members while also preparing the data for the different communication channels involved. An intelligent, centralised Product Information Management (PIM) system can therefore provide them with benefits that go far beyond mere data management.
By introducing separate, decentralised PIM systems, each member of the association can autonomously manage product information on the basis of the central PIM. Each decentralised PIM system can therefore provide sales staff in local stores with product information via their tablets. The data can also be used for all other output channels and processes used by retailers including, for example, e-commerce systems, proximity commerce connections, retailer product presentation portals and the production of printed documents by outsourced agencies.
The hybris PIM module offers various roles and rights to provide optimal support for the processes associated with different user groups. As a result, suppliers can enter their data in a customised interface, before the data is enriched by retailers in subsequent stages according to their needs. The enriched data is then provided to the sales or marketing teams, for instance, showing them exactly the data that is relevant for their daily work.
Right from the outset, it is vital to make sure that the solution will be ultimately capable of meeting the requirements of the overall architecture, including integration of third-party systems. This ensures that data can be exchanged between the furniture industry, the ERP systems and the central PIM system and, of course, the individual decentralised PIM systems of affiliated partners. Portaltech Reply has developed a hybris interface specifically for this scenario. The solution adheres to the BMECat 2005 industry standard and allows for data exchange between all systems. The PIM system bridges the gap between the furniture industry, the retailers’ association, the individual retailers and the end customers. At the same time, the use of the industry standard provides for a system that is future-proof and scalable, or in other words is open to other systems and changing requirements.
By mapping the flexible interfaces for the exchange of product and media data from the various partner systems against a classification model specifically developed for the furniture industry, the PIM system will render even the most complex structures transparent.
Portaltech Reply specialises in producing omnichannel commerce solutions. The experience gained from projects for the furniture industry shows that the hybris platform offers precisely the degree of flexibility and ease of integration required in many other sectors too. In addition to the modern, web-based product cockpits and the possibility of sending product data directly to print agencies in InDesign format, the hybris platform offers different system modules to enhance both e-commerce and proximity commerce strategies.
A customised, hybris-based PIM system is therefore the hub which optimises data exchange as well as sales and product management processes. What’s more, it represents a vital interface to the marketing division and ultimately to the customer.