PIM: how do you meet the standards the market requires from you?

Case DYKA

Which information do you need to get Product Information Management (PIM) to work for your organisation? How do you organise the content for all your inbound marketing channels? And what do you need to know to be able to structure your PIM platform correctly? These were the types of questions we were faced with when we went to work for DYKA.

Client: Dyka

Capability Building

Content management

Complexity

The market is becoming increasingly critical

DYKA produces plastic pipework systems. The complex market in which they operate requires them to adhere to a substantial number of data quality conventions. These include the ETIM classification for the construction and installation sector. In addition, product innovations rapidly supplant each other and the focus on inbound marketing content is growing.

Stakeholders in the market are becoming increasingly critical and demanding when it comes to product content. They want to know how environmentally friendly the manufacture of a certain pipe has been and whether the material can be recycled. To be able to support the progressively complex customer journey, marketing content is constantly becoming richer too. Add all these things together and it’s obvious that a growing diversity of product content is needed.

Mapping

The right information at the right moment

What if you don’t provide the information the client wants or requires and another suppler does? That could well mean that the client selects your competitor. The aim is therefore to always provide all the relevant parties with the right information at the right moment and in exactly the right way.

The old PIM system was no longer adequate. Before selecting a software supplier, DYKA wanted to clarify what the new system would need to be able to do. And – perhaps even more importantly – which information you need to be able to come to a decision on that.

In the colleague words

‘Companies want control of their data, to decide what the message is. A wholesaler, for example, shouldn’t have to think about the marketing texts for your products. That information needs to be delivered ready-made.’

Geert Bullens, Domain Lead Digital Content at IntoAction

Quick scan

Digital content management quick scan

We performed a quick scan to understand the situation at DYKA more clearly. A quick scan is a type of audit, consisting of a standardised set of verified methods. One of the things we looked at was content quality. We compared the channels for which DYKA has to deliver data (such as its own website, wholesalers, online stores and BIM systems) to the various types of content (specifications, measurements, logistic data, marketing texts, user guides, etc.).

We then assessed the quality of all these types of content against a proven set of criteria, such as consistency and relevance with respect to the customer journey. We also looked at the various roles and responsibilities – starting with developing a new product and ending with the publication of content on the various channels – since relevant product information comes from a range of parties in the organisation.

We analysed who had to do what and how that was organised. And even more importantly: where there were discrepancies. Reference materials, processes and data structures were also analysed.

Objective as starting point

From the outside in

A quick scan enables us to look from the outside in and from the inside out. The starting point is the organisation’s objectives, after which the viewpoint changes to the customer’s perspective. What do customers need now and in the future? Is the company able to actually offer that information and content? We assess this by means of desk research and interviews with internal stakeholders: people who work on these issues every day.

In the colleague words

‘It’s always a good idea to have an outsider perform these types of analyses, certainly in technical organisations. An outsider can provide a customer-driven perspective, something which is often difficult to see from within an organisation.’

Geert Bullens, Domain Lead Digital Content at IntoAction

Robust starting point

A robust starting point and broadly supported awareness

The result of the quick scan is firstly broadly supported awareness of the issue. That is necessary given that a major consequence of digital transformation is that data needs to assume a much bigger role in the organisation. And that requires considerable adjustments by both people and processes. We also made recommendations.

A robust starting point in the form of objectives and requirements, plus a practical plan which contained our answer to essential strategic questions:

How do we get the data to meet new standards?
How do we structure data governance?
How do we design creation and management processes?
Which roles and responsibilities apply?
And finally, which choice of technology would be the most appropriate here?

Success stories

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