Print Catalog Project

A business, and industrial manufacturer has a product data problem. Sales partners, sales teams and resellers use a 6 year old catalog in the field. Yes, I said six years.

The print catalog, some call the big book is older than some new entrants into this manufacturer’s market. What to do.

Put in charge of this project, a new Director has found a full plate. First, sure the new project is started yet buy-in from the business and from IT is low at best.

The director sees the issue; disparate product data all over the place. Residing on many systems and laptops. Marketers fight hard, each day, to mine, find, cleanse and enrich product data for the simplest task.

Publishing product information to web, to print and to partners is slow and painful. Product data edits, like image changes, attribute addition and deletion, happen in one place, in a silo. Federating product data to systems like ERP, is not done.

The product data mess grows and grows each day. My recommendation is PIM, or product information management. Central database of accurate product data, which can be used, would be the end game.

To be used, are the operative words. Gaining a central database of clean, accurate product information will enliven merchandising, marketing and sales.