Stefan Herold of Softlution Group presented at the HMC Network on the challenges, figures and facts that come with product information management.

1. Softlution Group
The world at your fingertips
Enterprise PIM in the 360° view
Stefan Herold
Director Consulting

2. Agenda
Page  2
360° Enterprise product information management
Introduction
Challenges
1
2
3
Summary4
Discussion5

3. Challenges
Page  3
Subchapters
 Lifecycle
 Major problems today
 Figures and facts

4. Lifecycle eBusiness – from the year 1999
Page  4
 Fast growth in the market
 No structure growing –
reaction to the market
 Old heterogene IT
structures
 Bad product information
 Bad and slow search
possibilities
Reengeneering is
necessary for successful
eBusiness„Life cycle“ of e-Business
Source: Gartner Group, 1999

5. Major problems today
Page  5
Study „Verticalization in retail market“
Source: KPMG/IfH

6. Figures and facts
 30% of all article data from wholesales and
industry have wrong information (the correction
cost is around 60-80 €)
 3.5 % of the revenue got yearly lost due to the fact
of inefficient Information flow in the supply chain
 Companies invest on average 25 minutes per article per year into the
manual correction from not synched data (with 30000 articles it is
around 520 days effort = 2,5 FTE Full Time Employees)
 60 % of all written invoices have faults (The correction cost is
between 40-400 €) - 43 % of all invoices got a special discount due
to the reason of errors.
Page  6
Source: AT.Kearney

7. 360° - Enterprise PIM
Page  7
Subchapters
 Example product information
 Situation in companies
 Central PIM solution
 Long tail strategy / shadow assortment

8. customer information (Customer A)
 Product-ID: KD12574
 Description: Würth screwdriver PSR18
 Cust. price: 63,99 €
 Sold: yes
 Promoted: yes
Example product information
Page  8
Marketing Information
Bosch Cordless Drill/Driver PSR 18
 Compact and powerful
 Powerful 18 V motor with planetary gears
 Torque pre selection with 10 torque settings
plus a drill setting – optimum power for every
application
 Twin-sleeve "Click" keyless chuck – easy,
tool-free bit changes
Other advantages
 Bosch Electronic speed control: "accelerate"
from 0 – max. using the trigger switch
 Power Light – thanks to the built-in LED, your
work piece is always well lit and clearly visible
 Run-out brake and switch-on lock
 Quick-change battery pack
 Soft grip for a better and more comfortable
hold
 Bit storage compartment on the housing
Comes with:
 1 battery
 Charger
 Carrying case
Part No.: 0 603 955 300
Supplier Information (Supplier A)
 Product-ID: L12593BO
 Descript.: Screwdriver PSR18
 Price: 65,43 $
 Del. time: 2 days
 Supplier contract
Master Data Information
 Product-ID: H57844
 Description.: Bosch cordl. screwdriver PSR18
 Price: 59,50 €
 List price: 65,00 €
 Stock: yes
 Delivery time: 0 days
Datapool- / Classifikation- Information
 GTIN-Number: 4006885610231
 eCl@ss: 21-05-08-01 (Hand push
automatic screwd.)
 Proficl@ss: AAC243c001 (Hand push
automatic screwd.)
 UNSPSC: 27111737 (Hand push
automatic screwd. )
 RFID 12D25FB48C5A9E84
Technical information
 Battery voltage: 18 V
 Battery capacity: 1,2 Ah
 Battery type: Nickel-Cadmium
 Quick drill chuck: 10 mm
 Idle speed: 0 –1250 min-1
 Torque: 26 Nm
 Max. torque: 11 Nm
 etc.
Manufacturer Information
 Product-ID: 0 603 955 300
 Description: Bosch cordless screwdriver PSR18
 Price: 69,99 €
 Del. time: 5 days
 Picture: orangetblob.jpg
Relations
 Accessory: Replacement battary,
suitecase, drill, bit,…
 Alternative: PSR-18, PSR-18 LI-
2,…etc.
 Package: Machine with 2 batteries

9. Current situation in companies
Page  9
Market placess
Supplier
Purchase
Product manager Marketing Sales IT
ERP
Web shop
Print catalogs
eCatalogs
Market places

10. Current situation international
Page  10
Subsidary
Belgium
Subsidary
Netherlands
Subsidary
Germany

11. Solution: Enterprise PIM System
Page  11
Supplier 1
departments, user
Communication in both
directions? Who is the leading
system?
...
ERP
Supplier
integration,
Supplier self
service
Marketing Sales
Product
managment
ERP
ERP
Import
• Supplier Integration
• Flexbile Import
• Quality check
Maintenance
• Mass data changes
• Assortments
• Media Assets
Workflows
• Product status
• Roles and Rights
• Dynamic workflows
Export
• Print page planning
• Flexible export
• Automation
PIM
•B2B
•B2C
•Partner channel
eCommerce
•Price lists
•Catalogs
•Flyers
•...etc.
Print
•CD/DVD-ROM
•Newsletter
•…etc.
eInformation
•Market places
•Key account
customer
BMEcat, CSV, XML
•Procurement
OCI, Punchout
eCatalogs
Supplier 2
Supplier N
Multichannel
Flow back (e.g.: Order)

12. Enhance your assortment with PIM
Page  12
Supplier assortment
Offer assortment
Core assortment
4 Mio products
25.000 products
80.000 products
PIM
ERP shadow assortment
in
ERP
Numbers in this graphic are only example figures!
The long tail
“The distribution and inventory costs of
wholesalers allow to realize significant profit out
of selling small volumes of hard-to-find items to
many customers, instead of only selling large
volumes of a reduced number of popular items.
The group of persons that buy the hard-to-find or
"non-hit" items is the customer demographic
called the Long Tail.”
Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine

13. 360° Enterprise Product Information Management
Page  13
360°
Enterpris
e
PIM
Data pool
• In house sale
• Call center
Maintenance
• Classification
• Product/Item
• Assortments
• Documents
Onboarding
• Import
• Validation
• Merge
Transaction
• ERP
• Supplier
• Customer
• Data pools
eProcurement
• OCI
• Punch-out
• Key accounts
• E-Catalogs
Internet
• E-Commerce
• M-Commerce
• F-Commerce
• Marktplätze
• Suchmaschinen
• Brands
Publications
• Catalogs
• Price list
• Flyer
• Datasheets
• Offers
Point of sales
• Stores
• Displays
• Posters
• Datasheets
integrate · manage · sell
“The accurate synchronization of
consistent product information between
trading partners is the biggest single
opportunity we currently have in our
industry to save money.”
Jeremy Hollows, In Sync Consulting

14. Summary
Page  14
Subchapters
 Benefits
 Statements
 Look ahead
 Discussion

15. Potential benefits MDM/PIM
 Consistent product data management
- Increased data quality and data consistency
- More efficient time to market of new products incl. promotion planning
 Efficient cost management
- Optimized usage of resources
- Decreased inventory and stock cost
- Decreasing effort data and catalog maintenance
- Usage and aggregation of existing information from different data sources
- Process optimization
 Increasing turnover
- Opening new geographical markets
- Quicker time to market with new products
- Enhance customer relation
- Quicker reaction on market changes or complex challenges
- Enhance customer relation with individual customer products, assortments and
customer specific catalogs
Page  15

16. Statements
Page  16
“Early innovators are taking it a step further: They are turning to PIM solutions to lay the
groundwork for top-line growth and tighter customer relationships.”
Erica Rugullies,
Forrester Research
Gene Alvarez ,VP of Technology
Research Services at Meta Group
“The accurate synchronization of consistent product information between trading partners is
the biggest single opportunity we currently have in our industry to save money.”
Jeremy Hollows,
Carrefour
“We believe enterprises that haven't moved forward with a product-information-
management strategy will be under-prepared for [...] long-term process-improvement
contributions. These enterprises will be unable to convert EPC codes into the semantics
needed for conversation between a retailer's and suppliers' operational systems [...]. Both
retailers and suppliers will need to create an environment that converts EPC-based activity
into meaningful product information.“

17. Look ahead
 With perfect product information you can support future systems
 Are you ready?
look ahead!

18. Germany HQ
Softlution Deutschland GmbH
Am Brambusch 24
44536 Lünen
 +49 (231) 98 60 – 390
Germany south (DACH)
Softlution Deutschland GmbH
Leitzstraße 45
70469 Stuttgart
 +49 (711) 490 66-216
Netherlands
Softlution Nederland BV
Luchthavenweg 55C
5657 EA Eindhoven
 +31 (40) 235 0506
Belgium
Softlution Belgium NV
Voogdijstraat 31
3500 Hasselt
 +32 (11) 260 990
Page  18
Thank you for your attention!
More information you can find under: www.softlution.com