ERP vs PIM - Which System Should Lead in 2023 and Beyond?

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By: Sagar Sharma

ERP vs PIM - Which System Should Lead in 2023 and Beyond?

ERP vs PIM is an interesting topic to discuss and many people often seem to be confused between ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and PIM (Product Information Management). The fact is both ERP and PIM serve different purposes but under one category i.e. data management.

Most of us are familiar with ERP software, which organizes and collects business data through an integrated software suite. It integrates data of all the departments functioning in a business, such as accounts, human resources, production, sales, marketing, and more.

What is PIM?

What-is-PIM

PIM stands for product information management that acts as an end-to-end solution for integrating your product database with your eCommerce, social, and marketing channels for customers to view it effortlessly.

Be it you are a producer, wholesaler, or retailer, you can centrally collect, process, and manage product data as well as deliver your partners and distributors with the available information using several outputs and online channels through PIM.

PIM can be used dedicatedly to subscribe to content from external sources and publish it to multiple channels such as print, website(s), a native mobile commerce app, or a marketplace.

Capabilities of a PIM

Now that you know how PIM is extremely different from ERP, and it is important to provide high-quality information through content/catalog, it is necessary to know the benefits that PIM can offer to you.

  • Product Information Management is completely automatized
  • Easy management of related product content
  • Connects to other systems in a unidirectional and bi-directional manner
  • Straight access to digital and printed catalog design applications
  • Uses multiple file-formats for specific data export
  • Automated connection with Amazon, AliExpress Walmart, etc. like marketplaces
  • Automated connection with Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, etc. which are the best and giant eCommerce platforms
  • Enables creation of instant catalogs using a public or private access
  • Language translation of product information
  • Analysis and shooting of errors and omissions in data quality

Benefits of PIM

  • Offers User-Friendly Environment
  • Delivers Better Product Data Management
  • Improves Customer Experience
  • Reduced business operations and supply chain costs
  • Improved product time-to-market
  • Easy to Integrate with Business Enterprise Systems
  • Maintain product data consistency and quality across all the output channels

Want to know more about the benefits of PIM? Read What Are the Benefits of PIM (Product Information Management) Systems?

Factors That You Should Not Confuse with PIM?

Factors-That-You-Should-Not-Confuse-with-PIM

1. Do not mistake PIM as inventory manager

An inventory manager takes the responsibility of monitoring the warehouse materials, catalog stock levels, and supplies. The primary responsibility of an inventory manager would be updating information about product stock and the recent status of orders and warehouses. In this way, the inventory manager ensures the availability of product data across the online store, marketplaces, physical stores, and other sales channels.

2. A PIM is never a CRM

CRM is ideally designed for customer service teams to manage the customer database, especially for buyer data. However, PIM also plays a crucial role in customer acquisition and loyalty by providing accurate and product information and relevant content, to positively influence your customer’s browsing and buying experience.

3. Do not confuse PIM with DFM

Data feed manager is an extension which spreads the company’s catalog across multiple shopping platforms and search engines, thereby servicing e-marketing campaigns as well. In this platform, a PIM passes on the required information to DFM and collates all product information, orders, sales, and stock across various marketplaces.

What is ERP?

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) one of the software tools widely used by industrial organizations for centralizing their company’s database information and to make their business operations in a simplified manner.

Apart from that, the ERP tool helps organizations to automate their routine tasks and optimizes the employee’s work time. The main objective of this software tool is to increase the company’s revenue and to boost work efficiencies.

Capabilities of ERP

  • ERP solution offers strong financial features which that companies/industries can ensure meeting their financial goals
  • With the ERP system, the company’s Human Resource department can avail of high benefits with full scope.
  • Managing CRM (Customer Relationship Management) becomes easier with the ERP tool.
  • ERP system helps management to keep everything happening inside the organization up-to-date. This includes both back and front office functions.
  • The advanced features of the ERP solution help your business to move faster with effective sales and marketing along with better supply chain management (SCM).

Benefits of ERP

  • Enhances Business Reporting
  • Improved Customer Service
  • Enhances Business Cash Flow
  • High-level Cloud & Data Security
  • Standardize Modern Business
  • Delivers Effective Supply Chain Management

Type of Data Hosted in ERP

  • Product manufacturing
  • Inventory
  • Human Resources i.e. employees and recruitment process
  • Company accounting
  • Big data and business performance analytics
  • Warehouse and distribution network
  • Customer database, the key to Customer Relationship Management

PIM vs ERP – A Complete Analysis

PIM is completely product information-oriented and for direct customer-facing, and ERP is more transactionally oriented. ERP can nicely structure and optimize your sales-related business, and if your organization has more processes like ledger maintenance and stock inventory.

In simple words, a compatible PIM provides extended support in maximizing the capabilities you have created in ERP for your business. When both ERP and PIM functions together, it improves the efficiency and sales of your business. ERP can collect all the raw data of your business and integrate the information across all departments of your organization for internal purposes.

Well if you look at ERP from the high level, it is just a structured collection of files. ERP provides the collection of raw product data more of a generalized view, whereas PIM is more of a data maintenance system that allows your customers to view direct product information in an integrated manner.

Compared to ERP, PIM has a customer-centric approach towards networking, along with exhibiting certain functionalities and compatibilities that are available by default. A simple way to understand ERP vs PIM is with PIM you can subscribe to incoming data sources, produce them to listening systems and ensure your data quality management with more ease, thereby making monitoring possible through ERP.

A PIM has a high potentiality to receive, transfer, and enrich the data for marketing and sales purposes and ensures a unified approach to all vendors, marketers, wholesalers, etc. With PIM ineffective, the ERP receives the sales from the online channels which are later recorded in bookkeeping.

Even though the product management can be done using ERP, it requires great effort since the level of automatization required for configurations is lower than that required for a PIM. It may either end up in extreme customized work or may not work properly even after an ERP upgrade or change in interfacing systems.

ERP vs PIM is a never-ending war unless you understand from the deep down of its concept. ERP focuses on collecting data of every department in an organization and makes it available across teams for better productivity and business growth, with ease of accessing internal data.

PIM focuses more on product information and ensures any disparate data of ERP is also captured and listed chronologically, enabling product teams to work and collaborate on different types of data displayed for customer’s view with high quality.

ERP vs PIM: A Tabular Comparison

Key AspectsEnterprise Resource Planning (ERP)Product Information Management (PIM)

Core Purpose

ERP systems are designed to streamline an organization’s business processes, integrating functions like finance, HR, inventory, procurement, and more.

PIM systems focus specifically on managing product-related data, attributes, and specifications to enhance product offerings.

Data Scope

ERP manages a wide array of organizational data, from financial transactions to inventory levels and sales orders.

PIM manages product data, encompassing detailed attributes, variations, hierarchies, and relationships.

Data Complexity

ERP handles structured data from diverse business operations, often emphasizing financial and transactional information.

PIM manages intricate product attributes, specifications, images, videos, enabling richer product data representation.

Data Customization

ERP offers customization to align with varied business processes and industry needs, often via configuration or customization.

PIM allows extensive customization to cater to various product attributes, structures, and industry-specific requirements.

Catalog Structure

While ERP may include products within a broader inventory or sales context, they generally offer limited focus on detailed product data.

PIM excels in comprehensive product categorization, attributes, variations, facilitating rich and granular data.

Product Attributes

ERP commonly handles basic product attributes such as name, SKU, price, and quantity, with less emphasis on detailed product data.

PIM manages an array of product attributes, specifications, images, videos, enhancing product data quality and accuracy.

Data Enrichment and Quality

ERP emphasizes data accuracy, compliance, and auditability in financial and transactional data.

PIM prioritizes accurate product data, consistency across channels, improving data quality and consumer experiences.

E-commerce Integration

ERP offers e-commerce functionalities like order processing, inventory management, and sales tracking.

PIM integrates with e-commerce platforms for seamless product data exchange, ensuring consistent and updated product data.

Sales and Order Management

ERP supports sales processes, order creation, invoicing, and inventory control.

PIM streamlines product sales, data management, catalog creation, optimizing customer experiences.

Inventory Management

ERP manages inventory levels, replenishment, and order fulfillment.

PIM handles product attributes, variations, enabling accurate inventory tracking, and efficient management.

Manufacturing Processes

ERP integrates manufacturing workflows, production scheduling, and resource planning.

PIM concentrates on product data, specifications, enabling better product information management.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

ERP often includes basic CRM functionalities to track customer interactions, contact information, and sales activities.

PIM enhances customer experiences with accurate product data, even though not primarily focused on CRM functionalities.

Analytics and Reporting

ERP provides financial reporting, operational analytics, and business intelligence.

PIM offers insights into product performance, trends, channel effectiveness, leveraging robust product data analytics.

Workflow Automation

ERP automates business processes, approvals, and task assignments.

PIM streamlines product data enrichment, approvals, publishing workflows, ensuring timely and accurate data.

Localization and Multilingual Support

ERP supports multilingual operations for global business.

PIM handles multilingual product data, translations, region-specific information, catering to diverse markets.

Scalability

ERP scales to manage various departments’ data across enterprises.

PIM accommodates substantial structured product data, scaling as product portfolios expand.

Integration with Third-party Systems

ERP integrates with external systems like HR, finance, supply chain, etc.

PIM offers APIs for seamless integration with e-commerce, CRMs, marketplaces, enhancing data flow across platforms.

Data Security and Compliance

ERP prioritizes data security, compliance, and adherence to regulatory standards.

PIM ensures data accuracy, consistency, brand compliance, offering reliable product data for customer trust.

User Access Control

ERP implements role-based access control for data security.

PIM provides role-based access control, maintaining data accuracy, integrity, and data security.

API Integration

ERP offers APIs for third-party system integration.

PIM provides APIs for third-party integrations, syndication, ensuring efficient data flow across systems.

User Training and Support

ERP offers training and support for using the system.

PIM provides training, support for effective utilization, ensuring efficient product data management.

Industry-specific Focus

ERP caters to diverse industries, adapting to various business operations.

PIM offers significant value for industries with complex product data needs, like retail, manufacturing.

How PIM can help ERP to be fit for purpose around product data?

1. Playing competitively equal to each other’s strengths

ERPs are an essential source to input static data into the software. You can use ERP for filling stock and analyze the whereabouts of products. But forcing it to do the things that it does not fit into can create problems. While PIM gives complete freedom to ERP to focus on its purpose, it takes the responsibility of all rich product data like images, videos, technical specifications, PDFs, and detailed product descriptions.

PIM is a beneficial solution in terms of time management and sales aspects as well. Businesses need not spend time tracking product information within the ERP; instead, it is now within the platform itself. Since the sales data appear unique to your company, you can easily focus on higher sales conversions by differentiating your competitors easily.

2. Streamlining data as a single database

Sometimes ERP can be quite complicated because some companies tend to work with multiple ERPs to maintain their product information. Therefore, it becomes a costly solution since the data is spread across areas. Along with that, the company has to bear the implementation, customer support, software price, and the cost of training. Additionally, running multiple ERPs can lead sometimes to the loss of data as well.

This is where PIM streamlines the process by centralizing all disparate data into a single location.

3. Enhances the quality of product data

PIM allows viewing the entire lifecycle of a product from the beginning to the end in every small aspect. PIM ensures a product goes through all stages; it has to be covered through text, images, videos, or more and passes on to the relevant teams step by step and provides an accomplished product data, distributing to all sales channels in a limited time period.

4. Opportunities for new sales channels

Another way to show that PIM can be the best fit for ERP is the expansion of new sales channels. PIM performs exceptionally well by linking its platforms to various eCommerce systems, resellers, and retailers. Sales channels can claim huge benefits by doing so. For example, a technology retailer can think of selling their software/hardware on Amazon, but unfortunately, their ERP system may not allow the functionality to open a new channel.

By integrating PIM with ERP, the seller can easily place their product on Amazon. Moreover, multiple brands can distribute a plethora of their products quickly by implementing PIM in their system and help increase online conversions extremely well.

Final Verdict

Depending on your business need, you can have either PIM/ERP or both in the system, to boost sales and ensure higher online conversions. However, PIM is one step ahead of ERP by performing diversified functionalities. Having PIM implemented in your system can help streamline the entire product data collectively in a single database.

Keep reading our blogs for more information or clarifications of PIM if you are stuck in the middle and need some help.

Say goodbye to data chaos and embrace the power of PIM/MDM to supercharge your business growth!