3 Case Studies on How You Can Benefit From an Open Source PIM?

The Gartner Magic Quadrant leaders of PIM (Product Information Management) and MDM (Master Data Management), such as Hybris, WebSphere, SAP's solutions are complex to implement. They are a great fit for multinational corporations, but pose the problem of flexibility, speed of implementation and customization, when used for medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Having a unique product repository has become a prerequisite to present product data on all digital channels and physical outlets. Similarly, publishing from a single source to multiple channels has become a competitive tool to reduce costs and improve customer experience.
This is where open-source solutions come in; they're light, easily adaptable to various business needs and are based on the same solid technology foundations that are powering the world wide web. We will present 3 short case studies on the solution that dominates the open source PIM sector today— Pimcore.

1) Intersport:

Intersport group, one of the world's leading distributors of sporting goods, uses the open source solution, Pimcore. As a robust software, that's proven itself on big projects with data consisting of millions of products, Pimcore is also used as an eCommerce platform. Thus, the system is homogeneous and adaptable to new web technologies and connected marketplaces.

Intersport went further, with more than 200 Pimcore installations for individual dealers in parallel, sharing product data, assets and media (images, videos, documentation, manuals, etc.). The implementation of such a product information system demonstrates that open-source PIM solutions are strong enough to directly compete with older, but sometimes outdated solutions that managed to capture the market at one point of time.  Pimcore also possess the possibility of evolution in terms of architecture and scalability (scalable architecture).

2) Gina Knitwear:

With more than 175 stores in 5 countries, Gina Tricot, that specializes in women's fashion, has also chosen Pimcore. Gina Tricot wanted to streamline its product data, simplify logistics processes and wanted a modern multi-channel solution. Pimcore has perfectly responded to the need, by managing its eCommerce shops. The eCommerce sites could be modernized at the same time, thanks to the CMS (Content Management System) integrated with Pimcore and the responsive-design (website that adapts automatically on computer, but also on tablet or mobile) to boost sales and customer satisfaction.

3) Gogo:

We will finish with an original case study, of an organization named  Gogo, the world leader in the provision of internet connected services and leisure in aviation. If you have flown with an American or Japanese Airline, you may have used network games or internet connected services. Most of them are powered by Gogo. There was a need to manage all their products, to update them and to make them evolve. The management of the product portfolio, their deployment and support were centralized using Pimcore's product information management solution.

Pimcore interfaces with their other technical solutions, and manages the deployment of their services and their updates. Media costs for maintenance tasks have been reduced. At the same time, Gogo was able to reduce the time to market of its services and products, enrich the customer experience and increase its customer satisfaction rate. Best of all, dashboards, reporting tools and analysis have been easily implemented, thanks to the advanced features offered by Pimcore.

Through these 3 short case studies, we hope you've been able to see that implementation of a product information management solution is not limited to the proprietary solutions requiring high deployment costs and whose evolution and modularity are complex. New open source solutions such as Pimcore, can also make your life easier. Their technical architecture is based on the latest web technologies. So, they only require a web server, which does not cost much. And the software license prices are zero. So, in effect, your budget is allocated for the real part that interests you, i.e., the customization of the solution according to your business needs, so you can benefit from the advantages of a PIM.

This article was originally published in French by our Gold Partner SENZO.