The Truth About Cloud vs. On-Premise Product Information Management
A powerful product information management (PIM) system is a boon to your marketing and sales team. It enables effortless product information sharing and product knowledge training across the organization.
Easy access, consistent product data, and better management are why you want to invest in a PIM system.
- But what is product information management?
- What are the types of PIM?
- Which PIM is better for your business?
This succinct guide answers all your questions about PIM.
Beginning with...
What is Product Information Management?
PIM software, in its essence, collates all product data in one place.
It includes:
- Product specifications
- Digital assets (videos, images, PDFs, etc.)
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) data (label, price, SKU)
- Product descriptions
- Translation, especially if you sell internationally
You can optimize and distribute your product information across various channels. Before the advent of PIM, this information was typically stored in spreadsheets.
But imagine having spreadsheets for tens or hundreds of products, a common occurrence in eCommerce and retail. Not to mention, they were incredibly difficult to track and update with new information.
Despite best efforts, product data consistency was always a possibility. It still is for businesses that continue to rely on spreadsheets or other siloed systems. PIM eliminates this problem in many ways:
- You don’t need to go back and forth between different spreadsheets or folders since all the product information lives in one system.
- You can edit information in one place. Let’s say you edit the price once in PIM. The change will reflect on your website, catalogs, social media, etc.
- You get a clear picture of how ready a new product or product line is for launch.
- You are assured of consistent, accurate, and updated information.
- Product information sharing and product knowledge training becomes a lot easier.
Enriched and sanitized data sets the stage for product content distribution. The distribution can be across different marketplaces, your website, or data sheets to your clients. Kytes is a leading content distribution platform that works across all industries.
Before moving on to the on-premise vs. cloud PIM differentiation, let us understand each briefly:
On-Premise PIM
On-premise PIM is physically located on your business premises. It’s housed and managed on your company’s servers. In this case, you are in charge of the upkeep and integration of PIM. That’s why you need dedicated personnel for it.
Cloud PIM
Cloud PIM is hosted off-site rather than on-site. Third-party providers such as Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS) offer cloud-based PIM software for businesses. They are also responsible for software upkeep.
On-Premise vs. Cloud PIM: A Quick Glance
Before we go into details, let’s take a look at the table below, which highlights the main differences between the two types of PIM systems:
On-premise PIM
- Labor-intensive and time-consuming implementation
- Significant costs involved
- Offers robust security
- Users have complete control over the system
- Fully customizable
- Scalable
Cloud PIM
- Easier to implement
- Lower setup and maintenance costs
- Highly secure, depending on the PIM solution
- Less control
- Limited customizations
- Limited scalability
Now, let’s understand the criteria you should consider to decide which PIM is better for your business.
Factors to Consider While Choosing Your PIM
Let’s dig deeper into the top five parameters:
1. Speed
In today’s fast-paced, interconnected world, businesses that launch the right products at the right time and at the right place rule the market. That requires agility, something which is only possible through cloud PIM.
It greatly reduces the time-to-market by eliminating deployment-related hassle. The time taken to install and configure cloud PIM is way less than its on-premise counterpart.
All you have to do is upload your product data and enrich it for different marketing campaigns and product knowledge training.
Additionally, you don’t need to worry about security patches, version updates, application hosting, and hardware maintenance – unlike on-premise PIM!
2. Cost
Another important consideration is cost. With cloud PIM, you bear less maintenance and setup costs as it’s managed by the vendor.
The subscription model also allows SMEs to scale rapidly since most of them cannot afford the significant upfront cost invested in on-premise PIM.
The latter requires heavy investments in the form of hardware, software licensing, system upgrades, data migration from legacy systems, integration with existing applications, server installation, hiring and training dedicated staff, and customizations.
3. Security
Both cloud and on-premise PIM are vulnerable to data breaches. Technological advancements facilitate robust security, but they also give rise to newer threats every single day. Data security is a great concern for any business.
With cloud PIM, the vendors are responsible for data privacy and security. They use universally accepted authentication protocols to offer top-notch safety from malicious parties. Specifically, they use internationally-validated techniques like purging, data-tracking, and encryption to do so.
However, the security aspect is not really in your hands if you’re using cloud PIM. That’s why organizations that deal with extremely sensitive, mission-critical data prefer on-premise PIM. Along with data encryption keys, they use hardware security modules for almost-impenetrable safety
4. Scalability
Since you require physical servers to operate on-premise PIM, it has limited scalability and flexibility. The restricted remote access also prevents round-the-clock product information sharing and product knowledge training.
To accommodate increasing product volumes and changing customer demands, you’d need additional resources and new server capacity. This is where cloud PIM has a huge advantage over on-premise systems.
5. Control
With cloud PIM, you don’t have complete control over the way your product data is stored, managed, and accessed. Apart from that, you don’t have any control over different versions released by the provider. Hence, if you don’t like some of the new features, you can’t do anything about it.
Not to mention, you can do nothing to fix unforeseen glitches or unwanted service disruptions. That’s why many big organizations use on-premise PIM and not a cloud system. Plus, cloud PIM is not fully customizable, unlike on-premise PIM.
Cons of Cloud PIM
Clearly, cloud PIM has several benefits over on-premise PIM. But it isn’t without drawbacks either.
Here are a few cons that you might want to ponder upon:
- Even with the less upfront cost, the monthly or yearly fee does add up over time. You want to carefully analyze the cost involved, let’s say, for the next decade.
- Some businesses don’t feel comfortable relying on third-party vendors for data security, especially when sensitive data is stored on shared servers. However, most vendors assure the highest level of information safety.
Final Note
Traditional ERP systems don’t store all the necessary product information. They usually keep track of price, inventory, and cost.
To collate other critical details like digital assets, specifications, descriptions, etc., you require a product information management system. Among the two types of PIM software, i.e., cloud vs. on-premise, your choice should depend on your current abilities, company plans, and objectives.
Cloud PIM, notably, facilitates hassle-free product information sharing and product knowledge training from a single source of truth. All you need is a unified content distribution platform like Kytes. Partner with Kytes today.
COVID-19 Impact Analysis on Product Information Management Market report published by Value Market Research provides a detailed market analysis comprising market size, share, value, growth and trends for the period 2019-2027.
The report encompasses data regarding market share and recent developments by key players.
Moreover, this market report also covers regional and country markets in detail.The research report also covers the comprehensive profiles of the key players in the market and an in-depth view of the competitive landscape worldwide.
The major players in the Product Information Management include SAP, IBM, Oracle, Informatica, Pimcore, Akeneo, Winshuttle, Inriver, Salsify, Stibo Systems, Aprimo, Contentserv, Riversand, Mobius, Perfion, Pimcore, Profisee, Vinculum, Censhare, Pimworks, Vimedici, Truecommerce, Magnitude Software, Plytix, and Syndigo..
This section includes a holistic view of the competitive landscape that includes various strategic developments such as key mergers & acquisitions, future capacities, partnerships, financial overviews, collaborations, new product developments, new product launches, and other developments.Get more information on "Global Product Information Management Research Report" by requesting FREE Sample Copy at https://www.valuemarketresearch.com/contact/product-information-management-market/download-sampleMarket SegmentationThe broad Product Information Management has been sub-grouped into the Enterprise Size, End-User Industry and Region.
The report studies these subsets with respect to the geographical segmentation.
