Most marketing departments will recognize the challenge: the need to be able to communicate quickly with individually adapted information for the customers is increasing, but there is no extra time available for solving the tasks.
This means that there is a need for working smarter, and you can do this by utilizing systems, which structure and automate the time-consuming tasks. A PIM system makes the work involved in product data from ERP and other sources much easier.
Formats like data sheets, technical specifications and price lists are traditional examples of material, which many marketing departments require to be able to service the sales organization on an ongoing basis.
ERP not suitable for printing
A standard scenario is one where a salesperson has to send out an offer to a customer and wants to give the customer a data sheet, which contains the technical description, a couple of images and a price list adapted to suit the customer’s discount agreement.
All of the necessary information is accessible but is spread across different systems.
The important master data and prices are located in the ERP system, but it is not possible to generate a PDF file from the ERP system that is ideal for the customer.
This means that the salesperson must get help from marketing to create an adapted document, and even though it is a trivial task, it takes up time. Time, which marketing could better spend on creating the next creative campaign.
And when a few days later, the same salesperson has another similar requirement, the document must once again be created from scratch. When making something begins to become laborious, it is only natural that the reaction is to look for a shortcut.
Salespersons and other people with customer contact will often personally start to create documents themselves from time to time, based on earlier versions – with the obvious risk that the design has stopped and the information has become obsolete. Very quickly, the wrong font types and old images are used, just as logos are used incorrectly in relation to the design manual.
The PIM system makes printing ERP data easy
If you want to avoid wasting time and gaining control of the company’s look, you need a system that can, based on user-friendly templates, generate individually adapted documents – which are based on valid data!
This is just one of the major benefits of a Perfion PIM system. The PIM system is the central location for all of the product information – a “single source of truth” – and this means you can be certain that you have found the correct logo or the updated product description.
The PIM system can be integrated closely with the ERP system, so that ERP data can be used in advanced printing formats. Marketing systems like Adobe Creative Suite can also be integrated with Perfion PIM, so that it becomes easy to update all types of product data in InDesign catalogs, product sheets and similar.
Templates ensure speed and uniformity
PIM system templates are the key to being able to rapidly make individually adapted offers, data sheets and similar. Templates are a user-friendly way of ensuring a uniform design on the overall level and at the same time adapting content case-by-case. With a few clicks of the mouse in the PIM system, you can choose which information you shall take, for example an offer and then generate unique PDF files for printing.
It means that instead of starting a lot of marketing work, the salesperson can personally make the desired PDF via the PIM system. He first selects which offer template he will use and then the relevant information in the system: which customer, which products will be shown, which images, whether prices should be shown, etc. Via a live notice in the ERP system, the PIM system is able to take into consideration any differentiated prices and similar factors.
In this way, updated information is always used, and the information is presented with a look that matches the company’s design line.
In other words, a PIM system makes it much easier to use ERP data for advanced printing formats. And that is only one of the ways that using PIM streamlines the daily work involved in ERP.
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Learn more in our white paper 'Six daily tasks in ERP, which become much easier using a PIM system'
