How Does An Open Source PIM Empowering SMBs to Compete With Big Tech Enterprises?

SMBs can compete shoulder-to-shoulder with Big tech firms by investing in open-source product information management platforms to support their customer experience goals, as Shashin Shah, CEO of Pimcore describes.

As small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) set out to compete with big tech companies on data management turf, they often find themselves at a disadvantage since big tech companies deploy expensive proprietary PIM applications to meet their customer experience (CX) goals. Open-source product information management platforms can change the game for SMBs, (by bringing them at par with big firms) helping them deliver rich, omnichannel experiences.

Five ways how open source PIM can help smaller enterprises improve their CX, build a foundation for omnichannel and successfully compete in global markets.

1. Customisability: To Support Complex Processes

Even today, many enterprises have a tangled web of processes and technologies, some of which are integrated across the organisation while others remain siloed. The extensive configurability of open-source PIMs means that businesses can customize the software to fit their existing and future needs, instead of having to realign their operations around the PIM platform.

Additionally, many open-source PIMs have single-source-of-truth data functions, which enable them to import data from multiple applications and data feeds. This functionality allows SMBs to support the many complex processes involved in omnichannel with accurate information and democratises data access across the enterprise.

2. Flexibility: For Freedom and Innovation

One of the primary benefits of using open source software is access to the underlying code. In the context of PIM, this access allows SMBs to tailor the platform to their specific business needs. It also offers a chance to create custom data flows and data capture points, which are essential when working with disparate online and offline channels, IoT hardware, and emerging technologies. In comparison, while proprietary PIM systems may come with a host of mature features, they rarely offer much by way of flexibility when it comes to configuration.

3. Interoperability: For Smoother Functioning

The API-based integration methodology of open source PIM is a boon for SMBs given that they allow a great amount of latitude in how you connect your existing systems together. Specifically, open-source APIs help you customize the data connectors between front-end systems, product databases, ERPs, PoS systems, customer data storage, content management platforms, catalog building software and thousands of other internal and third-party applications. Furthermore, you can add any number of APIs to a virtually unlimited number of systems as long as you have the bandwidth to support them. Very few proprietary software, if any, offer you the same level of interoperability that an open-source PIM platform delivers.

4. Unleash Automation: To Ease Your Work

Besides helping you create richer customer experiences and managing data, a great PIM system can help you automate hundreds of tedious tasks, freeing up your team’s time to focus on building innovative customer experiences. From merchandising and catalog building to data structuring and work corroboration, your PIM platform can be configured to do it all. But as any tech-savvy business leader will tell you, automation should be done in stages. By using an open-source solution, you’ll be able to add automation by degrees and on your terms, building approval-based workflows and notifications into every process, instead of having to rely on pre-configured protocols.

5. Control Your Total Cost of Ownership

Since there’s no licensing fee for open-source PIM software deployment, there isn’t any costs involved at that level. As far as the implementation, customization, and maintenance is concerned, it can be carried out either in-house or with the help of your preferred IT partner.

For an SMB with relatively tight budgets, the total cost of ownership is a crucial factor in any IT implementation, and open source PIM systems help you achieve just that. Moreover, the ability to control your PIM-related operation expenditure (OpEx) also gives you more room to compete with larger technology firms and enterprises.

Read my full article originally published at MarTech Series.