Teams managing data often face organisational challenges. For example, individuals might edit data separately and fail to communicate, leading to unnecessary repeated work. In this post, we’ll offer some top tips for managing the transition onto PIM based on our experience of working with companies data.

Project managers

  • Appoint an overall project manager who will oversee the company’s transition onto PIM. Then appoint departmental project managers to organise their own transitions, as each department will likely have its own methods of data management.
  • Make sure that each field of data is assigned to a department or an individual so that everybody is aware of their responsibilities regarding what to update.
  • Delegate each task: e.g. who enters SKUs into PIM, who manages each phase of data entry.

Communication

  • Hold an initial meeting to establish the scale of the PIM project and key milestones to hit. Tasks to complete could involve the collation of data, the cleansing of data, and the upload of data onto PIM.
  • Discuss the endpoints of the data. Will it appear on a website? A print catalogue? This could influence which data needs to be uploaded.
  • Organise bi-weekly or monthly catchup meetings. These are key for discussing problems and reviewing deadlines for hitting milestones.

Workflow

  • Have a clear structure in place when using the PIM. Organise the work systematically, step by step, so everybody knows the sequence in which to perform tasks.
  • Be realistic about the time it takes to collate and upload data and aim for synchronisation. For instance, consider this scenario: one team performs a big upload of data, but another is lagging three months behind. By the time the second team updates their data, the first team will be out of date, and they will need to upload it again. This is unnecessary time and hassle that could be saved with planning and synchronisation.

Remember to keep track of your progress and create common goals. With efficient delegation, communication and a well-structured workflow, your teams should be at their optimum!