A recent post on this blog was called B2C vs B2B in Product Information Management. This post was my take on the differences, if any, between doing Product Information Management (PIM) in a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) scenario versus in a Business-to-Business (B2B) scenario.
In a comment in the Product Information Management Professional Association group on LinkedIn Hans de Gier of SyncForce replied:
“For many of our B2B customers information plays a bigger role in the Market-to-Order process than for consumer products. But most of our customers (Consumer & Professional Packaged Goods Manufacturers) serve both retail and professional/wholesale channels, which have different information needs, even regarding the same products. So, any manufacturer targeted solution should be able to serve both channels with the right content via the right data channels. In our vision a more relevant question is: What is your take on the differences on doing PIM in Manufacturing versus Wholesale / Retail.”
Indeed, there are several ways to slice the PIM space and the supply chain position of a company as a supply chain delegate is for sure very relevant. Exchanging product information between trading partners in upstream and downstream (and midstream) positions must be very flexible and one size fits all thinking will not work.
The different positions of a company as they are in my mind is illustrated below:
The possible combinations when exchanging product information between supply chain delegates are plentiful. To mention a few channels:
- Manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to end private consumer
- Manufacturer to distributor to dealer to end business customer
- Manufacturer to distributor to dealer to manufacturer as raw material
- Manufacturer to merchant to marketplace to end customer
- Manufacturer to marketplace to end customer
- Manufacturer to/from brand owner to any midstream/downstream delegate
This variety is why the means of exchanging product information (product data syndication) between trading partners is essential in almost any PIM solution.
At Product Data Lake we offer the remedy to this challenge and in combination with any PIM solution or other application where in-house product information is managed.
Liliendahl on Data Quality 