Excel is used heavily throughout data management and this is true for Product Information Management (PIM) too.
The reason of being for PIM solutions is often said to be to eliminate the use of spreadsheets. However, PIM solutions around have functionality to co-exist with spreadsheets, because spreadsheets are still a fact of life.
This is close to me as I have been working on a solution to connect PIM solutions (and other solutions for handling product data) between trading partners. This solution is called Product Data Lake.
Our goal is certainly also to eliminate the use of spreadsheets in exchanging product information between trading partners. However, as an intermediate state we must accept that spreadsheets exists either as the replacement of PIM solutions or because PIM solutions does not (yet) fulfill all purposes around product information.
So, consequently we have added a little co-existence with Excel spreadsheets in today´s public online release of Product Data Lake version 1.10.
The challenge is that product information is multi-dimensional as we for example have products and their attributes typically represented in multiple languages. Also, each product group has its collection of attributes that are relevant for that group of products.
Spreadsheets are basically two dimensional – rows and columns.
In Product Data Lake version 1.10 we have included a data entry sheet that mirrors spreadsheets. You can upload a two-dimensional spreadsheet into a given product group and language, and you can download that selection into a spreadsheet.
This functionality can typically be used by the original supplier of product information – the manufacturer. This simple representation of data will then be part of the data lake organisation of varieties of product information supplemented by digital assets, product relationships and much more.
Liliendahl on Data Quality 