How to decide on the right PIM and DAM setup for your business

When it comes to Product Information Management (PIM) and Digital Asset Management (DAM) it can seem like the options are endless. Both are essential for product content management but PIM vs. PIM with Built-in DAM: which is the best choice for your business? Is a PIM with built-in DAM enough? When should you opt for separate systems? In this article we’ll provide an overview of how to choose between a standalone PIM and DAM set up or a combined PIM-DAM solution.

What’s the difference between PIM and DAM?

While DAM focuses on managing digital assets such as images, videos, and documents, PIM is dedicated to overseeing granular, fielded product information. This ensures accuracy and consistency throughout the product lifecycle.

How can PIM and DAM complement each other?

Despite these differences, there is some overlap between the two system types. Integrating a PIM with a DAM platform allows you to automatically sync assets to your PIM. Plus, link assets to your products and enhance asset meta-data using product data from the PIM.

What approaches to PIM/DAM integration are available?

Some PIMs package PIM and DAM up into the core system. Others have their own DAM as a separate in-house developed solution that operates either as a standalone DAM solution or an integrated system within the PIM. In addition, the top end DAMs and the top-end and mid-tier PIMs have APIs that allow for data integration between DAM and PIM in all sorts of different combinations, so a little work in coding the API is called for. However, several of these PIM/DAM integrations are common enough that much of that legwork has already been done.

Which approach is best for your circumstances? 

An effective way of answering this is to list the asset management tasks you need to undertake. Then rank them in order of importance. Also, wherever possible, associate each with an amount of time. This should correspond to roughly how many person-hours that task currently takes (e.g. per year). This step of actually allocating time estimates to tasks is important. It avoids you, for instance, paying thousands extra each year for an automated solution to a task that might only comprise a few hours per year as a manual task.

Typical image management tasks

To help you, below are examples of the key image management tasks that companies typically encounter. Some relate specifically to a PIM, while some are part of the wider picture of business processes.

General image management tasks: 

• Sourcing: Obtaining the assets, whether through organised shoots or directly from suppliers/manufacturers.
• Naming: Managing the naming of assets is generally key to efficiency.
• Validation: Unless you have significant trust in the asset supply process, you’ll want to incorporate some form of policing of assets to confirm content and suitability. Certainly how they look but also characteristics such as resolution.
• Conversion and Delivery: We need to recognise that the purpose of managing product assets (and rich product data in general) is typically to meet the needs of specific marketing channels, and these channels are likely to impose needs related to the characteristics of assets (size, resolution, colour mode, format, compression) and location (e.g. on a website server).

PIM-specific image management tasks:

• Assets need to be linked to Products (SKU/Group/Category etc.). This may be a manual task, or it may be partially or fully automated. Enabling automation in relation to linking assets to products requires some form of pattern matching. For example, if the images are named by SKU (or contain SKU in a meta-data field) then there is a pattern match that can be used by a business process.
• You may need to distinguish the purpose of an asset in relation to the product. For example, is it the main image of the product? A detail shot? A video? A user guide? A specification sheet? A 360 view etc. Where automated asset to product linking is required, this distinction between different types of links introduces an extra complication to pattern matching requirements. The naming pattern needs to associate the asset with the relevant product(s) AND the purpose of the asset. For instance, naming an image AB789_01.jpg could indicate “Link this image to SKU AB789 as ‘Main Image 1′”.
• As well as being visible outside the PIM, the asset may need to be previewed within the PIM. This would enable the PIM user to see what a product looks like while they’re editing product data. Additionally, it may be that asset validation is done within the PIM.
• Assets may need to be captioned.
• Data feeds and exports from the PIM to marketing channels (such as websites) may need to package and include the asset files. Or include image URLs, and the parameters of these assets (e.g. pixel size) may need to be specific to the channel’s needs.
• Within some industries, meta-data of the image, such as copyright information or valid from/to dates, may also need to be referenced or managed. It may be more convenient to do this within the PIM.

Armed with this list you can then identify systems and/or system combinations that effectively address enough of your priority tasks to be economically attractive.

How to decide on the right PIM and DAM setup for your business

When deciding between a separate Digital Asset Management system and Product Information Management system, or a integrated solution, it’s essential to consider your organisation’s specific needs, goals, and resources. Both approaches offer distinct advantages. Separate systems provide specialised features and scalability, while integrated solutions can simplify workflows and reduce costs.

Ultimately, the best choice depends on the complexity of your digital asset and product data requirements. Plus, your team’s workflow preferences, and your long-term growth strategy. By carefully evaluating these factors, you can select a solution that aligns with your business objectives and maximises efficiency and value.

Contact us today to discuss the right PIM and DAM approach for your business.

Or, read more about The Essential Features of a Product Information System in our comprehensive article.