PIM is a new category of software that is built around a repository for standardizing product attribute metadata (such as price, category, quantity) across different applications. PIM is similar in concept to master/reference data management systems in that the software forwards an integration architecture that drives consistent, unified data views of across disparate applications.
Oracle’s PIM Hub is a data management tool that provides a common taxonomy for disseminating product attribute data across various enterprise applications, including non-Oracle systems. The software provides cleansing, ETL (extraction, transformation, loading) and synchronization capabilities, and syndicates these as services for supporting standards-based data initiatives like UCCnet’s global data synchronization network (GSDN).
The software also provides a parametric search tool to scour through multiple product attributes stored across multiple systems.
We’ve designed [PIM Hub] to work in heterogeneous environments, said John Webb, vice president of application strategy at Redwood Shores, California-based Oracle.
Today most companies have multiple systems in place, each of which is run by a different part of the organization and has different descriptions of the same product. PIM Hub gives [companies] both control and standardization over this information regardless of where it sits, Webb said.
Webb said that PIM was part of Oracle’s Fusion middleware strategy which the company unveiled last month as a way to pull together its product stack in the wake of the PeopleSoft merger.
Oracle first espoused its data hub strategy at last December’s Oracle OpenWorld conference, primarily as a way to help companies consolidate hundreds of database by moving a copy of data to a central data hub while leaving existing systems intact.
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Oracle’s PIM Data Hub follows similar product roll-outs from SAP (Master Data Management) and IBM (WebSphere Product Center, which is really a re-branded version of Trigo Technologies’ PIM software ) late last year. It is also Oracle’s second information hub management; at the start of 2004 the company rolled out its Customer Data Hub, a customer data integration (CDI) solution.
Generally Oracle and SAP’s PIM solutions are thought to be more packaged, while IBM’s is a more of a custom build solution.
E-business and supply chain mandates from large retailers like Wal-Mart are fueling greater interest in PIM software. These retailers are now requiring their suppliers to send them product information electronically.
Oracle also bought retail software specialist Retek earlier this year.
PIM software is also being seen as crucial to new supply chain technologies like radio frequency identification (RFID) data handling. The company’s PIM software is shipping now.
