Social PIM is a term that has recently been growing in popularity and I suspect that it will be acquiring new meanings in the near future. I caught up with Kate Koltunova, CEO and founder of Actualog. She is a very motivated and determined individual with her own views on what social PIM is. I hope you enjoy her insights as I did.
Kate: You see, today ‘social’ is an all-encompassing term and you will be very hard pressed to find a common definition…which is OK. My personal flavor of ‘social PIM’ is very simple. To me, PIM is a catalyst for collaboration among those who know product information better. We call these individuals Product Experts. The ‘social’ dimension is the common effort of the experts to come up with perfect, accurate, and fresh product information.
M.: Interesting flavor of ‘social’ indeed. Could you give us an example?
K.: I certainly can. Take a gas sensor. It is a very sophisticated product with numerous pieces of information attached to it. Now ask yourself: Who knows the key attributes of this product? Who knows how to classify this product? Typically, these activities (of attribution and classification, [ed.]) are time consuming but more importantly the lack of relevant attributes and misclassification can lead to poor revenue. Having a platform where qualified experts can initiate a process of product qualification to properly and authoritively create a standard is highly required, especially in B2B markets (the gas sensor example is further explored here).
M.: How do traditional disciplines like data quality and integration are affected by this social dimension?
K.: Interestingly enough, this concept embodies data quality from the get-go. What’s data quality anyway? I think it is all about making data fit for purpose. Well, in this case our experts hold the key of data accuracy, data relevancy, data completeness, etc.
M.: So basically you are saying that having certified and standardized product information upfront, will reduce the risk of poor data downstream.
K.: Yes, that’s correct.
M.: What about integration?
K.: I believe that Cloud is opening up opportunities that were just unthinkable a few years back. And ‘social’ is almost inseparable from it. Open APIs coupled with web based social PIM platforms, are the imperative of best collaboration and best product information. We don’t disregard ad hoc integration and there’s certainly work in that space. However, having a cloud-based social PIM would definitely simplify integration amongst suppliers, product experts, and retailers.
M.: As much as I hate this expression, I must admit you are a thought-leader in this space. Who else is working on this concept?
K.: Henrik Liliendahl Sørensen. His flavour of social PIM and social MDM is different but he is definitely a go-to guy when it comes to these topics. Would suggest to interview him J (Henrik maintains a fine blog here)
M.: Tell us a bit about Actualog.
K.: Oh finally! I founded Actualog in 2011, out of necessity. You can say that my mission is to join together the best product experts to create the perfect product data across industries. My solution allows people to register and start a product qualification process. There are plenty of communities already in the systems and new ones keep popping up. Say you know everything about alarms. What you have to do is simply create a new or join an existing community to socially define products in this category.
M.: How do you make money?
K.: Our cloud solution is powered by Azure. We generate revenue from users' subscriptions and advertising services. We expect that revenue would be distributed in the ratio of 80% subscription and 20% advertising. We offer free subscription to increase our client base and three different membership plans: category partner, community partner and innovation partner. Innovation partners is a flexible plan that depends on the actual requirements in data integration. Category partner and Community partner plans are fixed tariffs and they provide an access to system functions for all companies’ employees.M.: How can people learn more about you and actualog?
K.: I maintain a blog on my website.
M.: Kate, thank you very much for your great insights on an emerging field.
K.: It’s been a pleasure to be here. You are doing a great job with your PIM blog and I feel honoured to share my thoughts with your readers. I am looking forward to interesting feedback.
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