The Forrester Wave™: Product Information
Management Solutions, Q4 2016
The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
by Fiona Swerdlow and Nasry Angel
December 5, 2016
For EBuSiNESS & ChANNEl StrAtEgy ProFESSioNAlS
ForreSTer.coM
Key takeaways
Informatica, riversand, And Stibo Systems
Lead The Pack
Forrester’s research uncovered a market in which
informatica, riversand, and Stibo Systems lead
the pack. EnterWorks, Agility Multichannel,
inriver, Contentserv, and SAP hybris offer
competitive options. iBM and ADAM Software
follow as Contenders.
eBusiness Pros Are Looking For Self-Service,
connectivity, And Automation
the market is growing because more eBusiness
professionals see PiM as a way to address
some of their top challenges. eBusiness pros
increasingly trust PiM providers to act as
strategic partners and are including them as part
of their digital transformation initiatives.
Integration And Syndication, Usability, And
Vendor Portal Tools Are Key Differentiators
As legacy enterprise applications become
outdated and less effective for the business user,
improved integration and syndication, usability,
and portal tools will dictate which providers
will lead the pack. Vendors that provide these
offerings position themselves to successfully
deliver quick and lasting value to their customers.
Why read this report
in our 28-criteria evaluation of product
information management (PiM) providers, we
identified the 10 most significant — ADAM
Software, Agility Multichannel, Contentserv,
EnterWorks, iBM, informatica, inriver, riversand,
SAP hybris, and Stibo Systems — and
researched, analyzed, and scored their solutions.
this evaluation shows how each provider
measures up and helps eBusiness professionals
make the right choice for their business.
25
7
10
17
© 2016 Forrester research, inc. opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester®,
technographics®, Forrester Wave, roleView, techradar, and total Economic impact are trademarks of Forrester
research, inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. unauthorized copying or
distributing is a violation of copyright law. [email protected] or +1 866-367-7378
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table of Contents
PIM Is Indispensable In The New Era Of
Distributed Commerce
PiM graduates From Product Data
Management to Product Experience
Management
PIM Is For Business; MDM Is For
Technology Management
PIM Evaluation Overview
Evaluated Vendors And inclusion Criteria
Vendor Profiles
leaders
Strong Performers
Contenders
Supplemental Material
Notes & resources
Forrester conducted product evaluations in
August 2016 and interviewed 10 vendor and user
companies: ADAM Software, Agility Multichannel,
Contentserv, EnterWorks, iBM, informatica, inriver,
riversand, SAP hybris, and Stibo Systems.
related research Documents
the Forrester Wave™: Product information
Management (PiM), Q2 2014
Polishing up your Products — Why PiM really
Matters
For EBuSiNESS & ChANNEl StrAtEgy ProFESSioNAlS
The Forrester Wave™: Product Information Management Solutions,
Q4 2016
The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
by Fiona Swerdlow and Nasry Angel
with gene leganza, Michele goetz, Anjali yakkundi, Shreyas Warrier, and Diane lynch
December 5, 2016
For EBusinEss & ChannEl stratEgy ProFEssionals
The Forrester Wave™: Product Information Management Solutions, Q4 2016
December 5, 2016
© 2016 Forrester research, inc. unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law.
[email protected] or +1 866-367-7378
2
The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
PiM is indispensable in the New Era of Distributed Commerce
PiM is the business application that orchestrates critical information and content that customers need
along their multitouchpoint product research and buying journeys (see Figure 1). Modern retailers know
they must proactively provide their customers with rich, consistent experiences that are appropriate for
each device and context. in the age of the customer, modern retailing is largely shaped by shoppers
who use digital touchpoints to research and buy products: in 2017, digital touchpoints will, in some
way, affect over half of total uS retail sales — that is, 51%, or $1.71 trillion.1 the empowered customer
increasingly is willing to experiment with new technologies, owns multiple connected devices, and
uses a mobile phone in-store to research everything from ratings to prices.2 PiM is a key strategic
investment to deliver that vision.
rich, accurate, and well-managed product information is an essential tool for store associates and
customer contact center reps at any point in the customer’s shopping journey. retailers need a
channel-agnostic central hub from which they can deliver just the right product information to the
customer, regardless of that customer’s location, the time of day, or the stage in the customer life
cycle, not just before the purchase but after it as well.3 At its core, a PiM application enables eBusiness
professionals and their customer-obsessed organizations to:
› Publish information to established and emerging target systems and touchpoints. in the new
commerce environment, PiM is the launch pad for new product experiences taking place across
myriad digital and physical touchpoints. in addition to the well-known print and eCommerce
target systems, PiM is evolving to publish product information directly to online retailers like
Amazon (where 65% of online adults look up product information on a mobile phone) and search
engines like google (where nearly 70% of online adults do the same).4 For example, a branded
manufacturer that has an emerging direct-to-consumer business can now publish product
information to one of these channels to inform customers of its offerings and potentially capture
additional revenue.
› Manage publishing workflow and approvals by channel. Business users use PiM to write
channel-specific business rules to configure thresholds for publication readiness that are channel-
specific and adhere to the strict requirements of the channel. it’s no secret that large retailers
leverage their size to get manufacturers and distributors to comply with their ever-changing product
information requirements. this influence can mean that just when suppliers have established a
process to comply with the retailers’ demands around a product, the requirements change again.
For example, a large retailer might require a minimum of three high-resolution images and a video
for one particular product line but five images and no video for another. PiM enables business
users to write this logic into the system and apply it at scale to entire product lines.
› Synchronize product information across digital touchpoints and physical stores. regardless
of the customer’s shopping behavior (e.g., buy online and pick up in-store; ship to home; or
research online and buy in-store), eBusiness pros must synchronize inventory and product
information among touchpoints as varied as desktop and mobile website, in-store point-of-sale
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December 5, 2016
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3
The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
systems, and mobile apps. Customers will quickly spot inconsistencies, resulting in higher product
returns, increased customer service calls and emails, lower repeat purchases and loyalty, and
general dissatisfaction.
› Develop and grow a single trusted source of reliable product information. PiM thrives as the
convergence point for multiple product data sources and as a connection hub for applications
while also tackling the challenge of doing data quality at scale. industrial, brand, and consumer
packaged goods (CPg) companies that manufacture their own products have historically managed
product information within enterprise systems like enterprise resource planning (ErP) and product
life-cycle management (PlM) but also, quite often, through basic spreadsheets. historically, they’ve
pulled information from sources like suppliers, third-party data engines, taxonomy systems, and
standards boards. these tools individually fall short when it comes to reliably enriching products
for digital commerce. For example, supplier portal capabilities within PiM tools apply the retailer’s
specified quality and governance rules to data submitted by suppliers on the fly. this capability
greatly reduces the amount of “dirty” data that business users have to deal with and, in turn, allows
them to focus more on strategy than manual data-cleansing work.
› reduce time-to-market for new product launches. PiM tools provide flexible workflow and
business process management capabilities to orchestrate both the structured and unstructured
data work among the different roles. it enables automation for business users to reduce time-to-
market by setting up sophisticated business rules that apply validation checks, trigger workflow
actions and notifications, and update the appropriate touchpoints once they meet a minimum
threshold for readiness. in a poorly governed data environment, users frequently find multiple
versions of a product description and images as well as compliance documents, ingredients lists,
and Excel spreadsheets scattered throughout file shares. in addition, processes are typically
fractured, with products sitting in a queue for long periods before they’re approved. this means
that in an industry like financial services, it can take six to nine months to launch or refresh a
product — an unacceptable situation in today’s world, where customers have a plethora of choices
and can easily move on.
› Merchandise products effectively. Without product insights, merchandisers are flying blind: PiM
dashboards deliver insights for merchandisers around the roi of truly telling a product story. For
example, merchandisers can test and quantify the impact of adding one more image or video to
a product.5 Add to that data on clicks and views, customer feedback for similar products, and
shopping cart analyses, and merchandisers will know how best to build a product category and
tell that product story. For example, if a product is targeted to Millennials, it’s probably a good
idea to include video because this generation consumes more mobile video than any other.6 in
addition, product insights play a significant role in how merchandisers create product categories
and bundles, not just based on traditional associations like paint and a paint brush but on tangible
customer buying patterns like paint, a brush, and masking tape to protect the environment
surrounding the painted surface.
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December 5, 2016
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4
The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
FIGUre 1 the role of PiM in A Customer Journey
EXPLORE
USE
ASK
ENGAGE DISCOVER
BUY
• Product visualizations
• Similar products and brands
• Product bundles and kits
• Side-by-side comparisons
• Short-form video
• Price comparisons
• Product availability
• SEO product copy
• SEO product taxonomies
and hierarchies
• Publishing products out to Amazon,
social media, etc.
• Product specifications
• Retailer and manufacturer
descriptions
• Product warranties
• Packaging and shipping/
handling instructions
• Related products
• Product manuals
• How-to videos
• Care instructions
• Customer feedback
• Product search for
better customer
service
• Product FAQs
• Product tutorials
• Product stories
• Inspirational or life-
style content
PIM Graduates From Product Data Management To Product experience Management
Emerging PiM capabilities such as content benchmarking, visual merchandising, and advanced asset
management capabilities will prove crucial to enable customer experiences, particularly around the
discovery and exploration stages of their journeys. Customers have spoken: having accurate product
information is a baseline expectation, and 64% of uS online adults today shop online because the
product presented there is more informative than what’s in-store.7 Customers now are taking it a
step further, with well over half of online adults stating that it’s important for them that retailers offer
feature and price comparison tools, visualization tools (e.g., different colorways, alternative views, or
zoom), and the flexibility to refine search results by attributes like price, brand, and style (see Figure
2).8 ultimately, these offerings augment or even help mimic the physical experience of picking up and
examining products and comparing them with others nearby.
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The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
FIGUre 2 Customers tell retailers they Want Product Experiences, Not Just Product information
Percentage of online adults who indicated it was important for retailers to provide
them with these website features:
Refine search results by product attribute such as
price, brand, style, etc.
Customer ratings and reviews
Real-time in-store inventory information
Video of products
Visualization tools (e.g., color change,
alternative views, or zoom)
Comparison tools (ability to compare product
features and prices together in one page)
Product lists based on best-sellers and
retailer recommendations
Product configurators (allow customers to
build custom products)
Base: 4,399 US online adults (18+)
(multiple responses accepted)
Source: Forrester’s Consumer Technographics® North American Retail And Travel Online Benchmark
Recontact Survey 1, Q3 2016 (US)
82%
77%
72%
71%
66%
52%
49%
48%
Product information from the manufacturer 79%
80%Product information from the retailer
PiM is For Business; MDM is For technology Management
there’s some confusion in the market about what tools are best suited to manage the quality and
consistency of product information. eBusiness pros must evaluate master data management (MDM)
tools as well as PiM and product content management and syndication tools. Each appears to solve the
same set of challenges to manage product data, yet vendor demonstrations have shown us that these
tools are very different. Business users such as marketers and merchandisers can readily identify with
the application look and feel of PiM, which offers an intuitive environment for managing product data
and associated content. Data management professionals are drawn to MDM solutions that are obvious
extensions to their data management tools, such as extract-transform-load (Etl), data quality, and
metadata management, and that help them with data integration demands. So how should organizations
determine whether a PiM tool is the right choice? there are four options to consider (see Figure 3):
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The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
› PIM pure-play. the PiM pure-play option is concerned with how consumers will use product
information through sales and marketing channels (e.g., an online or mobile store). Business
users need an application that maintains catalogs, bringing together product attributes with
merchandising elements such as images, video, audio, descriptions, price, and bundles. PiM
is ideal for situations where merchandisers and marketers are dynamically constructing and
reconstructing compelling packages and offers, all in an environment in which they, as nontechnical
users, can easily work. A useful analogy is to envision that CrM is to customer as PiM is to
product. Critical capabilities include product visualization, workflow management, discrete and
mass product updates and refreshes, and seamless integration with content tools (content
management, digital asset management, print, eCommerce, etc.) for product definitions/bundles
and workflow.
› MDM pure-play. Master data management tools excel at managing and orchestrating product data
and elements across applications and data sources. the technology management organization
typically owns and manages MDM. it acts as an orchestration point in the integration layer of an
information architecture. Where PiM may be the system of record for the customer-facing view of
product information, MDM manages the complexity of gathering product data, syndicating the data
to other systems, and providing product data consistency and links to other master data domains
(i.e., customer, supplier, and location). eBusiness pros can connect product data to content in
the form of metadata to link by a tag or file, but it’s not presented natively within the MDM tool.
MDM environments generally are much more technical, so common users include technology
management and data professionals in business operations. Critical capabilities include data
integration, multidomain data modeling, data quality and matching, data governance, metadata
management, and multiplatform support (i.e., rDBMS, hadoop/NoSQl, applications, etc.).
› Hybrid PIM/MDM solution. overall, Forrester recommends that organizations use their MDM tools
as the engine and orchestration point across multiple domains and include PiM as the business
application for business users to manage product catalogs. Many PiM vendors offer their own
MDM standalone tools or have MDM capabilities integrated into their PiM tools. Why? A mature
PiM capability within a complex omnichannel ecosystem requires a front-end business solution
and a robust back-end engine. PiM vendors may present their tools as MDM for other domains,
as PiM will often contain nonproduct data such as supplier information. however, the nature of the
environment is optimized for a product view and product management workflows.
› Product content management and syndication. these mostly cloud-based tools, which include
offerings from vendors like Salsify, primarily facilitate managing and exchanging product content
among brands, distributors, and retailers. they typically maintain category-specific schemas to
meet the demands of each channel or touchpoint, channel-specific syndication rules, and digital
asset management (DAM) capabilities to manage digital content. these tools satisfy PiM use cases
with eBusinesses that don’t require enterprise-grade data management platforms but instead need
something to sit on top of or connect to their existing data management infrastructure.
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The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
FIGUre 3 PiM looks And Feels like MDM, But it’s really An App
PIM
Product MDM
An enterprise application
User: Business
Goal: To become a product hub
that enables transactional,
bidirectional synchronization
of data from disparate
upstream sources, diverse
downstream target systems,
and external trading
communities and data sync
networks
Product life-cycle processes
1) Validate and source
2) Market and promote
3) Produce and sell
4) Support and retire
A business capability
User: Technology management
Goal: To identify trusted product
data and leverage it for business
processes and decisions
Product life-cycle processes
1) Validate only. A product master
will not automate the other
PLM processes.
PiM Evaluation overview
to assess the state of the PiM market and see how the vendors compare, Forrester evaluated the
strengths and weaknesses of top PiM vendors. After examining past research, user need assessments,
and vendor and expert interviews, we developed a comprehensive set of evaluation criteria. We
evaluated 10 vendors against 28 criteria, which we grouped into three high-level categories:
› current offering. the criteria we selected to assess the strength of companies’ current offerings
reflect the needs of both eBusiness and enterprise architecture professionals. Because of this, we
included technical integration and systems governance criteria alongside criteria that evaluated the
effectiveness of the business user tools for end users. We analyzed each current offering using 10
groups of criteria: architecture and scalability; integration and syndication; workflow and business
process support; product taxonomy and relationship management; time-to-value; product attribute
management; roles and privileges; administration tools; vendor portal tools; and data quality
management, governance, and reporting.
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The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
› Strategy. to assess how well each solution provider is positioned for future success, we compared
the strategies of each with the needs of eBusiness and enterprise architecture executives, industry
trends, and Forrester’s forward-looking vision of the PiM market. We examined each company’s
product road map and strategic direction; target market and enterprise track record; and
partnerships and services.
› Market presence. Many eBusinesses today support their PiM needs with homegrown technology
or legacy solutions that the vendor community no longer supports. eBusiness and enterprise
architecture executives must look for vendors that have a strong and stable installed base,
demonstrate steady growth, and offer a solid network of implementation and support partners. to
determine the current market presence for our evaluation, we combined information about each
provider’s revenue; revenue growth; customer base; new customers; and geographic and vertical
market penetration.
evaluated Vendors And Inclusion criteria
Forrester included 10 vendors in this PiM assessment: ADAM Software, Agility Multichannel,
Contentserv, EnterWorks, iBM, informatica, inriver, riversand, SAP hybris, and Stibo Systems. Each
of these companies has (see Figure 4):
› Inclusion in our prior Forrester Wave. All vendors were included in the Forrester report “the
Forrester Wave™: Product information Management (PiM), Q2 2014.”9
› An established enterprise PIM offering. Vendors must have an established enterprise PiM
offering and must actively market a productized PiM solution. Vendors must have initially released
the product version included in the evaluation prior to August 2016.
› A standalone offering for PIM. Beyond the ability to support product data in a broader MDM
solution or within an enterprise resource planning (ErP) or eCommerce platform, these vendors
offer standalone PiM enterprise applications with unique capabilities that allow them to validate
and source, market and promote, produce and sell, and support and retire products.
› A focused product road map. Each of the vendors evaluated has a focused product road map
that aligns with the direction of the market and emerging scenarios tracked by Forrester.
› Mindshare among the Forrester client base. Forrester client inquiries, shortlists, consulting
projects, and case studies frequently mention the vendors we evaluated.
› A focus on retail, distribution, cPG, and manufacturing verticals. Beyond the ability to support
product data in a broader master data management (MDM) solution, these vendors have rich
support for the unique needs of retailers, distributors, CPg firms, and manufacturers.
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9
The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
FIGUre 4 Evaluated Vendors: Product information And Selection Criteria
Vendor
4.3
7.0
16.0
8.2
8.0.5
6.3
7.8
6.2
8.0
Product evaluated
ADAM products
Agility
CS
Enable
IBM InfoSphere Master Data Management
Collaborative Edition
Informatica MDM — Product 360
inRiver PIM
MDMCenter
SAP Hybris PCM
STEP Trailblazer
Product version
evaluated
Inclusion in our prior Forrester Wave. All vendors were included in the Forrester report “The Forrester
Wave™: Product Information Management (PIM), Q2 2014.”
An established enterprise PIM offering. Vendors must have an established enterprise PIM offering and
must actively market a productized PIM solution. Vendors must have initially released the product version
included in the evaluation prior to August 2016.
A standalone offering for PIM. Beyond the ability to support product data in a broader MDM solution or
within an enterprise resource planning (ERP) or eCommerce platform, these vendors offer standalone PIM
enterprise applications with unique capabilities that allow them to validate and source, market and
promote, produce and sell, and support and retire products.
A focused product road map. Each of the vendors evaluated has a focused product road map that
aligns with the direction of the market and emerging scenarios tracked by Forrester.
Mindshare among the Forrester client base. Forrester client inquiries, shortlists, consulting projects,
and case studies frequently mention the vendors we evaluated.
A focus on retail, distribution, CPG, and manufacturing verticals. Beyond the ability to support
product data in a broader master data management (MDM) solution, these vendors have rich support for
the unique needs of retailers, distributors, consumer packaged goods (CPG) rms, and manufacturers.
Inclusion criteria
ADAM Software
Agility Multichannel
Contentserv
EnterWorks
IBM
Informatica
inRiver
Riversand
SAP Hybris
Stibo Systems
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The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
Vendor Profiles
this evaluation of the PiM market is intended as a starting point only. We encourage clients to review
detailed product evaluations and to use the Forrester Wave Excel-based vendor comparison tool to
adapt criteria weightings to fit their individual needs (see Figure 5).
FIGUre 5 Forrester Wave™: Product information Management Solutions, Q4 ’16
Challengers Contenders Leaders
Strong
Performers
StrategyWeak Strong
Current
offering
Weak
Strong
Go to Forrester.com
to download the
Forrester Wave tool for
more detailed product
evaluations, feature
comparisons, and
customizable rankings.
Market presence
IBMADAM Software
SAP Hybris
inRiver
EnterWorks
Contentserv
Agility
Multichannel
Riversand
Informatica
Stibo Systems
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11
The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
FIGUre 5 Forrester Wave™: Product information Management Solutions, Q4 ’16 (Cont.)
All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).
AD
AM
S
of
tw
ar
e
Ag
ilit
y M
ult
ich
an
ne
l
Co
nt
en
tse
rv
En
te
rW
or
ks
IB
M
Inf
or
m
at
ica
inR
ive
r
Ri
ve
rs
an
d
1.97
1.40
1.65
5.00
4.00
3.00
3.50
4.60
1.00
1.00
0.00
we
igh
tin
g
Fo
rre
ste
r’s
St
ibo
Sy
ste
m
s
50%
10%
25%
5%
5%
10%
10%
2%
5%
18%
10%
3.39
3.00
4.00
4.00
5.00
1.00
4.50
3.80
2.60
3.00
3.40
3.33
2.60
1.90
4.00
4.00
1.00
4.00
3.00
5.00
5.00
4.80
3.27
2.20
2.90
4.00
5.00
5.00
3.50
3.80
1.40
3.00
3.40
1.83
2.60
1.60
2.00
3.00
1.00
2.50
4.20
0.60
1.00
2.80
4.26
4.20
4.00
5.00
3.00
5.00
3.50
4.20
2.60
5.00
4.80
2.93
1.40
3.35
2.00
3.00
3.00
3.00
2.80
4.60
3.00
2.80
3.54
3.00
3.50
5.00
5.00
3.00
4.00
3.80
1.80
3.00
4.60
SA
P
Hy
br
is
2.55
4.60
2.60
3.00
3.00
5.00
3.50
5.00
1.00
0.00
1.40
4.44
3.40
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
3.00
3.80
1.80
5.00
4.80
Current offering
Architecture and scalability
Integration and syndication
Workflow and business
process support
Product taxonomy/relationship
management
Time-to-value
Product attribute management
Roles and privileges
Administration tools
Vendor portal tools
Data quality, governance, and
reporting
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December 5, 2016
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The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
FIGUre 5 Forrester Wave™: Product information Management Solutions, Q4 ’16 (Cont.)
All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).
AD
AM
S
of
tw
ar
e
Ag
ilit
y M
ult
ich
an
ne
l
Co
nt
en
tse
rv
En
te
rW
or
ks
IB
M
Inf
or
m
at
ica
inR
ive
r
Ri
ve
rs
an
d
1.60
1.00
1.00
4.00
1.20
1.00
3.00
1.00
0.00
2.00
we
igh
tin
g
Fo
rre
ste
r’s
Sy
ste
m
s
St
ibo
50%
45%
35%
20%
0%
35%
10%
25%
15%
15%
3.45
4.00
3.00
3.00
2.85
3.00
3.00
3.00
2.00
3.00
2.70
4.00
2.00
1.00
3.65
3.00
4.00
4.00
5.00
3.00
3.70
5.00
3.00
2.00
3.35
3.00
5.00
3.00
5.00
2.00
3.65
2.00
5.00
5.00
4.40
5.00
2.00
5.00
3.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
4.65
5.00
3.00
5.00
4.00
5.00
3.45
4.00
3.00
3.00
4.00
3.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
3.00
4.45
5.00
4.00
4.00
3.35
4.00
3.00
3.00
2.00
4.00
SA
P
Hy
br
is
3.20
1.00
5.00
5.00
4.50
5.00
0.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
3.20
1.00
5.00
5.00
4.60
5.00
4.00
5.00
4.00
4.00
Strategy
Product road map and
strategic direction
Target market and enterprise
track record
Partnerships and services
Market presence
Revenue
Revenue growth
Customer base
New customers
Geographic and vertical market
penetration
Leaders
› Informatica is well positioned to tackle the future of commerce. Product 360 has one of the
most complete sets of deployment, quality, and data management capabilities for PiM. in addition,
it has visionary partnerships with Amazon and google Manufacturer Center for the exchange of
product content. informatica has a diverse global customer base spanning retailers, distributors,
and manufacturers. Customers choose this PiM solution in large part for its usability to support
an omnichannel environment. Solid visualization, complex catalog management with inheritance,
and strong workflow capabilities help business users create, manage, and govern product data.
informatica PiM workflow is extensive, and users can deploy it further upstream and downstream
using informatica BPM.
For EBusinEss & ChannEl stratEgy ProFEssionals
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December 5, 2016
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13
The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
one of the biggest customer pain points is pricing transparency: Customers told us that negotiating
with informatica is particularly difficult, given complex pricing models and various components,
such as data quality, that are billed separately. By contrast, customers are very satisfied with
informatica’s global network of customers and partners as well as with its support, which is second
to none in the space.
› riversand offers a well-rounded business tool to master product data. riversand offers
customers maximum flexibility to model product data. the product shines in its workflow, approval,
and business process support as well as ease in onboarding and syndicating data. Business
customers can configure and control product information to match any display option from mobile,
eCommerce, print, email, or search engine optimization, to name a few. Furthermore, data quality
runs in the delivery process and proactively notifies product teams and merchandisers of errors or
issues. it has a tightly integrated DAM with embedded image/video editing and rendering features.
riversand has room to improve: Specifically, customers want a more intuitive ui and a more
efficient uX when using the product in conjunction with the DAM tool, which riversand is
addressing in its next product release. Additionally, riversand needs to complement its well-
developed integration frameworks with more certified out-of-the-box connectors.
› Stibo Systems offers a breadth of native capabilities at maximum scale. Stibo Systems has
been growing its PiM offering organically over its 30-plus years in this space. the company’s broad
set of out-of-the-box PiM capabilities, industry-specific knowledge, and breadth of professional
services solidifies its position as a PiM market leader. Stibo Systems’ particular product strengths
include connectivity with its breadth of back- and front-end connectors as well as strong data
integration and syndication. this solution excels at integrating with real-time systems, providing
many transport and format options.
to rise to the next level, customers want Stibo Systems to improve its ui intuitiveness and the time
required for business users to master using the product. this vendor rapidly deploys new functionality
to meet market demands but needs to proactively help customers who feel that updates are
sometimes so frequent that it’s difficult to keep up. Customers also noted that Stibo Systems works
exclusively with an oracle database, which can be limiting, depending on the customer’s database
environment. Nevertheless, the solution scales well as the volume of products increases.
Strong Performers
› enterWorks is well positioned to deliver product insights in the cloud. EnterWorks competes
on its ability to extend and incorporate data from other domains in addition to product. it also
provides its customers with strong reporting capabilities and flexibility in its cloud architecture.
Supported by healthy funding rounds, the company has grown steadily since Forrester’s 2014 PiM
Wave evaluation.10 the solution has robust reporting capabilities, allowing users to easily view,
track, and manage the products for which they are responsible. it includes dashboard widgets that
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December 5, 2016
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14
The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
enable users to scorecard vendor quality and performance, which are also exposed in the tool’s
vendor portal. the portal offers a complete business workbench that provides visibility into the
state and quality of product data and product management workflows.
Customer feedback highlights EnterWorks’ professional services organization as an outstanding
business partner to implement PiM. Well-developed search capabilities make finding and managing
products easy: users can search using full text, faceted search, or filters and can run side-by-side
comparisons. Customers noted that they need a more updated and intuitive ui, which EnterWorks
is actively addressing in its latest version of the product.
› Agility Multichannel excels at connectivity and flexibility in working with data. Agility
Multichannel builds on its extensive PiM experience with a modular interface that lets business
users easily model and test how content enrichment affects customer engagement. the firm
boasts a broad set of partnerships, a breadth of connectivity to leading eCommerce tools, Adobe’s
Creative Cloud for print, and backend enterprise systems. Starting with Agility version 7, the
product ships with Pentaho Enterprise Edition, which brings robust data integration and business
analytics, particularly for customers with more complex data integration needs that otherwise
would require additional MDM investment. Additionally, the product ships with a library of widgets
that allow for individual roles (e.g., product managers, online merchandisers, and suppliers) to
design optimized workflows from a single web-based tool set.
When it comes to improvement, Agility Multichannel’s search falls short in relation to other vendors
that have side-by-side product comparison and difference-highlighting capabilities and better-
developed capabilities to report and visualize searches. Agility is a well-rounded product that will
benefit from continuing to expand its global ecosystem of partners.
› inriver’s product fits hand-in-glove with the business user. Sweden-based inriver has rapidly
gained traction in the PiM space: it approaches building a product around the everyday needs of the
marketer. Customers highlight the tool’s usability and the intuitiveness of the ui, with one customer
noting that it was off and running with the tool within a week. the company’s new “software-as-a-
service (SaaS) first” model is attractive to many organizations with aggressive cloud strategies. its
strong network of technology and implementation partners is one of the main catalysts for its rapid
growth in the uS market. in fact, partner-led opportunities drive a significant portion of license revenues.
Customers told us they’re very satisfied with how easy it is to adopt the tool as well as with ongoing
support and training. one caveat is that the product has limited back-end connectors, which typically
requires the client to build custom connectors. Nonetheless, the company’s vision and road map are
attractive, including plans to release a multitenant SaaS solution in the first half of 2017.
› contentserv aims to deliver business insights with the flexibility of the cloud. this germany-based
vendor built its PiM tool with commerce, merchandising, and business process in mind. Customers
lauded the product for being easy to learn and use upon implementation. Contentserv makes it simple
for business users to enrich products by previewing information in the format of the channels as well as
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The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
to compare, update, or merge products while viewing them side-by-side. the firm provides extensive
support to validate and manage errors, which allows customers to write data quality rules natively
embedded in PiM and DAM. Another plus is that its embedded media asset management tool strongly
supports customers that need to localize product information on a global scale.
traditionally competing in the European market, the company has set its sights on North America
to continue building its client base. Areas where the company could improve include more certified
out-of-the-box connectors to more of the commonly used back-office applications in the market as
well as a more robust set of customer support services to help customers decrease time-to-value.
› SAP is in the process of integrating PcM to the broader Hybris suite. SAP originally entered the
PiM space through its hybris acquisition, with the vision of integrating the product into its unified
front-office suite while providing a strong set of business user tools (the SAP hybris PiM Cockpit)
for business-focused, merchandising, eCommerce, and marketing roles. other PiM vendors in this
Forrester Wave have partnerships with eCommerce platforms, so SAP hybris’ value proposition is
unique in having a combined PiM/eCommerce/web content management system (WCMS) offering
built on the same flexible Java architecture and data model. As a result, hybris appeals to firms
that have both PiM and eCommerce project priorities.
overall, customers reported that the system is complex to use and that the ui for the merchandiser
and business user is outdated. PiM prospects should investigate whether the promised new ui for
2017 will satisfy their business user needs. Forrester found that the vast majority of current SAP
Product Content Management (PCM) implementations are within SAP commerce install bases
(customers) that have modest PiM requirements. We also found that SAP is still very much in the
process of integrating SAP hybris PCM into the broader SAP ecosystem.
contenders
› IBM’s Infosphere MDM is set to reinvent itself in light of Watson. this solution shows strengths
but is also a product in transition. one of its current strengths is iBM’s breadth of integrations
with other enterprise platforms to facilitate product information flow. the tool effectively supports
product data syndication by integrating with other systems via point-to-point and middleware
tools and supports many communication protocols and data formats. however, the product needs
considerable improvement in its ui/uX, with customers noting that it “feels intimidating to use.”
Nevertheless, the company is well positioned to bring a cognitive element to its product that can
augment the capabilities of the modern business user.
Customers’ biggest concern with this product is that their data stewards must author everything,
so iBM needs to provide more support around product enrichment and facilitating self-service.
Fortunately, effective April 1, 2016, Persistent Systems has agreed to purchase iBM’s PiM
intellectual property: iBM remains the primary sales channel, but the new owners are already
upgrading the product. the new team will create an updated role-based ui that empowers
business users to bring products to market with minimal to no customization and it dependence.
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The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
› ADAM Software’s PIM/DAM combination sets it apart. ADAM Software’s product is well suited
for customers that need to manage both product information and a large number of digital assets
and users across many languages and geographies. its PiM strength lies in preparing product
information at the point of customer engagement while needing little to no support from technology
management. Combined with its leading DAM tool, its PiM capabilities offer a differentiated
product for customers. the combination is especially effective for those businesses managing
high-quality digital assets that require strong workflow capabilities to orchestrate product
information and content work.
looking ahead, customers noted that they need this solution to offer a unified PiM/DAM ui to
eliminate having to switch contexts when they use the tool, something that’s already part of
ADAM Software’s road map of planned enhancements. the company has prioritized supporting
merchandising and marketing features and now needs to invest in data quality, bulk update, and
product import feeds.
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The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
Supplemental Material
online resource
the online version of Figure 5 is an Excel-based vendor comparison tool that provides detailed product
evaluations and customizable rankings.
Data Sources Used In This Forrester Wave
Forrester used a combination of 40 data sources to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each
solution. We evaluated the vendors participating in this Forrester Wave, in part, using materials that
they provided to us by July 2016.
› Hands-on lab evaluations. Vendors spent one day with a team of analysts who performed a
hands-on evaluation of the product using a scenario-based testing methodology. We evaluated
each product using the same scenarios, creating a level playing field by evaluating every product
on the same criteria.
› Vendor surveys. Forrester surveyed vendors on their capabilities as they relate to the evaluation
criteria. once we analyzed the completed vendor surveys, we conducted vendor calls where
necessary to gather details of vendor qualifications.
› Product demos. We asked vendors to conduct demonstrations of their products’ functionality. We
used findings from these product demos to validate details of each vendor’s product capabilities.
› customer reference calls. to validate product and vendor qualifications, Forrester also conducted
reference calls with two to three of each vendor’s current customers.
The Forrester Wave Methodology
We conduct primary research to develop a list of vendors that meet our criteria to be evaluated in this
market. From that initial pool of vendors, we then narrow our final list. We choose these vendors based
on: 1) product fit; 2) customer success; and 3) Forrester client demand. We eliminate vendors that have
limited customer references and products that don’t fit the scope of our evaluation.
After examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we develop
the initial evaluation criteria. to evaluate the vendors and their products against our set of criteria,
we gather details of product qualifications through a combination of lab evaluations, questionnaires,
demos, and/or discussions with client references. We send evaluations to the vendors for their review,
and we adjust the evaluations to provide the most accurate view of vendor offerings and strategies.
We set default weightings to reflect our analysis of the needs of large user companies — and/or
other scenarios as outlined in the Forrester Wave evaluation — and then score the vendors based
on a clearly defined scale. We intend these default weightings to serve only as a starting point and
encourage readers to adapt the weightings to fit their individual needs through the Excel-based tool.
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The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
the final scores generate the graphical depiction of the market based on current offering, strategy, and
market presence. Forrester intends to update vendor evaluations regularly as product capabilities and
vendor strategies evolve. For more information on the methodology that every Forrester Wave follows,
go to http://www.forrester.com/marketing/policies/forrester-wave-methodology.html.
Integrity Policy
We conduct all our research, including Forrester Wave evaluations, in accordance with our integrity
Policy. For more information, go to http://www.forrester.com/marketing/policies/integrity-policy.html.
Survey Methodology
Forrester’s Consumer technographics® North American retail And travel online Benchmark
recontact Survey 1, Q3 2016 (uS) was fielded in May and June 2016. this online survey included
4,400 respondents in the uS between the ages of 18 and 88. For results based on a randomly chosen
sample of this size, there is 95% confidence that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus
1.5% of what they would be if the entire population of uS online adults (defined as those online weekly
or more often) had been surveyed.
Forrester weighted the data by age, gender, income, and region to demographically represent the uS
online adult population. the survey sample size, when weighted, was 4,399. (Note: Weighted sample
sizes can be different from the actual number of respondents to account for individuals generally
underrepresented in online panels.) lightspeed research fielded this survey on behalf of Forrester.
Survey respondent incentives include points redeemable for gift certificates.
Endnotes
1 this forecast highlights the effects of retailers’ cross-channel selling efforts. See the Forrester report “Forrester research
Web-influenced retail Sales Forecast, 2015 to 2020 (uS).” this report, an annual update of Forrester’s Web-influenced
retail Forecast, lays out the current state of web-influenced sales in the uS and the factors that will drive growth through
2020. See the Forrester report “Brief: Digital touchpoint investments Significantly influence uS retail Sales.”
2 Source: Forrester’s North American Consumer technographics retail Survey, 2015. For more information, see the
Forrester report “the rise of the Empowered Customer.”
3 Forrester defines the customer life cycle as the enterprise’s view of the phases a customer passes through in the
course of an ongoing relationship with a company. the stages include discover, explore, buy, use, ask, and engage.
4 Source: Forrester’s Consumer technographics North American retail And travel online Benchmark recontact Survey
1, Q3 2016 (uS).
5 outdoor retailer recreational Equipment (rEi) found that when customers watched a video about a product, the
conversion rate doubled compared with that of nonwatchers. When customers made a purchase after watching the
video, more than half the time, it was in the same session as the video view. Similarly, specialty home furnishings
retailer Cost Plus World Market told Forrester that it sees 1.9 to 2.5 times the conversion rates for pages with video
versus those without. For more on this, see the Forrester report “Short-Form Product Video: Blockbuster Conversions
Without the hollywood Budget.”
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December 5, 2016
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The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
6 Source: Forrester’s Consumer technographics North American online Benchmark Survey (Part 1), 2016.
7 Source: Forrester’s Consumer technographics North American retail And travel online Benchmark recontact Survey
1, Q3 2016 (uS).
8 Source: Forrester’s Consumer technographics North American retail And travel online Benchmark recontact Survey
1, Q3 2016 (uS).
9 in Forrester’s 19-criteria evaluation of product information management (PiM) vendors, we identified the 10 most
significant providers in the category — ADAM Software, Agility Multichannel, asim, Enterworks, hybris (an SAP
company), iBM, informatica, inriver, riversand technologies, and Stibo Systems — and researched, analyzed, and
scored them in three areas: current offering, strategy, and market presence. this report details our findings about
how well each vendor fulfills our criteria and where they stand in relation to each other to help eBusiness and channel
strategy professionals select the right partner for their product information management needs. See the Forrester
report “the Forrester Wave™: Product information Management (PiM), Q2 2014.”
10 For details of this evaluation, see the Forrester report “the Forrester Wave™: Product information Management (PiM),
Q2 2014.”
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126062
PIM Solutions: The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
In our 28-criteria evaluation of product information management (PIM) providers, we identified the 10 most significant — ADAM Software, Agility Multichannel, Contentserv, EnterWorks, IBM, Informatica, inRiver, Riversand, SAP Hybris, and Stibo Systems — and researched, analyzed, and scored their solutions. This evaluation shows how each provider measures up and helps eBusiness professionals make the right choice for their business.
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