Oracle steps up to the PIM plate

With oracle joining the ranks alongside IBM and SAP, PIM (product information management) may be taking its place as the next megatrend in IT.

Oracle last week was the last of the big three enterprise software vendors to unveil its offering, PIM Data Hub.

The new software category is being driven by edicts from big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart that are requiring that all product data be sent electronically in order to standardize product data from their suppliers.

Today most enterprises have multiple systems, said John Webb, vice president of application strategy at Oracle. Each system is typically run by a different department and may have a different description for the same product.

“The whole idea is to manage the product information regardless of where it sits,” Webb said.

Oracle’s product hub gives users a common view and taxonomy for their products. When an item is created in the PIM Data Hub, it syndicates it down to the individual systems. “This gives you both control and standardization,” Webb said.

SAP unveiled late last year its Master Data Management and Master Event Management and IBM

released WebSphere Product Center.

Implementing a single product data repository will be a challenge, but the enterprise has little choice, said Joshua Greenbaum, a principal analyst at Enterprise Applications Consulting.

“With the immense complexity of retail product attributes based on everything from price to quantity, package size, and even selling region, PIM is an absolute imperative,” Greenbaum said.