Your ERP isn’t a PIM. And that’s no criticism of your ERP.

An ERP sits at the financial and operational core of your business. It handles transactions: what you buy, what you sell, what you have in stock, and how much it costs.

That includes:

• Item numbers, EANs, and prices
• Inventory, purchasing, and logistics
• Orders, invoicing, and accounting
• Customer and supplier records

Many ERP systems also support product descriptions, attributes, and images. For a straightforward product range and a limited number of channels, that may be all you need.

But managing diverse product categories, multiple languages, and different channel requirements adds complexity. You need more than extra fields: a flexible data model, workflows for enriching product information, and a clear view of what’s missing.

Having an item set up in your ERP doesn’t mean it’s ready to sell.

A PIM (Product Information Management system) helps you structure, enrich, and prepare product information for your sales channels, all in one place.

That includes:

• Product descriptions, specifications, and attributes by category
• Images, videos, manuals, and certificates
• Translations for different markets
• Variants, such as sizes and colours grouped under one model
• Channel-specific content for online stores, marketplaces, dealers, and print catalogues

Marketing develops the copy. Product teams maintain specifications. Suppliers provide additional data.

A well-configured PIM makes responsibilities clear and shows which information is required before a product can be published. Integrations can then distribute that information to the relevant channels.

Your ERP knows which item you sell. Your PIM helps customers understand what they’re buying.

Suppose you’re a wholesaler with 5,000 products. You sell through your own online store, marketplaces, and a dealer network.

The core item records are all in your ERP. Every item has a number, an EAN, a price, and a stock level.

But a dealer needs detailed technical specifications. A marketplace requires different attributes from your online store. Marketing wants to add new photography, and your German launch needs translated content.

Where does that information live?

Some is in the ERP. Some is in spreadsheets. Images sit on a shared drive, and the latest product descriptions are buried in an email.

So the chasing begins. Colleagues merge files, request missing details, and check which version is current. Meanwhile, new products are waiting to go live.

A PIM lets you manage that information centrally and distribute updates from one place. But it doesn’t automatically eliminate all the manual work.

There’s still a question to answer: how does the information get there in the first place?

One supplier sends Excel files. Another provides CSV files or an API. Field names differ, units don’t match, and required attributes are missing.

If your team has to clean up and reformat every delivery manually, that work remains, even with a PIM.

That’s why you need to look beyond where product information is stored and managed. Look at what happens before it gets there:

• How are supplier fields mapped to your data model?
• Can units and terminology be standardised automatically?
• Are missing or invalid values flagged early?
• Can the same rules process future updates?

Making these steps repeatable reduces the need to correct files product by product. Your team can focus on exceptions and information that needs expert attention.

Good product data starts before your PIM.

Read also: Supplier onboarding: supplier data in production without copy-paste.

Recognise several of these signs? It may be time to review whether your product data processes still meet your business needs.

1. Product information lives in spreadsheets

Marketing has one spreadsheet. The e-commerce team has another. Suppliers regularly send new files.

Everyone is working on the same products, but nobody is sure which information is up to date.

Excel itself isn’t the problem. The process becomes fragile when separate files are the main way information moves between people, systems, and sales channels.

2. Every new requirement means another custom field

It started with one extra product attribute. Now you’re seeing fields called “Long_description_2” and “Extra_attribute_EN”.

Adding a field isn’t a problem in itself. But if every new category, language, or channel requires another workaround, your setup becomes harder to maintain.

3. Products are in stock but still not online

The item is in your ERP. The price is set, and stock is available.

But images, specifications, or product descriptions are missing. Nobody has a clear view of what still needs to happen or who is responsible.

The delay comes from collecting, enriching, and approving product information. Another place to store data won’t solve that on its own. You also need a clear workflow.

4. Every sales channel creates more manual work

Your online store, marketplaces, and dealers all have different requirements. Someone creates a separate export for each channel and adjusts it manually.

Every product update means repeating part of that work.

Channel-specific rules and automated publishing can reduce those recurring tasks and keep information consistent across channels.

5. Translations fall behind product updates

Your German product descriptions have been translated. Then the English description changes, or a technical specification is updated.

Who spots that the German version needs attention?

A well-configured PIM helps you manage language versions and flag content that needs updating. Translation workflows can automate parts of the process, with human review where needed.

ERP and PIM each have a role. The key is to define which system is the source of truth for each piece of information.

The exact setup depends on your organisation. In many cases, this is a useful starting point:

Your ERP can supply core item data, while suppliers and other sources provide additional information. After processing, enrichment, and validation, the relevant content flows to your sales channels.

You don’t necessarily need to create an ERP item for every product in a supplier’s catalogue, either. You can collect and assess the data first, then decide which products to add to your range.

That supports both day-to-day operations and the preparation of new products.

Your ERP isn’t a PIM. It doesn’t need to be.

Start by looking at where your team loses time each week. Reformatting supplier files? Chasing missing specifications? Copying product descriptions? Adjusting exports for each sales channel?

Those tasks show you where to focus.

Sometimes clearer responsibilities and a better setup of your existing systems are enough. Sometimes a PIM is the logical next step. And often, incoming product data needs just as much attention as the information you already manage.

At ConnectingTheDots, we look at the entire product data process, from the first supplier file to publication across your sales channels.

Together, we identify where manual work and delays occur, which systems should own which data, and where automation could make the biggest difference.

Let’s talk about your product data

We’ll review how product information moves through your business and help you identify the next steps.