PIM system for the publishing industry

The main goals of the PIM system developed for the publishing industry are to integrate, enrich and share product information to increase sales efficiency and provide a consistent buying experience for customers regardless of the distribution channel. For Platon's needs, we have prepared a PIM system that has been extended to include specific functionality for managing information about products such as books, magazines, audio books, e-books, games, toys and stationery. Product management is facilitated by grouping products according to their type. The presentation and editing capabilities of each product are prepared with the specifics of each product in mind. This has increased the readability and ergonomics of work, while ensuring data consistency at the level of the entire extended PIM for a book distributor.

The main task of the system is to consolidate, verify, systematize, enrich, and make available publication data from multiple sources. Properly prepared data on publishing products is made available to channels such as B2B portals for publishers, institutions and libraries, or auction portals.

Pim system that supports book sales

The system allows the Platon team to define and manage many book-specific parameters, such as:

Analysis of sales data based on sales documents.
Including updated inventory with daily accuracy.
Import historical stock data for instant analysis.
Analysis of sales trends in cyclical periods.
The number of a given issue, series and link with the determination of the type of relationship in the system and EAN numbers.
ISBN of the publication together with EAN and internal product number.
Language of publication with information about the original language of the item.
Book cover with a specific type of binding (hardback, softback, etc.).
Physical parameters of the publication, such as weight, height, width, thickness of the cover.
Number of pages in a publication.
The age and gender of the person to whom the book is addressed, as well as the identification of the product type symbol.
Keywords related to the publication, which can be used for marketing and SEO efforts.

Use of the PIM system in the sale of games and toys

The specifics of such products as toys, board games or puzzles are different from those of books, and the PIM system we have prepared takes this into account. In addition to the ability to specify common parameters for products such as name, images, description, the system allows the team to manage such information as:

Release information.
Number of product components included in the kit.
Product brands with symbols, regardless of the manufacturer and supplier of the product.
The number of players, their age range, and the length of the game.

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

In addition to physical products, the system provided by Certusoft has functionality for managing and distributing digital materials - Digital Asset Management (DAM). Each item in the system can be defined as a specific type of electronic product. This includes not only e-books and audiobooks, but also electronic materials in the form of codes to be used for purchases in online stores and other services. Additional specific parameters can be specified for the electronic product type, such as:

Accessibility format of e-books (MOBI, EPUB, PDF, etc.).
Recording time for digital audio products.
Narrator for audio publications.
License expiration date for digital products with mechanism to automatically disable product availability for sale.

Electronic products can be distributed in different models depending on the license agreements. The system provides the ability to manage such products in several ways. Each product item can contain information with a path to access the product. After the purchase, the customer downloads the electronic product from external services, but the authorization is performed in the Certusoft system together with the properly prepared authorization at the system level. In this case, the product is not stored in the Certusoft PIM system.

Another supported solution is to store product information together with the electronic product itself. In such a scenario, the product is linked to the data and made available to the customer after purchase directly from the Certusoft system. In addition, a mechanism to store keys for digital products for use on other portals and services is supported. Once a customer purchases a product, he or she receives the corresponding key, and the system controls the available number of keys.

The Certusoft PIM system also provides the ability to generate keys in the form of QR codes for convenient activation of the electronic product by the customer. Once all available keys have been used, the product becomes unavailable and can be made available again when the key pool is replenished.

The system also supports a hybrid scenario. Some products can be stored in Certusoft PIM, other products have only product path information and others have a certain number of keys assigned. The number of scenarios and solutions can be unlimited and the configuration can be defined not only at the implementation stage, but also during the operation of the Certusoft PIM system.

PIM System and Product Preparation

In addition to the main product management module for the publishing industry, the Certusoft PIM system has a product preparation function. There is a clear separation between products that are sold and products that are not yet available, have incomplete data or whose information is imported and needs to be verified. Products can be moved manually or automatically from the preparation phase to the availability phase. All functionality related to the preparation phase is implemented by the prepared Certusoft Announcements module. The module is accessible not only to the company's employees responsible for product preparation and maintenance. Selected B2B partners, publishers, have access to a separate section of Announcements and management of their own product base.

Integrations with Publishing Product Data Providers

Certusoft PIM for the publishing industry is not only a powerful product management capability within a single system. Product information can be imported and exported to external files, including spreadsheets and text files.

With the publishing industry and the distribution of product information in mind, we have implemented integration with the systems of a digital content provider such as Elibri and Gardners Books. Our system provides full integration with Elibri for downloading product data for all product types offered (books, audiobooks, ebooks, toys, board games). Integration with Gardners Books provides up-to-date information about books (including title, author, ISBN, etc.) along with their covers.

Integration with external software for billing and sales purposes

The catalog of possible integrations is not closed. We have carried out integration of our system with other systems such as ERP systems (e.g. Asseco Softlab) for the purposes of complex calculations from price management mechanisms or inventory information.

Our experience in other areas allows us to carry out integration with systems such as e-commerce systems, ERP systems or WMS. Product data can be shared thanks to our proprietary Connector solution, via WebService or RestAPI. We always carry out the type and scope of integration according to the needs of our clients.