amplifi SALSIFY PIM User Manual
UNDER THE HOOD:
SALSIFY PIM
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
© 2020 AMPLIFI | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
UNDER THE HOOD: SALSIFY PIM
Considerable, rapid changes to consumer behavior and commerce as a
whole transform the way organizations do business. Three primary trends
drastically impact the demands for product data in today’s landscape.
• The rise of the business user
• The premium placed on relationships
• The death of single source of truth
To rise to the challenge and meet these demands, Salsify invested heavily in
the core MDM capabilities of its PXM platform, pushing to move beyond its
reputation for syndication. To validate these investments, Salsify engaged
Amplifi to perform an in-depth analysis of the PXM platform leveraging our
proven Under the Hood assessment methodology.
Diving deep into Salsify’s PXM platform, building out complex use cases
within a sandbox environment, and spending considerable time interviewing
Salsify’s sales and product teams, Amplifi emerged with an expert
perspective on Salsify’s platform. Salsify exceeded Amplifi’s expectations for
Data Modeling, Enhanced Content, Workflow, Syndication, and Operational
Use. However, Amplifi did identify some key opportunities for further growth
and development. Notably, suggested changes center around Matching,
Relationships, and Governance Metaobjects.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Key Takeaways
© 2020 AMPLIFI | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
UNDER THE HOOD: SALSIFY PIM
Amplifi’s key takeaways from this assessment include the
following:
• Salsify’s new data modeling capabilities are wellequipped to represent hierarchical and referential data
and provide a strong foundation for good data practices
• The Salsify workflow engine exceeded expectations
with its extensibility for complex process modeling
coupled with business-user-friendly building blocks
• Salsify is on par with other platforms for key PIM
capabilities including enterprise user permissioning,
data validations, and scalability
• As the definition of PIM continues to expand, Salsify
is well positioned to remain a leader with existing
enhanced content, syndication and digital asset
management capabilities
• Even with the recent investment in enterprise PIM
capabilities, Salsify maintains a focus on delivering an
integrated, intuitive, business-user-friendly platform on
a cloud-based, multi-tenant platform
Salsify’s PIM platform impressed Amplifi and transformed
our view of Salsify’s capabilities. While in the past Salsify’s
core competencies revolved around channel management
for brand manufacturers and created a perception of Salsify
primarily as a syndication tool, based on our MDM expertise,
we believe Salsify’s PIM platform is well-equipped to solve
holistic product data use cases that are primarily focused on
brand manufacturing.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION:
© 2020 AMPLIFI | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
UNDER THE HOOD: SALSIFY PIM
PIM IN TODAY’S WORLD
Commerce evolved dramatically in the last decade, putting
increased importance on rich, engaging product experiences
to drive sales and market share.
Traditional PIM solutions evolved organically through time but weren’t originally designed to
solve the complex needs of managing product content in today’s multi-channel, fast moving,
highly competitive commerce landscape.
As a result, the requirements for eective PIM solutions have changed, and we have begun
to see much more robust solutions arise within this segment of tools around PIM and
eXperience Management. These tools and features are following the demands of the market,
which require an integrated approach for managing, syndicating, and optimizing product
experiences online.
Three Themes
As strategists and consultants, we’ve had the
privilege of working with our partners to solve
these challenges in today’s organizations, and
have identified three common themes that are
driving this change:
• The rise of the business user
• The premium placed on relationships
• The death of single source of truth
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INTRODUCTION
THE RISE OF THE BUSINESS
© 2020 AMPLIFI | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
UNDER THE HOOD: SALSIFY PIM
1
USER
Maximizing Value
To maximize the value of a PIM platform it is important that
the solution be deployed as far, as wide, and as deep in an
organization as possible. The recent inclusion of business
users into the ecosystem (compared to IT) has changed the
requirements for cross-functional collaboration and require
rich capabilities. Modern day PIM solutions are expected to
meet those needs.
Operationally, we want data owners and consumers to
be as close to the data as possible, while keeping the
organization’s interests protected via flexible, yet eective,
governance guardrails. Business users need to easily access,
transform, and syndicate product content. Including too
many barriers can prevent the distribution of content to
market, which has a negatively tangible business impact.
Therefore, organizations must carefully balance speed and
flexibility with the right controls and data governance rules
Without easy
access, business
users may resort
back to rogue
spreadsheets,
which circumvents
data governance
principles and
adds risk to the
organization.
so the organization can get content to market quickly while
maintaining data integrity.
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RISE OF THE
BUSINESS USER
© 2020 AMPLIFI | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
UNDER THE HOOD: SALSIFY PIM
THE PREMIUM PLACED ON
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RELATIONSHIPS
Discovering Data Domains
The PIM space is focused primarily on Product Data (it is in
the name), but successful implementations involve more
than just Product. Whether it is a SKU, Item, Family, Variant,
Packaging (UOM), Kit / Bundle, Material, etc. – there are
so many factors in play. The ability to establish rigid and
alternate hierarchies, taxonomies, and meaningful links
between categories, attributes, and customer preferences
is especially crucial in the digital age. This is what improves
searchability, enables upselling and cross-selling, and helps
retailers make relevant product recommendations to the
customer.
Where we are beginning to see a significant increase in
value is the ability to connect and discover relationships
between data domains. The domains could include
Reference (Brand, Certifications, Application, or another
facet of Product usage), Location, Supplier, Customer, or
Investing in a way
to master rich,
well-organized,
current, and
accessible product
information
drives operational
efciencies and
helps increase
sales.
another domain entirely. Allowing users to control and
respond to these relationships lets businesses start really
identifying and making decisions that drive revenue.
Modern PIM solutions must be flexible enough to facilitate
the variance in models and operations based on the
customer’s data and needs. Allowing platform users to
control and respond to these relationships lets businesses
identify opportunities to boost the customer experience
and drive increased revenue. It also ensures they have a
clear record of all their products, so that when a transaction
happens, they can trust the information
and leverage it to derive reliable analytics.
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A PREMIUM ON
RELATIONSHIPS
THE DEATH OF SINGLE SOURCE
© 2020 AMPLIFI | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
UNDER THE HOOD: SALSIFY PIM
3
OF TRUTH
Capturing Consumers
Finally, one of the newest and boldest claims we will make
about PIM is the death of the single source of truth. First, do
not get us wrong… it is not actually gone, and it is still super
critical, but the single source of truth is just the first half of
the data life cycle. Some of the most valuable gains of a PIM
implementation is around governing the life cycle of data to
get a product from an idea to a sellable, consumer-facing
state (the single source). Accessing better data quickly
translates directly to an organization’s bottom line. This
is particularly true for brand manufacturers. BUT in order
to drive the top line revenue, that same data needs to be
optimized to engage the individual consumers in the market.
This often requires changing titles, descriptions, imagery,
and price based on the channel and their unique audience.
This means that brands cannot take a one-size-fits-all
approach (i.e. single truth) when sharing content across your
The classic
single source of
truth gives us
an authoritative
description
of what the
product is, but
to truly capture
and convert a
consumer, that
information must
be presented in
a manner that
speaks to their
needs, context,
and emotions.
commerce ecosystem. You must create engaging, channeloptimized product experiences. How PIM systems take the
second half of the data life cycle and facilitate branching it
out to each channel, persona or even individual customer
has become a critical PIM requirement.
Given these changes, we are continually seeking to review
new and existing toolsets. We explore how they are
able to meet the classic challenges of operational data
management, while being open enough to solve the new
market challenges and provide continual value in the years
to come.
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DEATH OF SINGLE
SOURCE OF TRUTH
© 2020 AMPLIFI | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
UNDER THE HOOD: SALSIFY PIM
The Salsify PIM
Salsify is no stranger to the product content management
landscape, having been the go-to resource for complex
syndication needs since their founding in 2012. In recent
years, they decided to invest in extensive PIM-specific
functionality for their PXM platform, which has propelled
Salsify into the realm of enterprise PIM. Since 2017, Salsify
has put over $35 million into Research and Development
focused entirely on core PIM functionality. This investment
has elevated Salsify’s ability to compete against PIMonly solutions - marrying data stewardship, governance
capabilities and advanced data modeling with their
syndication expertise. Customers realize the benefits of
these investments, with new functionality and feature
enhancements rolling out to users immediately.
“
Salsify is on a trajectory to upset the
current PIM status quo.
- John Phan, Amplifi Chief Revenue Officer
Salsify’s areas of investment are heavily focused on key
PIM functionality, including data modeling and workflow
management, while also expanding into broader capabilities
that brands need to win on the digital shelf, such as
enhanced content, digital asset management, and analytics.
These areas of investment speak directly to the challenges
Amplifi has seen working across a variety of domains,
markets, and industries. We were excited to dive deeper into
Salsify’s new functionality and PIM capabilities to see if it
meets the needs of our brand manufacturer clients.
“
8
THE SALSIFY PIM
AMPLIFI’S UNDER THE
© 2020 AMPLIFI | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
UNDER THE HOOD: SALSIFY PIM
HOOD EVALUATION
As Amplifi continuously grows and evolves as a consultancy, new opportunities to leverage
our skills and expertise also emerge. While working with our clients throughout their MDM
journeys, whether it be a fresh implementation, an initiative to tackle a new domain or
capability, or a strategy project centered around Data Governance, Amplifi looks to solve
new challenges as they arise and take note of areas where many organizations struggle.
Because the commerce landscape is changing drastically and rapidly, it can be dicult for
organizations to pinpoint the best tool to solve their needs and use cases both in the present
and moving forward into the future. This tool selection process often goes overlooked,
and Amplifi frequently works with clients to shape their business processes to fit the tool
that they have purchased. Yet, we prefer to work with them prior to purchase to guide
organizations in selecting the best tool to meet their business needs and processes.
The Purpose
On the other side of the same coin, Amplifi often finds that our software partners struggle
to prioritize research and development eorts to maximize the return on these investments,
frequently spending time and money on feature sets that are not widely used, while missing
opportunities to drastically improve their tool performance to meet new market needs. In an
eort to fill this void, Amplifi invested considerable time and expertise into developing our
own evaluation and assessment criteria for MDM tools and platforms.
As a leader in the PIM implementation and consultancy space, our evaluation serves two
purposes:
To better
understand the
capabilities of the
platform and
1 2
To provide concrete
feedback to software
vendors to help
validate or challenge
whether it is a
good t for our
clients.
their product strategy
and execution based on
our market experience.
9
OUR EVALUATION
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