Amplifi, a leading data management consulting firm, recently took a close look at the
Salsify Product Information Management (PIM) platform and scored it 8.13 out of 10
on its new “Under the Hood” PIM framework, which assesses software for data
modelling, data governance and operational use capabilities.
According to Amplifi’s experts – who took a deep dive into Salsify’s PXM platform
and building out complex use cases within a sandbox environment – Salsify
exceeded all expectations for Data Modelling, Enhanced Content, Workflow,
Syndication, and Operational Use.
“Salsify is on a trajectory to upset the current PIM status quo in the brand
manufacturer space,” the report reads. “Salsify’s platform has undergone a radical
transformation over the past 18 months, evolving from a syndication tool with light
PIM capabilities to an enterprise-grade PIM capable of imposing complex
governance requirements and creating robust data models.”
The full report provides a list of use cases and test scenarios that are helpful during
any PIM evaluation. In the meantime, here are five key take aways.
Salsify’s new data modelling capabilities are well-equipped to represent hierarchical and referential data and provide a strong foundation for good data practices
Data modelling is the foundation of any PIM and Salsify handles the three key data
modelling elements – core data modelling, extended data modelling and digital
assets – far better than Amplifi expected.
In core data modelling, the ability for data stewards to create and manage their own
taxonomy and hierarchies was singled out for praise, while the team stressed off the
data modelling elements that “One area we were excited about is the definition of
complex attribute types and validations. While most PIMs enable users to create
properties with base data types like text, number, and more”.
Amplifi was also very impressed with the enhanced content engine, saying: “There is
so much power here, especially with the new Enhanced Content engine that we
cannot do justice for it in such little time. Essentially, it provides a very familiar
templating / population experience that you may have done with other PIMs in print
modules… but entirely in-app with all the attention to usability that Salsify is known
for, even when working at scale.”
The Salsify workflow engine exceeded expectations with its extensibility for
complex process modelling coupled with business-user-friendly building
blocks
Workflow is one of the biggest challenges for a PIM system as it tends to evolve and
mutate over time as process change within an organisation. With this in mind, Amplifi was impressed with how the Salisfy system balanced these complex challenges with
being user-friendly and easy to manage.
The report says: “The full suite of workflow tools that Salsify offers as part of their
enterprise PIM package was up to the challenge. Salsify’s workflow accurately
represented and created parallel workshops, pauses in processes for other
processes to complete, multiple resolutions, dynamic assignment, and complex
approval processes.”
Salsify is on par with other platforms for key PIM capabilities including
enterprise user permissioning, data validations and scalability
The process of data governance in any organisation – which encompasses how data
is permissioned, validated and used – is a measurement that Amplifi’s team sees as
key to the assessment of any platform.
During its assessment, the team says that it assigned data ownership throughout the
product lifecycle with ease, ensuring the proper individual or group within an
organisation is accountable for the correct data at the correct stage in a product’s
lifecycle.
“This ability far exceeded our expectations, as we also drove dynamic ownership and
assignments based on a variety of factors without requiring complex configuration,”
they report. “We created users and user groups and assigned different types of
permissions.”
Amplifi also extended this assessment to take in scalability and found that one of the
biggest advantages of Salsify’s multi-tenant platform is its scalability. According to
the test, customers do not need to worry about right-sizing the environment and
managing IT services over time as their needs shift and increase to meet new
business demands.
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
Salsify supports all major digital asset types, including embedded videos from URLs,
such as YouTube.
The Amplifi team were impressed with the platform’s image support and
transformation, which exceeded their expectations. By using a powerful cloud asset
management platform, it becomes easy for users to interact with assets and their
relationships to products.
The user interface was also singled out for praise, with Amplifi saying: “The User
Interface is clean, intuitive, and user-friendly. Subtle things, such as documentation
automatically opening in a separate tab, increases overall usability for new and
moderately experienced users. As a new SaaS solution, Salsify endeavours to respond to feedback (both direct and indirect) to remove any barriers to data
management.”
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
According to the assessment, the Salsify platform has evolved from a syndication
tool with light PIM capabilities to an enterprise-grade PIM capable of imposing
complex governance requirements and creating robust data models.
Salsify’s ability to manage channel specific requirements differentiates its integration
capabilities from most offerings on the MDM marketplace today, while, as one of the
only true cloud-based SaaS solutions on the market, Salsify’s technology is capable
of scaling to meet the needs of large-scale enterprises and eliminates concerns or
worry around upgrades.
The researchers were also impressed with how the platform can be tailored to fit
customers in the brand manufacturing space and Amplify says that “we feel
confident that we can solve brands’ complex PIM requirements with the expanded
functionality set and are excited to continue exploring the results of their ongoing
investments. Salsify is on a trajectory to upset the current PIM status quo in the
brand manufacturer space.”
The last word goes to Ametra Tipton, Amplifi Principal Consultant: ““In the landscape
of PIM platforms, Salsify provides an unrivaled user experience that makes data
management implementations straightforward by enabling users to configure
components like workflows and lists with ease”.
Download the full report here.
