Market Perspectives

ISG Research is happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well software providers’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Product Information Management for Manufacturing: ISG Research Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by ISG Research.

Products and services are the foundation of every manufacturer. Across all channels and departments, nearly every interaction relates to answering questions or gaining access to product information. Every manufacturer must ensure that products get the attention they deserve as they are marketed, sold, serviced and enhanced to meet customer expectations, whether through distributors and retailers or direct to consumers. A “customer-first” mentality is critical and not unreasonable. Still, in a rush to be the most cost-effective, business leaders too often forget that product information is key to satisfying and retaining distributors and retailers, and inevitably customers.

The ability to invest adequate time and resources into products determines a manufacturer’s agility, sustainability, operational effectiveness and overall business health. Accurate product data requires technology investments like product information management (PIM) to ensure the proper support of interactions and the underlying life cycle that enables impactful and interactive communication with customers. To accomplish this requires an agreed-upon standard of product information that should be readily available for any purpose, including AI use cases. By 2027, one-quarter of enterprises will re-activate a new product information management software investment to meet GenAI requirements to have an ingestible product catalog for interactions across the supply chain.

ISG Research defines PIM as the methods and processes for managing and using product information with applications and processes across the front office; customer and revenue areas of marketing, sales and commerce; customer and field service; and the back office. This also applies to the supply chain—from suppliers to financial accounting. As manufacturers manage the number and diversity of suppliers, it is critical to address limitations in the ways product information is managed and distributed, including the administration of related attributes and content that describes the products.

At the same time, competitive pressures require that manufacturers quickly incorporate large amounts of new content—video and images, for example—while ensuring that the information shared is accurate and that processes run uninterrupted and timely data is available for operations with partners. For environments where consumers, suppliers and partners use multiple channels to access product information—websites, CRM, ERP and other systems—it is essential that the manufacturer presents complete, up-to-date product information to inspire interest and facilitate purchases.

PIM—and the applications and technology that enable it—help manufacturers provide the best possible product information for processes, departments and partners across the supply chain. To accomplish this, PIM software must support multiple business roles, including product managers and marketers, operations and manufacturing teams and those in the supply chain. Manufacturers, for example, must be able to share product information with distributors and direct retailers or digital commerce channels.

Effectively managed product information is also essential to support operational and decision-making processes. Analytics and machine learning applied to product information can yield a variety of metrics—indicating where product information is missing, where it needs to be improved, the patterns of product usage and the meaning of feedback received. Analytics can help profile and improve data quality and associated attributes to determine where action is needed.

PIM is not the same as master data management (MDM), although the two are sometimes confused. This misunderstanding can distract manufacturers from focusing on the needs of product processes. MDM technology can ensure a single definition of data across the enterprise and improve the quality and integration of data across information systems. PIM systems must have MDM built in and connect to the data integration and quality processes to ensure only one defined master record exists for any given product.

However, product information encompasses more than just the defined name and attributes of a product in a database. It also includes related information, such as digital assets and documents needed for reference or compliance purposes. Manufacturers should take care to understand the differences between PIM and MDM and how these systems complement one another to inform decisions. PIM is essential to enable business units to manage product-related processes, just as IT staff need broader MDM technology and integration tools to manage data throughout the enterprise and beyond.

PIM as a software category has existed for decades. It operates independently and also interoperates with enterprise software. The platform category of PIM meets the specific needs of particular users, including digital merchandising to support online marketplaces and exchanges of information across suppliers and through to retailers. Beyond the traditional management of product information, the software category has evolved to support product life cycles and the activation and deactivation across channels that distribute or market products.

Today’s manufacturers must manage a continually expanding array of data, content and digital assets while satisfying consumer demands for comprehensive product information. Addressing these challenges requires unified processes, automated systems and, importantly, the ability to augment and enrich product information. We find that most manufacturers have incompatible tools and must cope with disparate forms of data that lead to inefficiency and time wasted checking for errors and reconciling data across systems.

To provide an effective product experience for buyers, consumers, customers and partners across the entire supply chain, manufacturers must deliver accurate, consistent and actionable product information. Crucially, it is impossible to deliver the best customer experience without a great product experience, and successful manufacturers recognize this is a key benefit realized from PIM investments. PIM enhances visibility into—and engagement with—product information and can help manufacturers increase revenue and satisfy customers.

Managing product information can be challenging when a manufacturer and its workers use different names, attributes, images and related product information for the same purpose. Disparities often exist across departments. Additionally, manufacturers regularly add suppliers to business networks and increase the number and variety of products offered without utilizing already defined and agreed-upon product information. Today’s customers also expect a delightful product experience that provides information on mobile devices, but conducting commerce across sites and social media introduces challenges for a unified experience. Perhaps most importantly, product information today must have a visual component, from images and video to social ratings and reviews.

These advances bring additional content and data into a manufacturer’s information systems, introducing new inconsistencies in how products and attributes are combined. Still, competitive pressures require up-to-date and accurate information that is also engaging in its presentation—in other words, an effective product experience. Manufacturers need systems that enable intelligent processes to run continuously and uninterrupted and use AI machine learning with analytics to identify issues and opportunities to exploit the power of product information. Analytics provide insight into the use of product information and where collaborative actions are necessary for improvement. However, the advancing aspects of agentic AI to help machines interact with workers and consumers through workflows are becoming even more important. Through 2028, one-fifth of enterprises will have connected a product information network with agentic AI supporting the enterprise and customers’ requirements for responsiveness.

In most manufacturers, product information is spread across websites, applications, digital asset management systems, databases, spreadsheets and a variety of applications. Each system can uniquely present the information, resulting in disparate product experiences. A related issue is the difficulty of exchanging, integrating and synchronizing product information across diverse systems and services used by suppliers, customers and distributors. Typically, this occurs outside enterprise systems and in cloud computing environments such as digital commerce, marketplaces and CRM systems.

ISG believes a methodical approach is essential to maximize competitiveness. Improving the performance of your manufacturing outcomes requires selecting the right software provider and product. Technology updates alone are not enough to improve the use of PIM in a manufacturer. Doing so requires a balanced set of upgrades and efforts to enhance processes and information.

It is best to start by assessing all short- and long-term efforts related to the product experience and any existing PIM approach. Manufacturers should cultivate product information that encourages buyer and customer engagement. Key touchpoints include the physical world and digital systems like commerce and websites with products, services and subscriptions to bolster interactive experiences. This approach requires more intelligent, streamlined and automated product information processes, freeing responsible parties to focus on areas that need immediate improvement, be it velocity, volume of interest, sales or outdated product information.

Product success is more than just merchandising and maintaining product information on a digital shelf. The goal is to increase productivity and sustain those efforts in the best and worst of times, ensuring success under pressure and over the long term. Product success is about increasing effectiveness in digital engagement and bringing new value to the process. Applications should do more than enhance productivity in managing product information and provide insights into usage such as product activation, new product introduction and end of life.

The product experience unifies an enterprise’s efforts to sustain continuity while bringing new value to digital merchandising and marketing efforts, helping exceed customer expectations. Optimizing the product experience is more than just a nicety—it is essential for every manufacturer that looks to make the most of customer engagement and relationships. This effort is vital when relying on digital commerce to sell products and services. Without an optimized product experience, an manufacturer will not successfully elevate the customer experience.

Continuous improvement is a shared responsibility across business and IT leadership, and impossible to do without PIM designed to optimize the product experience. This approach is separate from MDM technology or goals for achieving better data integration. Antiquated methods such as spreadsheets, databases and other ERP, CRM or digital commerce systems are not always designed for a contemporary digital product experience. These options can decrease productivity, diminish accountability and increase risk. Manufacturers must use business continuity as a driver of investments to improve the intelligent use of PIM, especially in times of duress.

Manufacturers should optimize underlying product processes and technology for internal use, and buyers and customers, suppliers and partners. This can have an immediate impact on top- and bottom-line results and reflects the priority placed on product experience. Manufacturers should ensure that existing and future PIM technology investments are designed for effective engagement and a fantastic product experience, not just for automation and efficiency.

Manufacturers must effectively manage and improve product information inside and outside of organizational channels and systems to ensure accuracy and consistency. This approach enables manufacturers to more effectively align products to specific activities and processes. It requires applications that allow an organization to manage product information for an effective digital experience. The benefits of using dedicated PIM technology can be significant. Manufacturers find PIM helps eliminate data errors, improves cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and enhances the customer experience through consistent product information.

The ISG Buyers Guide™ for Product Information Management for Manufacturing evaluates the software providers and products in support of functional areas, including catalog management, business, content management infrastructure, data management infrastructure, digital asset management, digital innovation, enterprise, integration-specific needs, industry standard, the product life cycle and the ability to demonstrate alignment to benefits. The results also encompass provisions for management and manager-specific needs, product manager, product-specific management, analyst and administrative-specific needs and investment specifically for manufacturers. This comprehensive capability framework supports the broad requirements for PIM across industries and the needs of business and IT. To be evaluated in this Buyers Guide, products must include a platform that supports business and IT needs across channels to view product information.

This research evaluates the following software providers that offer products that address key elements of PIM as we define it: 1WorldSync, Acquia, Akeneo, Bluestone PIM, Boyum IT, censhare, Comosoft, Contentserv, fabric, Feedonomics, IBM, Informatica, inriver, insightsoftware, Netcore Unbxd, novomind, Oracle, Pimcore, Plytix, Precisely, Productsup, Propel Software, SAP, Sales Layer, Salsify, Stibo Systems, Syndeton and Viamedici.

This research-based index evaluates the full business and information technology value of product information management for manufacturing software offerings. We encourage you to learn more about our Buyers Guide and its effectiveness as a provider selection and RFI/RFP tool.

We urge organizations to do a thorough job of evaluating product information management for manufacturing offerings in this Buyers Guide as both the results of our in-depth analysis of these software providers and as an evaluation methodology. The Buyers Guide can be used to evaluate existing suppliers, plus provides evaluation criteria for new projects. Using it can shorten the cycle time for an RFP and the definition of an RFI.

The Buyers Guide for Product Information Management for Manufacturing in 2025 finds Informatica first on the list, followed by Akeneo and Salsify.

Software providers that rated in the top three of any category ﹘ including the product and customer experience dimensions ﹘ earn the designation of Leader.

The Leaders in Product Experience are:

• Informatica.
• Akeneo.
• Salsify.

The Leaders in Customer Experience are:

• Informatica.
• inriver.
• ContentServ.

The Leaders across any of the seven categories are:

• Informatica, which has achieved this rating in seven of the seven categories.
• Akeneo and inriver in three categories.
• Oracle and Salsify in two categories.
• Bluestone PIM, Contentserv, Pimcore and SAP in one category.

The overall performance chart provides a visual representation of how providers rate across product and customer experience. Software providers with products scoring higher in a weighted rating of the five product experience categories place farther to the right. The combination of ratings for the two customer experience categories determines their placement on the vertical axis. As a result, providers that place closer to the upper-right are “exemplary” and rated higher than those closer to the lower-left and identified as providers of “merit.” Software providers that excelled at customer experience over product experience have an “assurance” rating, and those excelling instead in product experience have an “innovative” rating.

Note that close provider scores should not be taken to imply that the packages evaluated are functionally identical or equally well-suited for use by every enterprise or process. Although there is a high degree of commonality in how organizations handle product information management for manufacturing, there are many idiosyncrasies and differences that can make one provider’s offering a better fit than another.

ISG Research has made every effort to encompass in this Buyers Guide the overall product and customer experience from our product information management for manufacturing blueprint, which we believe reflects what a well-crafted RFP should contain. Even so, there may be additional areas that affect which software provider and products best fit an enterprise’s particular requirements. Therefore, while this research is complete as it stands, utilizing it in your own organizational context is critical to ensure that products deliver the highest level of support for your projects.

You can find more details on our community as well as on our expertise in the research for this Buyers Guide.