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What is PIMCore: the PIM that wins the DXP Challenge

Discover PIMCore, the tool that is MDM, PIM and that does everything you need (or almost this is what promises)

During my career as a developer, I hated many things, but in the first place into the list, there was reading and saving data. I found so boring spend time to map field on ORM, create CRUD routines and put the brain on just on a little business logic layer only. Not only I hate it, but I also found it a big waste of time. A time that should have been spent on things where I could bring value like infrastructure, performance or improve usability.

Pimcore logo from Pimcore press media kit
Pimcore logo from Pimcore press media kit

Probably that’s why when I met PIMCore I fell in love. PIMCore has the most clever and practical Data management I have seen. And trust me if I tell you that I tried a lot of data management tools and RAD framework. The idea behind PIMCore is simple: create a system where you can describe how your data have to be edited and composed and that can consume such data easily. The great result is that the data definition is managed by a simple UI that allows even non-programmer to describe the data and how the data must be edited. This allows creating a quick and simple process where analyst or non-technicals knows what the system does just whit one look. In this way all the developing time wasted doing repetitive things is quite removed and we can focus on the real request from the customer. Nice? I love it.

If you are not convinced that reading this article and learn something about PIMCore is a good opportunity, you must know that every single record you put into your database can be searched using a GraphQL query.

How all it’s possible? Thanks to the powerful way that PIMcore uses to store data, that define relations, field types and so on.

Great! Let’s see in detail how PIMCore works.

What is PIMCore in human words

The name itself explains what PIMCore is: a PIM (Product Information Management). What the name doesn’t tell is the most important part. PIMCore is a multi-tool swiss-knife that enables us for the Digital transformation. It offers many features that combined together give all the army to win the DXP challenge. If you think about it, putting DAM, PIM, MDM, and DataHub into a single tool is a very good result.

Well, this configuration lets you manage structured and unstructured data without writing a row of code.

Pimcore in action, image from Pimcore press media kit
Pimcore in action, image from Pimcore press media kit

How Pimcore can help in Digital Transformation

Pimcore consists of several features that, combined together, compose the whole DXP platform. Just after the first installation, you give the customer a powerful ecosystem whit all he needs and something more. Based on your need you can use it in many configurations:

  • PIM
  • MDM
  • Headless CMS
  • Ecommerce
  • CRM
  • CMS

Such features help to solve the DXP challenge and boost Digital Transformation. How? Just read the next five points.

Data Management

Nowadays data is an asset for each company, from tech to manufactory. Pimcore consolidates data from multiple sources and centralizes information. The good news is that all information is in a single place and can be delivered to every other challenge without any additional efforts.

Data integration

APIs are the best kind of integration in 2019 but we have also legacy systems. Pimcore supports legacy systems with CVS exportimport that can be configured by UI, boosting integration and acceptation in most of the companies. For all that’s new, API is ready, out of the box, without any surprise.

Free and Opensource, community-supported

Pimcore is open source and is available for free use without any license costs. This means low entry barriers and the possibility to test it before adoption. the community is large and active, you can also ask for paid enterprise support.

Solution out of the box

By installing it you are can implement portals, websites, e-commerce without any limitation. You can edit any content or any data without asking tho the developer. This helps to focus on content instead of being distracted by technology issues. You can change the whole website graphics without touching content because the CMS is decoupled from the content. You can edit all products, multilingual, in a single place and distribute to the marketing channel in the total respect of company policies.

Time to market, Cost-Effective

It’s all included. You can deliver a solution in one shot that covers many parts of DXP. This reduces the costs of integration, maintaining, and development. Saving money is itself good, but having a shorter time to market makes the difference.

Breaking down the Silos with Pimcore

Gartner and other big analysts waning about silos and ask us, as consultants, to break down them, if there isn’t any way to let them communicate together. The other option is to trust a mega vendor and live into a very expensive big silo. Both the solution is a big challenge for each company. Big companies have the funds to make the leap but a very limited time to do that, smaller companies always look for a cost-effective solution. In this scenario, PIMCore is a time-to-market alternative that can enable you quickly to the digital transformation. The fact is this product is free, easy to set up and can be integrated with every legacy system thanks to its dynamic importexport system that works with CSV files. All we had issues with legacy systems, but for sure we know that working with CSV files is something they can handle without any headache. For all new systems, there is API rest or graphQL, so what I expect is that any new system will be happy to interact with him (respect than handling the legacy CSV files 😉 ). From my point of view, the PIMCore approach is very similar to the mega vendor. You have this tool that does most of the things out of the box and provides you all you need in most scenarios. Having only one monolithic tool that does everything may seem a vendor lockin? Well, this is what you risk every time you pick a tool. Maybe there are many tools that are much better solutions for a single need. You could think to get the best and buy multiple vertical solutions and let talk together but were are again into the silos problem: communication. So, the matter is that nothing is perfect. For most scenarios PIMCore suites well and give a concrete time-to-market solution.

What to take home

PIMCore is a very interesting tool that helps to manage data. Basically is that its strongness and can be used to drive the most important data into the company. Coming out with the most important features for digital transformation, you can use it to manage your website, portals, PIM, eCommerce, and DAM. Moreover, you can enable the DataHub feature sharing the golden records across the company.

Why you need PIMCore?

  1. Consistent and centralized data
  2. Silos disruption
  3. Digital Transformation accelerator
  4. Omni-Channel enabler
  5. Data Hub

The advantages of PIMCore

  • All in one product. Just install into the company and solve multiple problems at once
  • Free and opensource. No feed, no limitation. Supported by a strong community
  • Comes with many features, you don’t need now, but when times will come you will be ready
  • Cost-Effective Customizations are easy to implement.

The limitation of PIMCore

  • Basically is a monolithic application. Can be used also in complex scenarios but performance and process bust be managed very well to avoid scope creep.

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