Product Documentation
Product Documentation
The Kodaris PIM has a built-in workflow engine that allows you to control how products are processed. This engine gives you a controlled set of work steps for processing products so you can have different teams working on other actions. This is much like any major project management software. The PIM workflow is customizable to your workflow, or you can use a similar process as outlined below.
When product data is synced from your ERP to the Kodaris platform, you will see the product data in the PIM section of the Kodaris Portal.
Here you can see the product data synced from your ERP. This is where most of the product maintenance is done.
You can also select the columns you want to edit by choosing the filter menu. If you reference the same columns every time, it may be helpful to save your filter selection for future use. You can learn more about saving your filters here.
While there are many different configurations you can use in the product grid, we'll be going over information that will specifically help you maintain large or small amounts of data with the Kodaris PIM system, including:
Note: The PIM workflow is only visible internally - it is not customer facing.
PIM Status can be used to show the status of a product. You can also filter on each status to see at which stage products are in your process. PIM Status can be accessed in the Data, Category Assignment, and Attribute Assignment grids or on each product details page.
When products are first synced from your ERP, they are automatically assigned with the "ADDED" status. (This is also the case with the PIM Attribute Status and the PIM Category Status.) Updates to the status after the products are synced will need to be done by your team in the Kodaris PIM portal. These status updates can be made directly in the grid, by importing (for large amounts of data or initial workflow setup), or by team members working on products.
As you can see, values are already set up for PIM Status. These values are entirely customizable and can be adjusted to fit your desired workflow. You can learn more about updating PIM Settings here.
The below workflow has been used by the Kodaris team to update thousands of products. However, depending on the amount of your data and the size of your team, you may need to update this flow to suit your needs.
PIM Categories can be used as internal product buckets or categories – this can help when multiple team members work on products in the portal and are assigned specific PIM Categories to work through. Working on the same types of products can also increase the speed and efficiency of maintaining product data.
PIM Categories could relate to your high-level commerce categories or specialty buckets such as LUMBER, ELECTRICAL, POWER TOOLS, SPECIAL REQUEST, HIGH PRIORITY, and others.
Note: If using the PIM workflow, the PIM Category should be added when updating the product status from ADDED to UPDATE.
Once your data is set up for the PIM workflow, your team can filter products using the PIM Category and PIM Status columns. You can learn more about setting up your data for the PIM workflow here.
PIM Categories can be accessed on the Data, Category Assignment, and Attribute Assignment grids or on each product details page.
PIM Attribute Status can be used the same way the PIM Status is used. Filtering on both the PIM Attribute status and the PIM Status can also help your team know which products are ready to assign attributes. It can also be helpful to sort products by the PIM Category. PIM Attribute status can be accessed in the Data, Category Assignment, and Attribute Assignment grids.
The PIM Attribute Status values are entirely customizable and can be adjusted to fit your desired workflow.
PIM Category Status can be used the same way PIM Attribute Status is used. Filtering on the PIM Attribute Status and PIM Status will help your team know which products are ready to assign to commerce categories. It can also be helpful to sort products by the PIM Category. PIM Category status can be accessed in the Data, Category Assignment, and Attribute Assignment grids.
The PIM Category Status values are entirely customizable and can be adjusted to fit your desired workflow.
PIM Reasons is another filtering tool that can be helpful if there are reasons why a status was chosen on a product. Again, this is dependent on your use case and the type of data you update. Again, these values are entirely customizable, and the below examples are special use cases. PIM Reasons can be accessed in the Data, Category Assignment, and Attribute Assignment grids or on each product details page.
Your team members can use PIM Comments as a place to leave comments, product questions, and helpful information for products – these are internal comments only, and customers do not see them. PIM Comments can be accessed in the Data, Category Assignment, and Attribute Assignment grids or on each product details page.
Your team can use PIM Product Code fields to enter internal product codes that may differ from the manufacturer and customer-facing product codes. This would be used for an internal reference and may not be used by everyone – but it can be helpful.
You can also access the below PIM information on each product details page.