“PXM cannot be delivered without a PIM!”
During this year’s Akeneo PIM Summit, which took place in Paris at the beginning of February, we talked to Tobias Schlotter, General Manager Central & Eastern Europe about the new topic Product Experience Management (PXM), the new Akeneo Release 4.0 and the future of the PIM market and therefore also Akeneo.
TechDivision: Product Experience Management (PXM) is a new buzzword in the digital environment. Is it just about old wine in new bottles or is there really something fundamentally new behind it?
Tobias: The MarTech space is very noisy and a lot of concepts are being invented to market tools and software, so I can see where you are coming from. PXM however is not just a buzzword but a very real evolution that hundreds of our customers are seing every day. Commerce is changing, and fast. B2B and B2C organizations alike will struggle to thrive, or even survive, by offering just one or two sales channels to customers. Instead, companies must embrace a range of digital channels, including eCommerce, mobile commerce, marketplaces, and even voice-assistant-based commerce, among other still-emerging channels. In that context, companies thriving to deliver great customer experiences will need to embrace the evolution of delivering meaningful information in context on all these channels. Marketers and commerce teams need to move from simply managing product data to crafting product experiences. That’s precisely what PXM aims at: It is a strategy that puts customer interaction at the center of everything you do. PIM is the basis for PXM. Or the other way around: PIM can exist without PXM, but PXM cannot be delivered without a PIM.
TD: Where do you currently see the biggest trends and drivers in the PIM environment?
Tobias: The PIM space has grown a lot in the past few years and it has been amazing to see that even relatively mature markets like Germany are still evolving. One of the biggest trends I see in the PIM space is the investment in machine learning, AI and automation where companies are hoping to get even more productive and gain better insights into data quality. Tools that help you not only do more, but also do better and deliver an experience instead of “only” information. Crafting compelling brand and product experiences are at the forefront of many strategies of brands and retailers alike and product information management is definitely impacted by this — in a positive way.
TD: What are your top priorities for 2020? Where do you see the biggest growth opportunities for Akeneo as a company and your product?
Tobias: With our release of the 4.0 we continue our path towards establishing the standard in Product Experience Management. A PIM on its own is useless, it has to integrate well into the tech stack of an organization and generally with the tools people already work with. We have always prioritized connectivity and that already sets us apart. By laying these foundations we can further grow internationally and continue to enable our existing and new customers to deliver compelling product experiences for their customers. Our new and improved asset management capabilities, data quality insights and the connections module are part of delivering this to our amazing customers.
TD: In recent years, the topic of cloud computing has also become increasingly prevalent in Europe. You offer Akeneo both as cloud and on-premise version. Can you give us some information for which customers which approach is best suited?
Tobias: In my opinion, any organization wanting to keep up with the ever accelerating pace of technology and commerce, cloud is the only real alternative. Our priority is to make our customers successful and the best way to do that is to serve our customers with the best possible product that is always up to date. The cloud is the environment which helps us to do this best.
TD: When you look at market research data and analysts’ forecasts, it feels like there are almost only digital channels. On the other hand, I do not have the feeling that printed brochures are dying out. How do you see that? Akeneo is working together with InBetween quite intensively. Is this cooperation possibly a discontinued model?
Tobias: We often read and hear about the death of print in journalism so some may assume that this is the case in a corporate context. Even though the death of print has been a topic for the past few years, print is very much alive, especially in B2B. Our B2B customers have big needs in the area of print publications and the use of the format is evolving but certainly not declining. Print will remain a solid part of many B2B Customers’ journeys and marketing strategies, at least as important as e-commerce. Just as we work closely with Adobe, Salesforce or Spryker we partner in print with leading tech providers, one of which being InBetween in DACH.
TD: At last year’s summit Akeneo Franklin was presented as an AI tool for enrichment of product data. In the meantime it felt a bit quiet around the tool. What is the current status here. Can we look forward to AI support for the enrichment of product data in Germany in the foreseeable future?
Tobias: We want to help our users to become more efficient and deliver better, more compelling product experiences and one way to do that is to use the capabilities of AI. That involves tools that help with understanding data quality and completeness of product information, which are already available to our customers. Franklin is alive and well and delivering value to our customers. You will see, including In Germany, AI powered capabilities like data quality insights in the PXM platform.
TD: What are your plans for the next one or two years? Will Akeneo ever be completely taken over by Salesforce after you received a significant investment last year?
Tobias: As a private company we do not make any comment on this
TD: You now have the chance to make a short sales pitch why a company should choose Akeneo PIM instead of a competing product? Where do you see your USP?
Tobias: Akeneo PIM is the world’s leading open-source product information management solution, that offers high usability, flexibility, scalability and connectivity. It is the most used PIM in the world with over eighty thousand installations, 100+ solution partners, and 350+ enterprise customers. We are spearheading the shift towards product experience management (PXM) and enable companies to deliver compelling, outstanding product experiences.
TD: What has to happen in 2020 so that you can say in retrospect next year that this year has been very successful?
Tobias: We have ambitious goals we are working hard to achieve such as growing internationally on markets like the USA, Eastern Europe but also Australia, where we are opening a new office. But what makes us unique is our expansive, highly capable and just simply amazing ecosystem that we are very proud of and we want to make our partners and customers succeed with us. We will be successful if our partners and customers are successful.
About Tobias Schlotter
Tobias Schlotter is 39 years old and is responsible for the development of Akeneo in Germany since January 2016. Before that he was in charge of the national sales department of a medium-sized digital agency. As General Manager Central & Eastern Europe he expands the Akeneo team at the Düsseldorf location and continues to enthuse IT partners and key accounts about the benefits of the solution. Together with the partners in Germany, Switzerland and Austria he has initiated ambitious projects for customers like Frankfurt Airport, Puky, MTH Retail, Karstadt Sports or Polo Motorbike in the last years and won worldwide operating brands, retailers and marketplaces for the Akeneo PIM.
About TechDivision
As a Magento Enterprise Partner from the very beginning, TYPO3 Association Gold Member, Neos CMS Long-Time Supporter, Adobe-, Atlassian- and Akeneo-Partner, as well as Google Premier Partner, TechDivision GmbH is one of the leading addresses for consulting, implementation and marketing of digitization projects.
In addition to the implementation of web projects based on leading web technologies, we also offer our customers comprehensive consulting services for the digitalization of existing business processes as well as support in the selection and introduction of suitable cloud-based tools to better meet today’s requirements. For this purpose we have a highly experienced and certified team of in-house consultants in the areas of lean, agile and cloud technologies.
In addition to various medium-sized customers, internationally operating companies such as Volkswagen, Familotel, EGLO, GABOR, HALLHUBER or JuZo also rely on the know-how and experience of TechDivision. Currently, TechDivision has three locations in Rosenheim/ Kolbermoor, Munich and Leipzig and employs more than 120 people.
