Akeneo has launched its Akeneo Product Cloud at the first ever Unlock Boston conference. Akeneo Product Cloud will become the blueprint for enterprises to consolidate, better orchestrate and optimise all the components that go into creating a product story across any customer moment. The company says Akeneo Product Cloud represents the first step toward disrupting the PIM market category. Akeneo Product Cloud is a composable solution that enables commerce businesses to deliver more effective product experiences.
“Our customers have been extremely successful in crafting product experiences that delight customers by leveraging our modern PIM solution. We discovered that there is so much more to providing up-to-the-microsecond, fully enriched product experiences. Product experiences that do not necessarily fit neatly inside of a modern PIM,” said Kristin Naragon, VP of Global Marketing & Strategy at Akeneo.
Akeneo Product Cloud includes:
- Product Data Studios that serve each of the core product record components starting with a modern PIM. The solution natively provides product asset management and syndication capabilities. This is the keystone to managing and optimising the product record. Additional Studios will provide support for more dynamic product information elements such as product availability management, pricing optimisation. In addition to User Generated Content (UGC), and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).
- A scalable Product Data Platform (PDP) to centralise and orchestrate the entire product record. This is consumed from each of the Product Data Studios, with performance analytics to inform business strategies.
- A native App Store that makes it easy to activate product data across any commerce channel or business application. In addition to provide solutions for seamlessly augmenting the core product information created in the Product Data Studios. This is also orchestrated in the PDP.
Managing product experience
“We have heard from customers about the chaos of managing the different elements that make-up the story of their products. The internal processes and technology integrations to activate that story across the channels their customers expect them to be on. The whole process can be chaotic. That chaos can lead to poor experiences for consumers. This can negatively impact a business’s bottom line”, said Fred de Gombert, CEO and co-founder of Akeneo.
“After a customer has a negative shopping experience, it can be very difficult to re-engage with them and, in many cases, they are lost permanently,” said Mark Smith, CEO and Chief Research Officer at Ventana Research. “Our research has shown that businesses who take an omnichannel approach to activating their entire set of product information are the ones who will see long-term revenue growth. We are excited about Akeneo’s vision for Akeneo Product Cloud and believe this is what it will take to deliver world-class product experiences.”
The company has also launched a set of new automation and customisation features for Akeneo PIM. These features are designed to help decrease the time it takes to bring products to market. This is achieved while still delivering the consistent, complete and high-quality product information that omnichannel shoppers expect.
Key updates for the Akeneo Release include:
- Identifier Manager enables Akeneo PIM users to save time on product creation and increase data quality. This is managed by automating the creation and management of custom product identifiers that align with the user’s business requirements.
- Import and Export Scheduling which frees Akeneo PIM users from time-consuming and repetitive data import/export tasks. It provides the ability to schedule and automate the import and export of data to and from Akeneo PIM.
“With this release, we focused on delivering new Akeneo PIM capabilities to help users decrease time spent on repetitive tasks. This includes importing or exporting data to and from Akeneo PIM,” said Antoine Barbier, VP of Product at Akeneo. “The introduction of our new automation capabilities and customisation options frees users from these time-consuming activities. They can focus on the work that will help bring products to market faster and increase sales.”
Enterprise Times: What this means for business.
This was a busy year for Akeneo. Earlier this year, Akeneo launched Akeneo App Store. The app enables customers to find, install, and activate certified apps to help access and use valuable product data. Outside of the PIM, customers have many siloed and redundant technologies to manage and activate the entire product record. This often includes complex and expensive custom integrations, multiple stakeholders, spreadsheets and manual workarounds. This explains why Akeneo has brought its Akeneo Product Cloud to market. The company has the vision to provide a composable place where the C-suite can effectively manage product experiences. Product information needs to be managed with the same considerations enterprises increasingly now manage customer and employee experiences.
