Request for Proposal (RFP)
for Product Information Management system
Start your PIM journey with a Composable PIM RFP Template created for your convenience
Product Information Management (PIM) platforms have evolved over the years from large monolithic software applications deployed on-premise to a catalog of APIs supported by microservices. This innovative new breed of PIM solutions requires a new approach to the RFP process than was common in the past. The web-based tool presented here provides a simple, intuitive way to create an RFP that meets the needs of your project. Start by selecting tags and individual questions. After filling out a short form, you can download an Excel file with your copy. All the questions prepared below will be useful to you when selecting a PIM vendor.
Start building your RFP
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Review & edit your questions
Edit, add or remove your questions and sections/subsections by hovering your cursor over them
Company profile
Name of the vendor
Address of the vendor
Key Partners in relation to PIM projects
In what year was your platform first commercially available?
What is the structure of your company? (Public/private, partnership, joint venture, subsidiary, etc.)
How many people do you employ and in how many locations?
Please outline your company’s strategic vision / roadmap for the next 5 years
Experience
Please name 5 major projects in detail
Please describe your "typical" customer in a few sentences
Price Submission Requirements
Please provide a quote for a 12-month/36-month option for the subscription to your system
Please confirm that you are willing to offer a free POC if selected as the preferred solution before committing to a contract
OnBoarding
What implementation approaches would you recommend when implementing your solution? For example, do you work with partners or do you implement with your own teams of consultants?
What does a typical implementation process/steps look like and how long does it typically take? For example, X months
How quickly can an environment be put into operation?
Platform Architecture
What delivery models do you support (on-premise, managed hosting, single-tenant SaaS, multi-tenant SaaS, etc.)?
Explain how you meet the MACH architecture principles.
- Cloud native
- API first approach
- Everything is Infrastructure as Code, versioned controlled, repeatable
Which cloud provider do you use to host your platform?
From which cloud region(s) do you deploy your platform?
Event-driven architecture: Please confirm that all major actions in the PIM (e.g., adding a product, updating a product, creating a collection of products) publish events that can be subscribed to by other systems, either via an SNS topic or alternatively via webhooks.
Performance
Document how the PIM system will be secure, scalable, and adaptable to meet the organization's growth and changing business needs.
How can performance and availability be monitored?
APIs
Explain how the system provides general API functions for product modeling
Explain how the system provides extensive documentation for all API functions
Explain how the system provides event APIs / webhooks / subscriptions
Does your platform API support GraphQL?
Security
Does the application support SSO (Single Sign On)?
Does the application have configurable user access controls?
Please describe the SLA for platform availability.
Please describe how a robust authorization system allows for the creation of different roles with different permissions.
Please describe the data recovery process in the event of a failure of your platform.
Features - Core functionality
Explain how the PIM system is able to accommodate the organization's data model and support the storage and management of product information across multiple categories and attributes.
Explain the flexibility of the product model: (single, variants, and bundled products).
Show how the PIM system provide tools to create and manage taxonomy and categorization schemes to enable easy navigation and search of products.
Explain the Versioning and audit trail: versioning capability to provide an audit trail and recovery capability.
Does the system allow customization of product fields?
Does the system allow modeling of both physical and digital products?
Does the system allow modeling of complex / abstract structures such as bundles and subscription plans?
Does the system allow the creation of relationships between products (e.g. through inheritance, categorization or composition)?
Does the system allow the creation of product variants?
Show that the interface has "drag-and-drop" functionality.
Does the system support mega menus and multi-level category navigation?
Does your system support multiple languages/contexts?
Integration
Show how the PIM system can integrate with other systems, including ERP, CRM, and eCommerce platforms, to provide a single source of truth for all product information.
Describe the ability to mass import products via CSV and spreadsheets.
Data Quality
Explain how the PIM system has robust data governance capabilities to ensure accuracy, completeness, and consistency of data across all channels and applications.
Show how the PIM system provides analytics and reporting capabilities to monitor data quality, measure performance, and inform business decisions.
Workflows and collaboration
Explain how the PIM system provides workflow management capabilities to streamline processes, manage approvals, and ensure accountability.
Explain how the system enables collaboration.
Explain how the system allows for tracking of progress and completion of products and workflows.
Explain how the system allows for custom triggers/events/warnings.
Explain how the system enables integration with external workflow systems.
Explain how the system enables the creation of groups with different permissions (e.g. product manager, marketing, developer).
Digital Asset Management
Explain the ability to import digital assets (images, videos, documents, etc.) and associated metadata, link them inline to products/categories, preview them, and publish them to channels.
Explain basic file format conversion to optimize assets for each channel.
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Contact info
Fill in your contact info in order to activate your RFP download link
First name*
Last name*
Company name*
Job title*
Email*
Mobile phone number*
Project Details*
Timeline for Implementation*
Decision Competence*
3
Save and export to Microsoft Excel
Click the button below to download your RFP in Excel format