5 ms·

Free and Open Source Product Information Management(PIM) System

62 points by OpenPIM 6y ago

OpenPIM 6y ago
Hi, You can find free open source Product Information Management (PIM) software here - https://www.openpim.org https://www.openpim.org It has more features than the free version of Akeneo and is much easier to use than Pimcore (it's 2 familiar free PIM system). Any feedback are very much welcome. Cheers
- BuildTheRobots 6y ago
  There seems to be a bug in firefox where clicking the arrow next to a heading in the tree menu causes it to animate but not actually expand the tree on first click. It works second time and every time after that. This happens again after a page reload.
  - OpenPIM 6y ago
    Thanks for the feedback. We will fix this.
rodolphoarruda 6y ago
Almost everything listed in the Features page is not relevant to the typical PIM end-user. The page seems to be designed for the IT guy, who plays only a tech advisory role in the decision process for selecting a solution like this. What product information management problems does this solution promise to solve?
- OpenPIM 6y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. You are right that the site is primarily for technicians who need to implement a PIM solution. So it's useful for those who know they need PIM and are looking for possible solutions. We are going to improve this in future, but now we are targeting the people who is looking for small, easy and free PIM. There are several free PIM systems available, and we just want to share information that there is another alternative.
  - PowerBar 6y ago
    While I with rodolphoarruda that you need a page that sells the product to the user, I applaud the existence of this page. As the person often tasked with evaluating, approving and deploying software, a page like the one linked to in this article can turn a multi-day review process (or weeks if I have to keep asking their sales people to relay questions to the technical team I'm not allowed to talk to and then relay back half the information they think they understood from said technical team) into a couple of hours.
nomadtwin 6y ago
Please take a moment and open the demo on a smartphone. It might not be the actual device for the end user but people will read this on HN and just click the link...and then get a very little disappointed
- OpenPIM 6y ago
  Many thanks. Yes, the smartphone is not the target device, but we need to support it better anyway.
lenlorijn 6y ago
I think this should have "Show HN" in the title. For people looking for an open source PIM, https://www.akeneo.com/ https://www.akeneo.com/ is also worth considering.
- OpenPIM 6y ago
  Akeneo is undoubtedly the most famous open source PIM. But it's not completely free. There is a free version with fairly large restrictions. And the commercial version isn't cheap.
Rochus 6y ago
Why do they use the abbreviation "PIM" for something which was called Product Data Management (PDM) for the last thirty years? Seems to be a new use of the abbreviation (i.e. all PIM references in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_information_management https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_information_management are less than a year old). It was already used for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_information_manager https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_information_manager. Did they switch from PDM to PIM in business and operations management education, or is this just an idea of the developers of the referenced software?
- sixdimensional 6y ago
  I am not 100% sure, but here is my theory. Master data management is the superset, covering tools and systems designed to manage data from many domains. Originally, ERP and large enterprise systems were where the “master” records were stored. In recent years there has been some backlash against ERP systems, e.g. Oracle. Also, master data management was seen negatively in an increasingly federated system world - one with the Bezos mandate, microservices, reduced centralization, etc. I’ve seen a general unbundling and remarketing of enterprise solutions in ways to make them more palatable to the newer generations. Therefore, to escape the legacy image, ERP -> master data management -> product data management -> product information management. I think it has to do with the evolution from big centralized systems to federated/distributed/independent but interconnected ones, and the corresponding branding/marketing changes over time. Especially to avoid terms seen as “legacy”. The marketing might be a bit short sighted, but that is an opinion. Maybe the branding sells more copies, and for most of these companies that is all that matters.
  - OpenPIM 6y ago
    From my opinion ERP is completely different here. ERP usually store product IDs and other operational product information. When PIM/PDM is focused only on product data and usually guys from marketing team is working a lot with PIM. PIM is considered part of MDM, because MDM solutions can work in different areas like customers, addresses, etc. While PIM is only for products, so we can call it Product MDM.

62 points by OpenPIM 6y ago

Hi, You can find free open source Product Information Management (PIM) software here - https://www.openpim.org https://www.openpim.org It has more features than the free version of Akeneo and is much easier to use than Pimcore (it's 2 familiar free PIM system). Any feedback are very much welcome. Cheers

BuildTheRobots 6y ago
There seems to be a bug in firefox where clicking the arrow next to a heading in the tree menu causes it to animate but not actually expand the tree on first click. It works second time and every time after that. This happens again after a page reload.
- OpenPIM 6y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. We will fix this.

rodolphoarruda 6y ago

Almost everything listed in the Features page is not relevant to the typical PIM end-user. The page seems to be designed for the IT guy, who plays only a tech advisory role in the decision process for selecting a solution like this. What product information management problems does this solution promise to solve?

OpenPIM 6y ago
Thanks for the feedback. You are right that the site is primarily for technicians who need to implement a PIM solution. So it's useful for those who know they need PIM and are looking for possible solutions. We are going to improve this in future, but now we are targeting the people who is looking for small, easy and free PIM. There are several free PIM systems available, and we just want to share information that there is another alternative.
- PowerBar 6y ago
  While I with rodolphoarruda that you need a page that sells the product to the user, I applaud the existence of this page. As the person often tasked with evaluating, approving and deploying software, a page like the one linked to in this article can turn a multi-day review process (or weeks if I have to keep asking their sales people to relay questions to the technical team I'm not allowed to talk to and then relay back half the information they think they understood from said technical team) into a couple of hours.

nomadtwin 6y ago

Please take a moment and open the demo on a smartphone. It might not be the actual device for the end user but people will read this on HN and just click the link...and then get a very little disappointed

OpenPIM 6y ago
Many thanks. Yes, the smartphone is not the target device, but we need to support it better anyway.

lenlorijn 6y ago

I think this should have "Show HN" in the title. For people looking for an open source PIM, https://www.akeneo.com/ https://www.akeneo.com/ is also worth considering.

OpenPIM 6y ago
Akeneo is undoubtedly the most famous open source PIM. But it's not completely free. There is a free version with fairly large restrictions. And the commercial version isn't cheap.

Rochus 6y ago

Why do they use the abbreviation "PIM" for something which was called Product Data Management (PDM) for the last thirty years? Seems to be a new use of the abbreviation (i.e. all PIM references in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_information_management https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_information_management are less than a year old). It was already used for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_information_manager https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_information_manager. Did they switch from PDM to PIM in business and operations management education, or is this just an idea of the developers of the referenced software?

sixdimensional 6y ago
I am not 100% sure, but here is my theory. Master data management is the superset, covering tools and systems designed to manage data from many domains. Originally, ERP and large enterprise systems were where the “master” records were stored. In recent years there has been some backlash against ERP systems, e.g. Oracle. Also, master data management was seen negatively in an increasingly federated system world - one with the Bezos mandate, microservices, reduced centralization, etc. I’ve seen a general unbundling and remarketing of enterprise solutions in ways to make them more palatable to the newer generations. Therefore, to escape the legacy image, ERP -> master data management -> product data management -> product information management. I think it has to do with the evolution from big centralized systems to federated/distributed/independent but interconnected ones, and the corresponding branding/marketing changes over time. Especially to avoid terms seen as “legacy”. The marketing might be a bit short sighted, but that is an opinion. Maybe the branding sells more copies, and for most of these companies that is all that matters.
- OpenPIM 6y ago
  From my opinion ERP is completely different here. ERP usually store product IDs and other operational product information. When PIM/PDM is focused only on product data and usually guys from marketing team is working a lot with PIM. PIM is considered part of MDM, because MDM solutions can work in different areas like customers, addresses, etc. While PIM is only for products, so we can call it Product MDM.