How to Find the Right PIM Agency: Checklist & Tips

A new PIM system is supposed to finally bring order to your product data. No more Excel spreadsheets, duplicate data, manual corrections, and product information scattered across ERP, shop, PDF, DAM, folder structures, and individual team members' heads. Sounds like a clear plan. But when it comes to implementation, one thing quickly becomes apparent: a PIM project is not a purely technical software project.

Many companies underestimate how many strategic, technical, and organizational decisions come with a PIM implementation. It's not just about installing Akeneo, ATAMYA, Pimcore, or another PIM system. It's about rethinking product data processes and master data management, clarifying responsibilities, planning integrations properly, and building a data model that works not just today, but also in two, five, or ten years.

That's exactly why choosing the right PIM agency is so important. PIM projects rarely fail because the system itself is unsuitable. Far more often, problems arise because requirements remain unclear, data quality is misjudged, integrations are planned too late, or the agency is technically strong but lacks experience with product data processes.

If You want to find an experienced PIM agency, You shouldn't just ask about references or day rates. You need a partner who thinks consulting, implementation, data migration, integration, training, and long-term development through as one.

What Does a PIM Agency Actually Do?

A PIM agency helps companies centrally manage, structure, enrich, and distribute product information across various channels — for example webshops, marketplaces, retailer portals, print catalogs, data sheets, apps, or internal sales systems.

The scope of services can vary considerably from agency to agency. Some focus primarily on the technical implementation of a specific system. Others get involved as early as the strategy phase and accompany the project from requirements analysis through to ongoing operations. You therefore need to know which services You actually require.

Typical services provided by a PIM agency include:

• PIM consulting and strategy: What goals should the PIM achieve? Which processes need to improve? Which teams will use it? Which channels need to be served?
• System selection: Does Akeneo, ATAMYA, Pimcore, or another system fit better? Which requirements are decisive? Which licensing, hosting, and operating models are worth considering?
• Conception and data modeling: How should product families, attributes, variants, categories, classifications, languages, units, and media be structured sensibly?
• PIM implementation: Installation, configuration, roles and permissions concept, workflows, validations, views, imports, and exports.
• Data migration and onboarding: Existing product data is analyzed, cleansed, mapped, and transferred to the new system in a structured way.
• Interfaces and integration: The PIM is connected to ERP, shop, DAM, CMS, marketplaces, middleware, translation tools, or print systems.
• Training and enablement: Teams need to understand how to maintain, review, approve, and distribute data across channels.
• Support and further development: New requirements emerge after go-live. Good PIM agencies also support optimization, operations, updates, and new integrations.

Not every agency offers all of these services. That's exactly why it's worth taking a close look at the PIM agency selection criteria.

What Questions Should You Ask Yourself Before Searching for an Agency?

Before comparing agencies, You should roughly assess Your own project. You don't need a finished concept yet. But the more clearly You can describe Your starting point, the better an agency can assess which solution makes sense.

One central question is: How complex is Your product data? A company with 2,000 simple items, few attributes, and one shop has different requirements than a manufacturer with 150,000 products, technical specifications, spare parts, variants, multiple brands, and 12 languages. E-commerce companies and online retailers have different requirements again.

It's also important to clarify: Which systems need to be connected? In many companies, the ERP remains the leading system for article numbers, prices, stock levels, or supplier information. The PIM, on the other hand, handles marketing texts, technical characteristics, translations, media assignments, channel rules, and data quality. On top of that, there are often Shopware, Magento, Shopify, marketplaces, DAM systems, CMS, print output, or BI solutions. For online retailers, it's important to be able to import data from many manufacturers easily and to normalize attribute values.

You should also clarify: Which PIM systems are basically worth considering? Akeneo is often a strong fit for companies looking for a focused PIM with good usability and clear product data processes. We frequently connect our TESSA DAM to it. ATAMYA can be particularly interesting for mid-sized companies looking for a modern product cloud with an efficient entry point. Pimcore often shows its strengths when complex data models, MDM, DAM, content, and digital experience need to be more closely integrated. Which solution fits always depends on Your requirements — not on the name of the system.

The following questions are also helpful:

• How many products, variants, and attributes are there currently?
• How many languages and countries need to be covered?
• Should automated translation processes follow?
• Which product data is already available in a structured format?
• Where does data currently live: ERP, Excel, supplier portals, PDFs, DAM, shop?
• How should the system fit into the AI infrastructure?
• Which channels should be supplied from the PIM?
• Who will maintain product data going forward: purchasing, product management, marketing, e-commerce, sales?
• Are there approval processes, translation workflows, or quality thresholds?
• Should the PIM run on-premise, in the cloud, or as SaaS?
• What internal IT resources are available?
• Is there a fixed go-live date, for example ahead of a shop migration or catalog production?

The better these points are prepared, the more concrete the PIM consulting will be — and the easier it will be to tell whether an agency truly understands what's at stake.

What Should You Look for When Selecting a PIM Agency?

You won't recognize the right PIM agency by impressive references alone. What matters is how they think, ask questions, and structure their approach. A good agency doesn't try to sell You a specific system as quickly as possible. They want to understand how Your business works first.

1. System-Agnostic Consulting Instead of Single-System Thinking

If an agency only offers one PIM system, the recommendation is often predictable. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, but it can limit Your options. Better is an agency that knows multiple systems and evaluates honestly which PIM fits Your requirements.

Example: A retailer with a manageable product range, clear data processes, and a focus on fast e-commerce distribution may need a different solution than a manufacturer with complex bills of materials, product relationships, customer-specific assortments, and print output. A good agency doesn't just tell You which system they prefer — they explain why.

2. Experience With Data Models

The data model is the foundation of every PIM project. If it's poorly planned, maintenance overhead, workarounds, and frustration follow. An experienced PIM agency therefore thinks early about product families, attributes, variants, units, required fields, validations, classifications, and channel requirements.

A simple example: a fashion retailer needs sizes, colors, materials, care instructions, and variant logic. A technical wholesaler needs standards, dimensions, performance data, compatibility information, and possibly industry-specific classifications. Both work with product data — but the data models differ fundamentally.

3. Integration Expertise

A PIM only delivers its full value once it's properly embedded in the system landscape. You should therefore check carefully whether an agency truly masters integrations. Writing "API experience" on a website isn't enough. Having a dedicated middleware is a clear quality indicator — integrations matter. This applies to DAM as well. Assets are not trivial: depending on the market and product, strong expertise is required.

Ask about specific integrations: ERP, shop, DAM, CMS, marketplaces, middleware, translation tools, supplier portals, or print systems. It's also important to understand how the agency handles errors. What happens when an import fails? How is data validated? Where are logs visible? Who is responsible during operations?

4. A Realistic View of Data Quality

Existing product data is rarely as clean as You'd hope. Duplicates, inconsistent spelling, missing units, outdated descriptions, incorrect media assignments, or attributes in free-text fields are the norm. A good PIM agency raises these issues early — not shortly before go-live.

If an agency estimates the effort for data migration as very low without having seen Your data, You should be cautious. Serious PIM consulting starts with analysis, sampling, mapping, and a realistic assessment of the cleansing effort.

5. Understanding Processes and People

A PIM changes workflows. Product managers, marketing, purchasing, e-commerce, IT, and sales will work differently together afterward. That's why change management is a key success factor.

Good agencies ask: Who is allowed to create attributes? Who approves product data? Who is responsible for translations? Which fields must be complete before publication? How is it ensured that a product only goes live once texts, images, and technical data have been reviewed?

A PIM project succeeds when the team accepts the system and uses it in everyday work. That's why training, documentation, and practical enablement formats are just as important as the technical implementation.

6. Transparent Project Methodology

You should understand how the agency proceeds. Are there workshops? Is a requirements specification or functional concept created? Does the agency work agile, in a classic waterfall model, or hybrid? How are milestones defined? When are integrations tested? When are key users involved?

A good project flow might look like this: goal definition, requirements analysis, system selection, data model, prototype, integration concept, migration test, configuration, training, quality assurance, go-live, and optimization. What matters is not the methodology as a buzzword, but the transparency.

7. References With Comparable Complexity

References are most valuable when they match Your situation. A successful Akeneo implementation in retail means something — but if You're an international manufacturer with complex product structures, You need different evidence.

Don't just ask for logos. Ask about project details: How many products were migrated? Which systems were connected? What challenges arose? What role did the agency actually play? Were they only responsible for technical setup, or also for consulting, data modeling, migration, and support?

8. Long-Term Support

The go-live is not the end of a PIM project. After launch, new channels, assortments, languages, workflows, integrations, validation rules, and system updates will follow. A suitable agency should therefore remain reachable after go-live too.

Check whether support, operations, monitoring, further development, and strategic consulting are offered. Especially with growing assortments, a long-term partner is often more valuable than a pure implementation provider.

9. AI Capabilities

Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly important role in product data management. Especially with large assortments, many attributes, multiple languages, or different sales channels, AI can help structure, enrich, and optimize product data more quickly.

A modern PIM agency should therefore not only master classic PIM implementation, but also be able to assess where AI delivers real added value in a specific project — and where it doesn't. Because AI is not an end in itself. It delivers its greatest benefit when the data model, processes, and quality rules are already cleanly defined.

Possible use cases include the automatic classification of products, suggesting missing attributes and attribute values, optimizing product texts, translation support, creating channel- or target-group-specific descriptions, and identifying data quality issues. For example: if measurement units for technical products are maintained inconsistently or important attributes are missing, AI can help identify anomalies and suggest corrections. Expert review remains important regardless.

When selecting an agency, You should therefore ask whether they have experience with AI-supported product data processes — and how they handle topics like data quality, governance, approval workflows, and data protection. A good PIM agency doesn't promise that AI will automatically solve all product data problems. Instead, they show You where AI can be sensibly integrated into existing PIM processes.

What matters is a pragmatic approach: AI should relieve product teams, accelerate processes, and improve the quality of the product experience — without generating uncontrolled content or creating new data problems.

Checklist: Questions You Should Ask Potential PIM Agencies

If You want to find a PIM agency, these concrete questions will help You through the selection process:

• Which PIM systems do You know from real projects?
• Are You tied to one system, or do You consult system-agnostically?
• What experience do You have with Akeneo, ATAMYA, or Pimcore?
• How do You approach requirements analysis?
• How do You develop a suitable data model?
• How do You assess the quality of existing product data?
• How does a data migration work with You?
• How do You work with AI?
• Which systems have You already connected?
• How do You document integrations and data flows?
• How do You involve our specialist departments?
• Which tasks do we need to handle internally?
• How realistically do You estimate timelines and budgets?
• How do You prevent scope creep during the project?
• How do You organize testing and quality assurance?
• What training do You offer for key users and editors?
• What does support look like after go-live?
• Can You show references with comparable complexity?
• What are typical risks in our kind of project?
• How do You recognize whether our company is already ready for a PIM?
• What would You explicitly not recommend?

That last question is particularly revealing. A strong agency doesn't say yes to everything. They also point out risks, prioritize requirements, and protect You from unnecessary complexity.

Common Mistakes When Selecting an Agency

A common mistake is making the decision primarily based on price. Of course the budget needs to work. But a cheap offer can become expensive when key tasks like data cleansing, integration design, or training are not included.

A second mistake: committing to a system too early. Many companies start with "we need Akeneo" or "we want Pimcore," even though their requirements haven't been properly analyzed yet. Sometimes that assumption holds. But sometimes it turns out a different system fits better.

A third mistake is underestimating internal resources. Even the best PIM agency can't make a project successful on its own. Knowledge of products, processes, and data lives within Your organization. Without key users, clear responsibilities, and fast decisions, every project becomes sluggish.

Also critical: lack of prioritization. If the first step requires perfectly mapping every edge case, country, channel, and piece of historical data, the project quickly grows too large. Often a clean MVP is more sensible: with a clear data structure, key assortments, central integrations, and a realistic roadmap for expansion.

Why EIKONA Media as Your PIM Agency?

If You're looking for a PIM agency that thinks consulting, implementation, and integration through together, EIKONA Media is the right contact. We support You not just with the technical introduction of a PIM system — we take a holistic view of Your product data management: from strategy and data modeling through to system integration and long-term development.

Our advantage: we specialize in multiple PIM systems — including Akeneo, ATAMYA, and Pimcore. This allows us to evaluate Your requirements system-agnostically and recommend the solution that truly fits Your business.

As an Akeneo agency, we support You with PIM strategy, consulting, conception, implementation, customization, integrations, hosting, operations, and further development. When Akeneo fits Your system landscape and product data processes, we implement it cleanly and practically.

As an ATAMYA agency, we support You with consulting, conception, data migration, implementation, integration, training, and optimization. ATAMYA can be a compelling path for mid-sized companies looking to manage product data more efficiently and get into implementation faster.

With Pimcore, we bring complex product data, deep system integration, and cross-channel publishing together under one roof. This is particularly interesting when PIM, MDM, DAM, content, and digital experiences need to be more closely connected.

Add to that our experience with DAM, e-shops, middleware, and integrations. Because product data doesn't end in the PIM. It needs to reach shops, portals, marketplaces, CMS, print processes, and further channels. That's why we think data flows, media, systems, and users together from the start. AI application and its integration is a matter of course for us as well.

In short: we don't just help You introduce a PIM. We help You build a reliable product experience.