What is a PIM workflow?

At first glance, visual workflows can feel like the entire picture. Most modern systems offer drag-and-drop interfaces that let you map out processes using labeled blocks, branching paths, and automated triggers. This kind of visual builder is intuitive and helpful—it lets teams design, preview, and adjust product content flows without needing to write code or involve IT.

But that’s exactly where many teams stop. Because the interface is so tangible, it’s easy to assume that the visual layer is the workflow.

In reality, that interface is just the top layer—a user-friendly way to represent a much deeper operational structure. Underneath that visual canvas is a system of rules, logic, permissions, and cross-functional coordination that powers how product data actually moves. A drag-and-drop editor can help visualize the path, but without process support, governance, or system integration, it’s just a map with no engine.

So, is visualization important? Absolutely. But it’s only as powerful as the processes, people, and platforms behind it. To understand what truly drives product content success, we need to look beyond the canvas—and that’s where a robust PIM deployment comes in.

How does a PIM workflow add value?

A well-structured PIM workflow does more than keep tasks moving—it adds real business value by making your product content process faster, more innovative, and more collaborative. Here’s how:

• Brings structure to your process: Every product follows the same clear path—from onboarding to enrichment to publication—so nothing falls through the cracks.
• Saves time with automation: Routine steps like data validation or asset tagging can be automated, speeding up launches and reducing manual work.
• Reduces costly errors: When everyone works from the same system, mistakes from outdated spreadsheets or miscommunications are less likely.
• Improves teamwork: Shared workflows break down silos between product, marketing, and sales teams, helping everyone stay aligned.
• Elevates content quality: With built-in checkpoints for completeness and accuracy, your product content is more consistent, polished, and ready to perform.

Where does visualization come in?

You create visual workflows using a drag and drop interface to add and arrange tasks. The interface helps you plan and design the flow you want visually, using the pre-defined blocks. That’s all there is to it – a visual interface layer.

And it’s this visual interface that many people perceive to be workflow. But is there more to it than that? Let’s look at a PIM solution deployment to find out.

What is a PIM solution?

With customers having more choice than ever before, ensuring that you’re keeping all your touchpoints up to date with the latest product information is essential. If the product information is wrong or missing, your customer will click away – fast. Moving at digital speed is the only speed that matters in this digital-first world. A PIM solution helps you manage all the moving parts. It’s a centralized hub to consolidate, manage, enrich, and access product information. Best of breed PIM solutions (inriver, for example) also include integrated product data syndication (PDS) capabilities and digital shelf analytics (DSA).

A PIM solution streamlines your processes, improves productivity and efficiency, and enables you to distribute rich, high-quality product information across all your touchpoints. How does it do that? By enhancing the way, you work. Now, do you call that workflow, or is it more about process support?

Process support versus workflow

In my experience, deploying a PIM solution affects multiple departments by breaking down organizational silos and stimulating collaboration. Often there is a change management culture around the deployment. It’s here that you see the importance of process support. But what is process support, and how does it differ from workflow?

Let’s use two real-life examples to demonstrate what it is.

1. Identify silos

One of the best ways to kick off a PIM solution deployment is by getting representatives from the various departments together to discuss and agree on how they want to sell their products online. In one company, I witnessed different internal groups, who all sell one product, introducing themselves. The marketing team didn’t know the product managers, and neither group knew the sales organization.

2. Gather technical information

During the discovery phase of a PIM project at a construction equipment manufacturer, it became apparent that the expensive machinery would sit in storage for three months before launching the product in the marketplace. Why? Because marketing didn’t have access to the technical information to craft the product stories. They could only start working on product enrichment activities after the product organization delivered the machinery.

In both these examples, imagine what the visual workflow would have looked like without process support. In the first example, the business would have three siloed processes working independently of each other. And for the construction-equipment manufacturer, they would continue to lag behind their competition as their existing workflow was negatively impacting speed to market.

Process support ensures that the business users define the optimal way of working by identifying the Event – Condition – Action sequence. As you can see, process support helps identify all the required processes and can refine (and in some cases fix) the way teams work together before you map or implement any workflow. For a PIM solution, workflow – visual or otherwise – is only one element of a successful deployment.

Common PIM Workflow Pitfalls—and How to Avoid Them

As valuable as workflows are, even the best intentions can lead to missteps without careful planning and execution. Before jumping into visual workflow mapping, it’s essential to avoid some of the most common PIM workflow pitfalls:

• Designing in silos
  A workflow designed without input from key departments often reflects only one team’s needs, leaving others out of sync. Ensure cross-functional collaboration from day one so the resulting workflows support your entire product lifecycle.
• Overcomplicating the workflow
  A visual interface makes it easy to drag and drop every possible rule or task—but that doesn’t mean you should. Simplicity leads to adoption. If a workflow becomes too layered, it can slow down execution and confuse users.
• Not updating workflows regularly
  Business needs evolve. New products, changing channel requirements, or regulatory updates may mean your current workflows are out of date. Make it a habit to audit and revise workflows regularly.
• Neglecting integration points
  Workflows are only as effective as the systems they interact with. If your PIM workflow doesn’t integrate with your DAM, ERP, or e-commerce platforms, you’ll miss out on automation opportunities and real-time data flow.

Avoiding these pitfalls means starting with a strong foundation of process support, aligning teams, and designing workflows that serve both your product data and the people managing it.

PIM workflow of the future

As we evolve towards composable commerce, we’ll see PIM solutions adapting. One of the requirements for composable commerce is having a flexible architecture, which lets you swap individual applications in or out at any time. What does that mean for PIM workflow? Ultimately, it’s about breaking the workflow down into a few key elements:

• A visual workflow engine
• A rules engine
• A connection framework

What’s the benefit of separating the components? First, it gives you a genuinely future-proof platform based on modularity, openness, and flexibility, preventing vendor lock-in. Second, it enables you to leverage existing systems and increase your ROI on those investments. For instance, your Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution already has a visual workflow engine. So instead of purchasing another, extend the PLM visual workflow engine into your PIM solution, and use the PIM’s rules engine with its connection framework.

Real-World Use Cases: How Future-Proof Workflows Look in Practice

Composable workflows are more than a buzzword—they’re already reshaping how leading brands bring products to market. Here’s how each core component plays out in real-world scenarios:

• Visual Workflow Engine
• A merchandising team sets up a visual workflow for launching a new product line. They use drag-and-drop tasks to define each stage—data onboarding, enrichment, approvals, and final syndication. Each step triggers automatically once the previous is marked complete.
• Rules Engine
  A category manager configures a rule: “If a product’s color options are updated, send an alert to the content team.” These rules automate repetitive communications, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
• Connection Framework
  A marketing team integrates the PIM system with their e-commerce storefront and analytics suite. When a product goes live, it instantly appears on the site with localized content—and engagement data is piped back into the PIM for performance review.

When workflows are built with modularity and real-world use in mind, they go beyond visualization. They become tools of acceleration and precision across your entire digital shelf.

Why inriver PIM Workflows Go Beyond Visualization

When it comes to workflow in a PIM solution, now and in the future, visualization will continue to be a handy user interface layer for the business. However, the real power is what’s beneath that – the process support, flexible data model, governance, and connection framework to ensure you move at digital speed, get your products to market faster, and deliver on customer expectations.

Download our free PIM buyer’s guide to uncover what else your PIM solution needs to deliver for success.