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We’re proud to announce the availability of “StrikeTru Furniture PIM”, an industry specific product information management solution for furniture companies.

PIM for Furniture

“With StrikeTru Furniture PIM, we provide a great solution for managing digital product content and deploying it across all sales and marketing channels”, said Harry Singh, Partner of StrikeTru. “We built this solution based on inputs from our furniture clients and our experience in the industry. We developed several features designed to help furniture retailers create, manage, and disseminate high quality and consistent product information across all their digital channels”.

Our solution is comprehensive and tackles a range of business requirements including vendor data onboarding, product content aggregation from multiple data sources, flexible product data modeling and data management (variations, packages/bundles, merchandising options like up-sell, cross-sell, etc.), digital asset management, and automatic updates of eCommerce and other sales and marketing applications.

Powered by Akeneo, built-in connectors to commerce and cloud platforms

StrikeTru Furniture PIM is powered by Akeneo PIM. Akeneo is the leading open source PIM product in the market, with over 150 enterprise edition deployments and thousands of community downloads globally. It is a very user friendly and feature-rich PIM software that is a “must-have” tool for modern IT organizations seeking to navigate today’s digital commerce trends in the furniture industry.

Furniture is one of the fastest-growing segments of U.S. online retail. Internet, big-box, and traditional furniture retailers are stepping up online sales. Whether you are a national, regional, local, or online furniture store, or whether you are niche, or high-end luxury, or discount furniture retailer, the StrikeTru PIM solution helps you establish a strong digital presence and align your online and store experiences to drive growth. Key benefits include:

• Launch products faster via integrated product content management.
• Deliver cross-channel consistency – selection, content, pricing, etc.
• Improve site search & selection with high quality, granular content curated in PIM.
• Increase efficiency by providing real-time, enterprise-wide visibility into product data flows.
• Lower content operations cost and complexity by modernizing IT.

Partners & Prospects Are Excited

“Our partners and prospects are excited about the StrikeTru PIM solution for the furniture industry and what it can do for them. We showed some of the features to a few partners and prospects, and their feedback has been great”, says Harry Singh. “We are excited about StrikeTru Furniture PIM solution and think it’s the most versatile PIM solution to address the product content related pain points of the furniture industry.

For more information, click here or contact [email protected].

As StrikeTru celebrates five years in business, we take this opportunity to thank all those who contributed to our success and prosperity. Over the years, we have implemented Product Information Management, Digital Asset Management, Web Content Management, eCommerce, and Identity Data Management solutions and services. We had an opportunity to work with some loyal and supportive clients across retail, manufacturing, and distribution sectors and with some wonderful partners including software companies, cloud-computing providers, eCommerce agencies, and IT consulting firms. We also want to thank our present and former employees, investors, friends, and families. We could not have come this far without their hard work and support.

As we take the time to celebrate our accomplishment, we also look forward to new opportunities and to continue serving our valued customers.

At the 11th MDM & Data Governance Summit held Nov 8-10 in NYC, StrikeTru co-presented a case study on how the Akeneo enterprise-grade open source PIM helped overcome product data management challenges faced by SHOP.com, a global internet retailer. The MDM & Data Governance Summit, organized by SourceMedia (publishers of Information Management), is a leading IT industry event that provides MDM related insights and best practices as well as quality networking opportunities for data management professionals of all levels, software vendors, and consultants. The topic of StrikeTru’s session was “CASE STUDY: Enterprise-Grade Open Source PIM – An Important Option for Modern IT”.

The Open Source PIM Option

The session was opened by Vik Gundoju (a Partner at StrikeTru) who discussed the key business reasons why enterprises must move from complex and costly legacy system driven product information management operations to simple, PIM-driven operations. Vik pointed out the underlying product data management challenges that a modern enterprise PIM solution addresses, and the significant benefits that are available to companies that choose to adopt enterprise-grade open source software solutions like Akeneo PIM. He reviewed why enterprise-grade open source distributions provide modern IT organizations the best chance of helping reduce costs, operate more efficiently, and gain quick access to innovations.

Akeneo PIM Case Study

Kyle Christiansen (an Enterprise Applications Architect at Market America / SHOP.com, a leading global Internet Retailer) presented next on why SHOP.com chose to implement a modern PIM solution and reasons why they chose Akeneo PIM. He reviewed in detail the various use cases implemented by PIM which served to highlight Akeneo’s capabilities including: master, reference and metadata management; digital asset management: data governance: marketplace connectors; and product data synchronization with ERP, PLM, sales, and marketing applications. Kyle also pointed out the big wins that Akeneo delivered to his enterprise and these included much improved enterprise agility, product data consistency and portability, enhanced productivity, and IT system consolidation related cost savings. He concluded his presentation by listing in what specific ways SHOP.com will leverage Akeneo to simplify how they handle their digital commerce and compliance requirements.

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Both presentations were received very well by the attendees, who had insightful questions and comments both during and after the presentation. The joint presentation describing why enterprises should consider PIM, benefits of enterprise-grade open source distributions, and details of the Akeneo case study at Market America / SHOP.com can be downloaded here on our Downloads page – be sure to click on OPEN SOURCE PIM.

More information on the 11th MDM & Data Governance Summit can be found here.

StrikeTru will be speaking at a major IT industry conference, MDM and Data Governance Conference 2016, in New York City on Nov 9, 2016. StrikeTru and SHOP.com will present an Akeneo PIM case study on how SHOP.com used PIM to modernize its IT & digital commerce operations.

Below is a copy of the official session abstract.

CASE STUDY: Enterprise-Grade Open Source PIM – An Important Option for Modern IT

Vik Gundoju, Partner, StrikeTru
Kyle Christiansen, Applications Architect, Market America/SHOP.com

Legacy operations involve high cost and complexity in aggregating, managing, and sharing an ever increasing amount of product information with customers, trading partners, regulatory agencies, and consumers. A PIM solution makes it easy to manage and distribute product data. An enterprise-grade open source PIM solution has the best chance of helping IT reduce costs, operate more efficiently, and gain quick access to innovations in PIM. Despite the success of well-known commercial open source technologies, many IT leaders often do not fully understand the benefits and value of open source technologies.

This session will review key open source MDM capabilities including: master, reference and metadata management; digital asset management: data governance: marketplace connectors; and product data synchronization between ERP, PLM, sales, and marketing applications.  Specific attention will be given to Akeneo which is the market-leading open source enterprise PIM.

To further the understanding of open source PIM, a case study discussing Shop.Com’s leverage of Akeneo to modernize its IT landscape will be presented.  This enabled the enterprise to become more agile in managing its global, multi-site, multi-language, multi-currency, and multi-channel commerce operations.

To highlight how open source PIM can accelerate enterprise success, StrikeTru and Shop.Com will present these topics:

• Understanding the business & technology benefits of enterprise-strength open source technologies for PIM
• Overcoming the prejudices & misinformation that plague open source decision-making
• Planning for the next generation of digital commerce

The 11th annual MDM and Data Governance Conference will be held Nov 8-10, 2016 at the Hilton Hotel in Midtown, New York City. It will attract an audience of over 500 Master Data Management (MDM) professionals at all experience levels looking to exchange ideas and build connections with the MDM community.

Vik Gundoju from StrikeTru will share the stage with Kyle Christiansen, an Enterprise Applications Architect at MarketAmerica/SHOP.com, a StrikeTru customer.

For more information including the full conference schedule, visit http://www.information-management.com/conferences/mdmnewyork/.

We’re excited to announce that our new and redesigned website is live now. Our goal for this new website is to provide our visitors an easier way to learn about StrikeTru’s services and solutions. The refreshed site includes changes to content and navigation, and emphasizes our focus on Product Information Management (PIM) solutions and the Akeneo platform. We improved content presentation and readability to enhance your site experience and make it easy to find information. We have also added several new graphics, and some videos to make the site more engaging and easier to use. The site contains additional integrated social media buttons for Youtube, Facebook, and Google Plus to enable improved communication with prospects and clients.

We added more information about Akeneo, and announced our new Akeneo cloud PIM solution packages and pricing for small- and medium- sized businesses. We added several new pages such as Why Akeneo, Why StrikeTru, Akeneo to Magento Integration via PIMGento, Akeneo to Adobe InDesign Integration using Pim2catalog, Akeneo Connectors, StrikeTru Extensions for Akeneo, and Downloads (for downloadable collateral like PIM related presentations and case studies). The blog and other resources including case studies continue to be available. On our youtube channel, we have aggregated several Akeneo PIM related introductory and feature overview videos.

Our goal is to be a trusted source of information for our site visitors, and help them research and evaluate our offerings. We will be constantly adding new content including helpful information, articles, blog postings, company announcements and client successes.

We hope you like what you see, and if you have any feedback, please email us or call +1 832 303 3257.

Our friends at Akeneo are doing a webinar on on Tue, Sep 20, 2016 from 10:00AM to 11:30AM CDT. Akeneo has just released version 1.6 of their Open Source PIM product. This webinar presents a preview of the new features, what has changed and what has been improved! There will time for Q&A at the end of the webinar. To register, click https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7371042765947112196

If you have questions about why you need PIM or how Akeneo PIM makes it easy to aggregate, enrich, and disseminate product content to e-commerce and other channels, please contact us at [email protected]. We’d be happy to consult with you about your specific needs, and also organize a custom demo. Akeneo is a feature rich, open source PIM software product that comes in both Community and Enterprise editions. We have implemented both versions for our clients, and can provide you necessary Akeneo consultants and developers to deploy and customize the Akeneo software to address your specific product content management needs.

StrikeTru is honored to be recognized as the first US based Akeneo Silver Solution Partner for our contributions to promote and deploy Akeneo PIM solutions. Since 2014, we have been working closely with Akeneo to market, sell, and deploy Akeneo in the US market. Combined with Akeneo’s next-generation PIM software capabilities, our implementation services help clients simplify how they manage and disseminate high quality product content to e-commerce and other sales channels.

Customers today rely heavily on digital product content to research and buy products online and in stores. Poor product content lowers brand equity, search engine rankings and sales, and raises operating costs. The stakes are high for companies struggling with legacy content management operations that involve high cost and complexity. StrikeTru leverages its rich industry and Akeneo deployment experience to help companies improve product content management capabilities, meet rising customer expectations, and ultimately compete better in the market place.

Join StrikeTru and Nuxeo for a live webinar to:

• Understand why “homegrown” systems and spreadsheets simply cannot serve as an effective PIM
• Discover winning use cases for PIM, by business function and industry
• Review key features and functionalities essential for a successful enterprise PIM application
• Review best practices in deploying enterprise PIM solutions

Click here to register for the event.

Vik Gundoju will be speaking about Product Information Management (PIM) at ChannelAdvisor’s Catalyst Americas 2016, an influential annual e-commerce conference taking place April 11-13 at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. ChannelAdvisor has recently announced that top branded manufacturers like Deckers, Hoover, Johnson & Johnson, Samsung and Whirlpool EMEA are attending Catalyst Americas 2016 and participating in the conference’s Brands track. Catalyst offers brands and retailers an opportunity to network with peers and hear valuable keynotes from some of the top influencers and visionaries in e-commerce.

The theme of Catalyst Americas 2016 is “E-Commerce, Future-Proofed.” This year’s agenda will be broken into three tracks: Brands, Focus and Innovate. The Brands track will cover how recent e-commerce innovations are affecting the way brands sell online. Vik will be making the case for why branded manufacturers must deliver high quality content to their retailers and establish a strong digital presence for revenue, cost, and brand benefits. He will discuss the typical barriers to publishing great content, and why Product Information Management tools are essential to overcome those barriers. He will talk about how brands can leverage best practices in PIM to transform their legacy operations so they can deliver consistent and high-quality content across all channels.

For more information about the event, please visit the conference website.

StrikeTru will be at the 2016 Magento Imagine Conference (Apr 11 – 13, 2016) in Las Vegas, Nevada. As a premier PIM and MDM solution provider, StrikeTru works with clients that implement Magento e-Commerce software and seek PIM or catalog management solutions.

Imagine 2016 is the premier Magento commerce conference. Now in its 6th year, this event brings together 2,500+ merchants, partners, developers and commerce experts from 40+ countries to network, exchange ideas and build relationships.

Imagine 2016 offers an opportunity for senior executives, marketers, developers, merchandisers and eCommerce visionaries from leading merchants, web design agencies, system integrators and technology innovators to collaborate and share the latest inspirations, technologies, techniques, and strategies transforming commerce.

Please visit imagine.magento.com and check out #MagentoImagine for updates and more information about Imagine 2016.

StrikeTru, Akeneo’s solution partner in the US, participated in the recently held Akeneo Partner Summit in Paris (Dec 1-2). A number of Akeneo Solution Partners from around the world (Europe, USA, Australia, etc.) participated in the 2 day event that included plenty of updates from Akeneo, networking, and sales and technical track workshops related to the Akeneo open source PIM product. There were also presentations from Akeneo’s technology partners (Naolis, Mirakl, and Serenzia) that demonstrated their solutions that augment the capabilities of the Akeneo open source PIM software in the areas of print publishing / print automation, marketplace integration, and data quality (efficient cleansing and transformation).

In addition to networking and workshops, there was also a partner round table with the Akeneo executive team to discuss in a more informal setting the momentum Akeneo is seeing in the market, and how it is responding to it. StrikeTru, and other Akeneo Partners, had an opportunity to provide feedback on the product pricing, features and roadmap, and Akeneo partner program specifics.

StrikeTru will be at the 2015 GS1 Connect Conference (May 31 – June 4, 2015) in Austin, Texas.

GS1 is a neutral, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve efficiency and visibility in supply chains. It is an organization that develops global standards for identifying, capturing, and sharing product information.

GS1 and its subsidiary 1WorldSync are engaged in multiple initiatives to improve consumer confidence in digital product information. 1WorldSync is a global product data management and data pool solution provider helping companies share trusted product information with one another and with consumers. StrikeTru is collaborating with Innovit to deliver GDSN and UDI compliance solutions (based on its iICE Connector product) for the supplier and recipient GDSN community in healthcare, manufacturing, and other industry sectors. For the second year running, Innovit is an exhibition partner and sponsor of the Healthcare tracks at the GS1 Connect event. Innovit is also a global certified solution partner of 1WorldSync.

StrikeTru will be at the 2015 Magento Imagine Conference (Apr 20 – 22, 2015) in Las Vegas, Nevada. As a premier PIM and MDM solution provider, StrikeTru works with clients that implement Magento e-Commerce software and seek PIM or catalog management solutions.

Imagine 2015 is the premier Magento commerce conference. Now in its 5th year, this event brings together 2,500+ merchants, partners, developers and commerce experts from 40+ countries to network, exchange ideas and build relationships. Imagine 2015 offers an opportunity for senior executives, marketers, developers, merchandisers and eCommerce visionaries from leading merchants, web design agencies, system integrators and technology innovators to collaborate and share the latest inspirations, technologies, techniques, and strategies transforming commerce.

Please visit imagine.magento.com for updates and more information about Imagine 2015.

These are typical problem statements we heard from companies that invested in PIM. Often times, these problems exist because product data is managed in a fragmented fashion across disparate systems and spreadsheets. If you’re experiencing similar challenges, please contact us for an introductory chat to explore how we can help you. As McKinsey said, integrating data sources into a single system that is accessible to everyone in the organization will improve the “clock speed” for innovation. In other words, the organization will become “agile”.

We recently completed implementing an Akeneo based Product Information Management (PIM) system for Steal-A-Sofa, a furniture retailer. Akeneo is an open source PIM system that is specifically targeted for retailers looking to replace their cumbersome excel based product information management processes with an simple and easy to use web based system.

We recently wrapped up the implementation of a Nuxeo ECM (Enterprise Content Management) platform based Product Information Management (PIM) and Digital Asset Management (DAM) system for PTS America, one of the world’s largest vertically integrated manufacturer of ceramic tableware. StrikeTru managed a vendor selection process and helped choose Nuxeo based on a number of criteria that were relevant for this specific client’s needs.

Phase 1 of the project enabled the client to start migrating and enriching existing products and digital assets. Phase 2 of the project rolled out functionality to orchestrate new product development processes by configuring appropriate workflows and reporting.

Operating as part of a client’s extended delivery team, StrikeTru recently implemented a SailPoint IIQ project to help an organization address audit gaps in their privileged user account maintenance processes. Findings highlighted gaps in the organization’s ability to track and audit the on-boarding and off-boarding of privileged user accounts, what systems they accessed and reasons why, and password management.

The SailPoint IIQ enabled solution we helped develop helps track and report the requesting, approval, provisioning and de-provisioning of privileged system accounts and temporarily elevated privileges.

A client and partner (Innovit, a PIM/MDM vendor) brought us in make several enhancements to its website in a very short period of time. It was a legacy Drupal implementation that StrikeTru inherited from a vendor that was no longer engaged with Innovit. Innovit needed to go live with a set of changes that were pending for a long time, and also make several brand and content enhancements in lieu of their push into the American market.

StrikeTru assessed the situation and delivered the project in two phases in quick succession. Phase 1 involved migrating the website over to a new host (for performance reasons) and releasing the pending changes into production. Phase 2 involved a number of other changes including newly branded emails, the launch of a Europe facing subsite, and paypal payment integration.

StrikeTru will be at the 2014 GS1 Connect Conference (June 8-12, 2014) in San Diego, California.

GS1 is a neutral, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve efficiency and visibility in supply chains. It is an organization that develops global standards for identifying, capturing, and sharing product information.

According to a Cap Gemini study titled “Beyond the Label: Providing Digital Information Consumers Can Trust”, the data consumers receive in today’s digital marketplace is often inaccurate, incomplete or missing entirely. Apparently nearly 40% of shoppers said they would not buy a product if they could not trust the accuracy of the digital information. GS1 and its subsidiary 1WorldSync are engaged in multiple initiatives to improve consumer confidence in digital product information. 1WorldSync is a global product data management and data pool solution provider helping companies share trusted product information with one another and with consumers.

StrikeTru will be at the GS1 Connect 2013 Conference (June 10-13, 2013) in San Antonio Texas.

GS1 is a neutral, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve efficiency and visibility in supply chains. It is an organization that develops global standards for identifying, capturing, and sharing product information.

StrikeTru will be attending the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition (June 4-7, 2013) at McCormick Place West, Chicago.

Image courtesy: forefrontmag.com