Managing Unstructured Data

When comparing content management (CM) with product information management (PIM) and product content management (PCM), there are some important factors that should play into the evaluation process.
Even though content management practices and goals vary from industry to industry and from one organization to another, at its core, content management is the management of any unstructured data within an enterprise.
 

Key Content Management Components

An important part of CM is versioning and the ability to manage different versions of content as it evolves. Content authors and editors often need to reference and restore older versions of content. The ability to easily retrace and restore that content is often critical.

Review standards are another equally important aspect of content management—specifically the creation, maintenance and application of those standards. Each member of the content creation and review process must be able to review and maintain standards on an ongoing basis to ensure the long-term consistency and accuracy of the knowledge base.
 

How Content Management Differs from Other Similar Disciplines

Product information management (PIM), on the other hand, specifically addresses the challenges of managing information about products and product-related content.

CM is implemented using a content management system (CMS), which is a software solution that provides the processes, automation and tools for authoring, managing and publishing unstructured content. Web content management systems (WCMS) are closely related to CMS and provide tools for website management and web page authoring.

CMS and product information management (PIM) can coexist within an enterprise data architecture — and when required, even exchange data and documents.