By Amit Rai, President, ThoughtSpark
January was abuzz with 2023 round-ups, with some very interesting takes on product highlights, business updates. I'm aware I'm a bit late, but let's attribute it to all the kick-offs I had to attend last month. It has gotten so crazy that we’ve decided to attempt the 2025 kick-offs in December 2024, aiming to hit the ground running next year. Excuses aside, here I am, with my take on what the year meant for the Syndigo PIM / MDM platform.
In a nutshell, 2023 was another foundational year in the journey of this product. Innovation is at the heart of Syndigo’s strategy, and in more ways than you can imagine, they used the last year to set themselves up for a groundbreaking 2024. Thematically, the main areas of Product investments that I’m gonna cover today are PXM, MDM, AI, and UX. There are too many acronyms. Let’s expand on each and gain deeper insights into these areas.
First, PXM. There are different schools of thought across the industry. One claims that PIM has now expanded to include Syndication, experiences, and Digital Shelf Analytics while the other calls this combination, PXM. Regardless of what acronym you prefer using, Syndigo, with the breadth of its product portfolio, is there to solve these use cases and be a leading PXM (I am from the second school of thought) player. Not many can claim to offer the entire breadth of solutions and even Syndigo would fall short, if they did not make the experience zing. Hence, the great focus on seamless integration of the offerings to present a one-stop answer to PXM - Syndigo.
Second, MDM. Syndigo has long played in the MDM space. They’ve been leaders in the Gartner Magic Quadrant. It is one of the few products that does justice to both PIM and MDM. However, with PIM and Syndication being the front-runners, it appears that MDM had taken a back seat in the preceding year. In the latter half of 2023, however, MDM resurfaced as a key focus area. The strategy was to further strengthen the B2B customer master capabilities and at the same time, create a good B2C foundation. B2C customer solution is a key strategic area for 2024 as well, as stated by Simon, the CEO at Syndigo as well as Nikhil, the SVP of Product at Syndigo. As more and more businesses look to create unique Product and Customer experiences, Syndigo is ready to lead the market. In the coming months, they are set to complete their B2C master offering and merge their already industry-leading Digital Shelf Shopper Analytics with B2C to provide a truly unique offering to their customers.
Third, AI Was there anyone who didn't get caught up in the buzz and engagement with AI last year? At ThoughtSpark, we use Clickup for task management, Freshsales for CRM, Pitch for presentations, among others. I promise you, there is an AI module in each of these. I also promise you, nobody in my organisation utilises the AI modules in these solutions. I do though. But just to have fun with what it does. Not because any of it impacts my day-to-day work. But Syndigo started leveraging AI a while ago. They already have ML based matching for a couple of years now. However, 2023 was a year they pivoted to strategically leveraging AI. The theme was to foundationally build the solutions with AI at its core to give maximum value to end users – either by simplifying what they do or by automating and solving critical business problems for them - like OpenAI based content generation, Image analytics, Sentiment analysis, Content Moderation, to name a fe. There is now a dedicated AI product & engineering team focused on innovating around AI in this space. Can’t wait to see the robust AI roadmap for 2024 become a reality soon.
Lastly, the UX. User experience was at the core of every story, every feature, every use case. There was a huge focus on ease of use, simplicity as well as self-serviceability. The user interfaces have become very persona-driven and intuitive based on how each user in their specific role interacts with the solution. Unlike a lot of other light weight solutions that claim simplicity, Syndigo has the ability to solve from very simple use cases to the most complex business scenarios across industry verticals. If you had asked me a year ago, I would have said that an MDM system cannot have simple UIs and definitely cannot be self-serviceable. However, Syndigo has made huge strides in this area. User experience is now very contextual, irrespective of the complexity.
And simplicity remains a continued focus for 2024 as well, as is evident with the announcement of the launch of a lighter version of PIM. I believe, with a light easy PIM complementing their industry leading Syndication and Digital Experience solutions, Syndigo will position itself in a league of its own. Bye Bye Salsifys and Akeneos of the world.
I recently attended the 2024 Syndigo Partner Kick-off event, where the leadership reiterated the strategic focus areas for 2024 - Continuing to lead the PXM market, Leveraging AI as enabler, enhancing customer domain for better consumer experience and focus on usability and UX. Clearly, 2023 was a building base to their long-term strategy and it is exciting to see them continue to double down on the areas they placed their bets on, months ago. These moves will shape up the industry in the coming years, and it is gonna be an interesting space to keep an eye on. Watch Out!
Amit Rai
Amit Rai is the President at ThoughtSpark. With strong ideas on everything Data, AI and Tech, Amit loves to experiment, analyze, research and learn, thought-leading everyday. With nearly 15 years of experience in the Syndigo ecosystem, it was apt for Amit to do the 2023 Syndigo round-up.
About ThoughtSpark
ThoughtSpark is your go-to enabler in the Syndigo ecosystem, committed to enabling partner-centric sales and go to market strategies, in addition to implementation services. ThoughtSpark walks hand in hand, sharing insights, knowledge, and expertise to fuel its partner's journey. Our ultimate mission is to enable the growth and unparalleled success of System Integrators across the Syndigo ecosystem.