Name: The Gear That Performs and the Content That Sells It: How Arc’teryx Built a Unified PIM + DAM Workflow with Akeneo and Aprimo
Uploaded: 2026-02-25T17:16:07.922Z
Duration: 57 min 32 s
Description: The Gear That Performs and the Content That Sells It: How Arc’teryx Built a Unified PIM + DAM Workflow with Akeneo and Aprimo

Transcript for "The Gear That Performs and the Content That Sells It: How Arc’teryx Built a Unified PIM + DAM Workflow with Akeneo and Aprimo": Hello, everybody, and welcome to our webinar. My name is Max Mavi. I'm the VP of product marketing here at Aprimo. And today, we are going to be covering PIM and digital asset management. We are lucky enough to be joined by Edward Wong from Arteryx. Edward, how are you? I'm great, Max. Thanks for having me. Looking forward to discussing this with you. It should be fun. Yeah. Again, we've also got Virginia from Akenio. How are you, Virginia? I'm super fine, Max. Hello from France. Perfect. Hope it's nice in France. It's nice here as well. Yeah. Today, we're gonna talk about Arturic's journey from combining the power and DAM together to create a really great workflow for their organization. But before we get started, I just wanna cover a few housekeeping topics here. So the webinar is recorded. So if you wanna share it later with a colleague or a peer or go back and watch it again, you'll get an email after the webinar is complete, and you can share that with others and watch it over again. Also, we have active q and a. So you'll see in your interface that you have an area for q and a. So throughout the, presentation and and conversation, if you want to ask questions, type those into the q and a panel and send those over, and we will get to as many of those as we can by the end of the webinar in our dedicated, q and a section. If for some reason we don't answer your question, don't worry about it. We're gonna take the time after this to come back together as a team and make sure that we answer each of your questions, and we'll reach out to you directly in an email either the day after or the day after that to make sure that your questions are answered. Okay. That's really about all we have for housekeeping. So you're probably gonna see me look to the left every once in a while. I have some notes here as we kind of work through our story and questions. So I'll be with you the whole time, so don't worry about that. So, Edward, I think, you know, most people on the call probably are familiar with Arteryx. Right? I mean, you guys are really known for technical performance and the craftsmanship of the items that you offer. I And think a really important part of that is the storytelling. Right? I mean, you have to operationalize that story. You have to make sure that it's the same across different platforms. And I'm wondering, maybe you could tell us a little bit about how that works, how how that is important to Ontarix, and give us a little bit of insight for those that may not be super familiar with the brand. Sure. Yeah. Thanks, Max. Yeah. I mean, as some may know and some who might be new to it, we do specialize in technical apparel, very much product that's meant for the outdoors. And I think with that and there's sort of been this long history of trying to be best in class in terms of making a product. And so I think what we try to do is be really authentic to that from a product standpoint, but then our view of training operational efficiency and trying to modernize our technology usage. Our tariffs is very much aligned with that. So when when this project came along to stand up the first dam at our tariffs, that was sort of one of the key mandates was to be best in class in that work and, and truly be authentic to the brand. Makes sense. So I think you mentioned two important things, PIM and Dan, and that's that's really what we're here to talk about. I guess, you know, with most large organizations, where do you guys feel that you really felt the pain first before DAM and before PIM? You know? Was it your ecomm team? Was it, you know, the product team? Was was it your creative workflow? Is it, you you know, you really felt were were struggling? Or was that specific region, for example? Yeah. So I'd say it was global, and it was I think the main pain point stems from brand marketing for the most part, I'd say, mainly because we didn't have a dam before. What we were working in is is really, you know, miles of different folder structures. As you can imagine, how easy is is to get lost there in that. No metadata whatsoever. So this opportunity really allowed us to really clean the house, kinda get our house in order in terms of structuring new metadata governance, leveraging the tool, setting up PIM systems to help activate and unlock visibility to assets, whether that was brand marketing assets or or e com assets. So it it was really to open up a lot of possibilities for us. And and so our pain points was was truly in that we didn't have any foundation, And so we've we've had to do a lot of work in getting us here today. Makes sense. I'm just kinda looking at the questions here, and I wonder probably a lot of people are are wondering who are watching. You know? So you got the DAM. The DAM kinda gave you the structure, gave you the metadata that you were sorely missing that had a a a big impact across the organization. You know, what made it clear really that the second step or or one of the most important steps for you was to add in the PIM piece. You know, were you trying to first kind of align on attributes, or were you trying to align on taxonomy, or was it an enrichment piece that you were really hoping to get, you know, out of the PIM integration to the mix? Yeah. It's a mixture of a lot of all that, really. What I would say is from a a usually, when I try to do things, really think about sort of the long term vision of what the DAM and the ecosystem will be. And I think setting up a PIM is crucial in playing the long game. So we our intention was not to launch and deploy our DAM with, you know, PIM to DIMM to ecom right away to enrich our assets and and publish them to ecom, but it was to to set that up so that our assets were already enriched with that data being pulled from PIM so that we can ensure that we're we're ready for that if we do decide to go down that road. What was really crucial, like I mentioned before, was just around visibility assets. So the more metadata we can enrich with those assets, the more we're able to distribute those assets and create more visibility and and enable our brand marketing teams to leverage that content and be confident that those are the true assets that they're getting. So that's that's really the the the key to having a PIM in our DAM ecosystem. Makes sense. So, Virginia, I I have a a question for you. So, obviously, Akenia, you guys have implemented PIM for hundreds of organizations. There are probably a ton of learnings that you guys have from that. Where do you think organizations most often kind of underestimate, right, when they when they think about rolling out a PIM and some of the complexity they may run into? Is it around data governance? Is it, you know, modeling those attributes that will ultimately help you in your organization? Or is it really the good old change management issues that we sometimes find with these types of projects? Absolutely, Max. I would start with this one, specifically, the change management. And I would love to know from Edward if they both manage both projects, team and them on the same time. Did they start with one and then the other, or did they manage both? Because you have a lot of common workshops sometimes. So, Edward Edward, I will let you answer to that one. But definitely change management because a team is really an operational shift in the organization, and really success will depend on the adoption. That sounds basic, but you can have the the best implementation, the best data modeling. If nobody is happy to use it, if not not and not nobody is happy to work with this new way of working, this is not a success. This is not a successful project. So you will have to to start again. You can change the tool, but if you don't tackle change management first. And and I would say that the first thing is really to share the vision. It will mention it. You have to to have a vision to share the the long term vision. And I think that that's the most important with the change management. Introduce both them and p projects for what they are for and what they are not for. Like, the p is not only the tool for the ecommerce team, for instance. Because if you later on, you want to broaden that to the marketplaces, for instance, to ease your distribution network, yeah, partnership, or if later on you want to address LLM AI, those new teams will say, no. We we want a dedicated tool. This one is the tool for ecommerce, for instance. So, yeah, change management is definitely super important. And, of course, data governance is still a topic, but, you know, now we have more and more modern tools to accelerate that data modeling. Like, we have used of, like, a lot of other team players with AI. We use AI from the beginning, like, give us a a sheet and export of your product data from ecommerce, ERP, whatever you have, and we'll help you start with something with the first data model that you can always enhance and refine, but that's always easier to, you know, avoid starting from scratch. I I think, Edward, before you answer the question around did you down at the same time and and what was good and bad about if you did or didn't, I think, Virginia, you bring up a really important point, which I think, you know, user adoption and getting people to buy in to these large projects is really, really, I think, paramount to being successful. And I think rather than thinking of the project as a kind of siloed team that makes all the decisions, and then at the end of the day, you flick a switch. And then, yes, of course, all of our users are going to start using this on day one. Right? I think in the organizations that I've seen that have been successful, they have made sure to really open up and inform the larger organization why the project is coming about, what the wins will be for the individual groups and users. And then I think if people are more on board early, that means that once these things go live, there'll be better adoption, and, therefore, you'll be successful. Because let's be honest, these projects take a lot of time, a lot of energy, and a lot of effort. And we want to make sure that once they do go live that we do get participation. And, you know, people want to use these tools and they, to some extent, enjoy them. Yeah. So, Edward, answer the question. Did you stand up both of these at the same time, or did you do one at a time? And and then maybe the follow on is why did you make that choice? Yeah. I would say it was simultaneous. So before we had launched them, again, as we were kind of building our pillars as to what was gonna make a damn successful for us, One of the things that I had mentioned to my team is that we cannot deploy our DAM or stand up our DAM until we integrate PIM and and get our data clean. So crucial to ensure our data is is clean because, you know, there's gonna be legacy data and sort of the current data. And so whatever gets enriched on those assets is gonna be incredibly crucial because, you know, a blue a navy jacket is not necessarily navy jacket. We call it black sapphire. Right? Then what if what if there was a change in the name sometime down the road? So we need to make sure that that was all good before we could start enriching the dam with that data. So that was important for us to do it all at the same time. Obviously, I think the work with Acenio happened first for a for a lot of it as we're building up the taxonomy around the dam. So they kinda went hand in hand, and it was it was crucial. So we were not gonna go live with the dam without it. That's just for for certain. I think it makes sense. And from a foundational perspective, Virginia, maybe you can speak about this a little bit. And I think it was really smart, and and I think it was it was amazing that you guys had the ability to do DAM and PEM at the same time because they're so interwoven, certainly, you know, in the Arteryx, you know, environment where you have so many products that you're working with. So, Virginia, you know, when you're thinking about guiding customers to a successful project like this, Do you recommend they take, you know, an iterative approach? Do they start with the most critical data and then they expand it later kind of that that fully complete model that everyone agrees? Or are there some basics that you can start with or that you guys recommend and then later grow, you know, as you figure out what works and what what doesn't? Yeah. Of course. We we have best practices, and I'm sure Edouard can also talk about that. But we usually recommend to start with a pilot category or two. And usually, we take the one that are the most rewarding in term of money, basically, because as soon as we address the the the best seller categories, you know, people internally will get reinsured. Okay. We can move forward once that's done. And we also tackle usually the the most complex or demanding one. You you always have that kind of product that almost demanding from a process point of view or from a data modeling point of view, the most complex ones. And as soon as those one are addressed and validated, we know that we can move forward with the whole catalog and expand. So I would say, yeah, of course, iterative, and and we started to do the most demanding, I would say, destination. Like, if your ecommerce is really your brand image, you want it perfect, and then you know that what you shared with your retailers, distributors, it's just a subset of information. Then you know that once the most demanding is done, the same. Then it will be easy. So that's how we approach that. Makes sense. Edward, anything to add there? Or I I guess, rather an add on to that, I guess I wonder, were there any regrets you think to to standing up the dam and the PIM all at the same time? Two very large projects at any point where you're like, gosh, you know, what what were we thinking here? Or, you know, now that you've had some time since these things have been launched where you're like, wow. You know, it was hard, but I it was certainly worth it that we did it both at the same time. What do you what do you think the takeaway would be from tackling both of those? Yeah. No regrets whatsoever. I would say that, you know, despite there being challenges, there's always gonna be challenges with a lot of technical configurations that are involved, gain taxonomy right. I think the the thing is we had committed to launching so on the day of the launch, we had committed to to having our ecomm assets live in the dam right away, so the latest season of assets enriched with the Acquenio data because we were still working on the configurations for it. You know, we did we pivoted and decide, hey. You know, let's get this right before we deploy those assets into DAM. So we launched with our brand marketing assets, which which still made users happy that they were able to access that now. But we delayed the ecom deployment until I think it was about a month or two later, which was worth it because now that metadata is being enriched on those ecom assets, and it's the success rate, I'd say, is is pretty high. I mean, you're not gonna say a 100%, but it's, I'd say, pretty close to 99.9 or something along those lines. We feel pretty confident about that. And so, you know, if that project alone has now informed the future work that we're gonna be doing with brand marketing assets as it relates to some of the the, you know, the automation tools and predictive media tools that that Primo does offer along with some some connectors as well with that. So, really, if we don't do that, I don't think we can build as as robust of a road map going beyond 2026 without doing that. So so no regrets. I think it was in a very sound way. You know, I had a feeling before we did this webinar that that, you know, we are all overachievers, and and now it has been really set in my mind that we're all overachievers. That we're we're okay with taking on multiple projects, two large projects at once because we want it done right the first time. Yeah. It's really, really interesting. So I guess another follow-up that came to mind for me is, you know, for those that perhaps don't have a pen, and, Virginia, this is something I think you can chime in on as well, or who are in the market of either standing up a new PIM or or moving to a a leading provider like Akenio for PIM, It sounds a little bit abstract. Right? And I'm I'm wondering, could you give us an example of a day to day Edward at Arteryx that people could follow that kinda shows how it changed the way your teams kind of build out that product record and and ultimately make something truly all channel, right, using the DAM and PIM together. Is there an example of that that that we you could walk us through that that people maybe who aren't as familiar could understand the value of connecting PEM with TAM. Yeah. I mean, part of it is is the technical aspect of it, like you've mentioned. Some of it a lot of it is upstream work in terms of the the change management and and setting up our campaign shoots to include a lot of product data. So whether it's the model numbers or the product names, things that would normally be derived from PIM. If that's captured way early on in the pipeline and it goes downstream to when post production happens, you can then take that data and enrich it from what you have in Kenya because you have those values now that you set that up upstream. So that's where the value is huge now is that what we've done in terms of the architecture of it is now informing a lot of our end users upstream as to, hey. Like, you know what? At the beginning of the pipeline, we should really start capturing this because then we're able to then capture more data on our assets. So if someone comes to you and says, hey. Like, can you give me an image of this red beta jacket, on a mountain? Right? The hope is that you're gonna be able to get closer to that search result now because you've done that work upstream. So that's where you're seeing a lot of the benefit happening. It's still super early for us. We're not even in a full year yet of of launching the dam, but that's what we're working towards is a lot of that. And so that's where that foresight and and kind of a long term thinking comes into play, which is why Kineo and and the team was so so instrumental in in doing that for us. Virginia, anything that that you can think of? Yeah. I I was wondering if you you guys internally at Arc'teryx, Edouard, do you have your internal studio photographer on-site? You don't externalize it? You have your own studio? Yeah. For ecommerce, it's it's it's internal. For ecommerce? Yeah. Then we do have a mixture of internal and external photographers for brand campaigns. Yeah. Because I was speaking about this exact workflow day to day workflow that that you described, Max. Usually, for for team users, marketing users, content managers, it really starts with an image. So, you know, that's usually when we set up a a team, we always say that's a great setup is when it reflects the internal organization, the internal workflow, and we we always ask what's the trigger? How do the team know that they can start enriching writing using AI if they want to extract from an image to start creating content and then review, refine it, and adapt that to any market. So I was wondering if the asset is the trigger for for the teams to start working at work. Yeah. Absolutely. So we're integrated with with two systems. Obviously, Akenio is is a big piece of it, but our photo review platform, we extract them all our codes per product. So as soon as the assets get pushed into the DAM, those two values are then enriched. So the model number or color code, which then informs our PIM, which sends the trigger. It then populates the rest of the the asset details page with all that product data. So so that's, like, fifth trigger and and, again, upstream work that gets done, will then inform that for for brand brand marketing assets as well. Makes sense. Virginia, let's let's talk a little bit about something that I really enjoy, which is metadata, and and this is probably a little bit around this concept of metadata alignment. I can't believe I actually said that I really like metadata. But, hey, I think all three of us probably really like to go with that is, you know, a workflow, obviously, as we've been talking about, populating those ads as assets with with rich metadata as early in the work stream as we can, making them more valuable so we could start getting immediate value out of them is really, really important. And being able to share that metadata, I think, is important. So how do you approach mapping those product attributes in the PIM to the asset metadata in the DAM? Any anything unique to Akenio that you guys offer for that? How do you typically advise your customers when when they're doing the mappings? I guess, if you don't know anything about it, it can sound like a lot of work, but I have a feeling that it isn't that much work at the end of the day. Absolutely. From day one, we have invested in making it easy to have some rules, define some rules based on this queue, usually, to make sure we receive the relevant product assets to the relevant product page in Akenio. That's for sure. The interesting things, as as you say, Max, is that we do have an asset manager in the team. Meaning that we don't aim at replacing them. Absolutely not. Because if people as a dam, it's because they have teams working with the dam, which is perfect. But we do ease that interpretation of the asset to receive exactly, as you mentioned, the metadata, the tagging. And so we have also auto tagging. I guess you have some tags on your assets in your dump or the dates, the the the limits of of user for each asset. So we we decide what are the relevant metadata information that team users could also benefit from. So it's I would say that the main thing is to avoid duplicate logic in both system. If the DAM is the master for all assets, we just care about product assets in the PIM. So you decide whatever we will receive as metadata. We don't want to to duplicate again, but the real question is that who do we help? Which PIM users do we help with that? So that's the only question to to ask. And how do teams search for assets? So that's super important because you have the team itself, but we are so for, you know, side tool, for instance, for salespeople, customer service people, so they can also then receive product assets from Akenio. So it's super important that we have the relevant tag, the relevant, yes, search metadata that we want to add, so that search all along the journey. Makes sense. Metadata is, not that complicated when you have a plan. Yeah. So, Edward, let's let's talk a little bit about you know, with with the talk now of AI and and all the features, which are very powerful, but it's always coming up that that, you know, people have some concerns around trust. Is it really the right version? Can I trust that that's the right version? Can I trust that the rights are really where we would like them to be on a specific specific asset? And I think with a global organization like Arteryx and external partners, I think trust is is probably a big part of the picture. So I'm wondering, how do you make it obvious when assets are approved, whether it's the current asset, you know, whether it's permitted to use in that region or on that specific channel? Some of that probably is metadata, but I'm wondering if you could answer that. I'll put you on the spot here from Dan's perspective and probably tie it in a little bit to how people are using that along with the enrichment data from Akenio PIM as well. Yeah. So maybe I'll answer the latter part first is how end users are leveraging that and understanding kind of what's what's current, what's not, what's released, what's not released. Is purely based on a mixture of two things. So, obviously, PIM data is crucial in informing us what's the the most current asset for the current season. The data we get from our creative review platform also helps us inform as to what are the embargo dates and release dates for a certain product that's that's associated to that that product family. And so we do have safeguards that are being or that have been configured in the DAM that, are rules rules based that that that are supported within the statuses. So if anybody here uses a Primo, you can configure statuses for available draft, embargo, expired. And so those dates that we pull from those platforms inform us as to what is released and what's not released as an asset that's available. So more specifically, that is for ecomm assets, whereas our our campaign images are are the rights are kinda manual or manually managed using the rights attributes that are available in the DAM. So that's kind of the the first part there for that one. Yeah. In terms of informing our end users as to what is available, what is current, and and, you know, if there's duplicates or not. Again, same idea. We do have a bunch of rules and safeguards that as an asset gets uploaded into the DAM, we do use the deduplication functions that are there, inform us to also stop those those duplicates from getting into the DAM. Right? So it's a it's a I'd say our success rate in that is pretty good in terms of users not pushing duplicates through because they're told right away, and it sits in draft when that does happen. So it can't get approved or or pushed through unless you have mandatory fields completed, certain metadata is pulled onto it, and it meets the the criteria that's required that we've set up in rules to allow that to to go through. Makes sense. So one of the things I think about is, you know, you're manufacturing quite a lot of products. I imagine that specs change or other things change at a late date. How do you prevent that older content from kinda hanging around? Right? I mean, not necessarily past season, but I guess it could be past season. If there are specs that are slightly off, color variations, maybe the swatches on a PD page are not exactly where you want them to be, how do you manage those? And and and I guess as a follow on, Virginia, if you wanna talk a little bit about some of your learnings from that with all the implementations you've done, feel free to chime in here because I think it's an interesting you know, how do we catch those mistakes before they happen? And if they do actually get out into the wild, you know, how quickly can we act to to remove those? Yeah. It's pretty great. The way we've set up our DAM in PIM is that there is a lot of real time updating that happens. So if an image gets updated, let's say the image has already been deployed in the DAM and then there's a new updated version that's been edited, that will happen in real time. And so as that gets approved within sort of the upstream system and it pushes into the DAM automatically, it will then update that for us. It's the same thing with the PIM. So if any changes happen within the PIM for us, that data will also get updated in real time. So there's no like, an end user does not have to do any work in terms of pulling that out or having to do a retrigger themselves as a admin of the DAM, it happens real time for us, which is which is really Right. So if I find an image or a listing variable on the page that's incorrect, I can make that change, and then that kind of flows through automatically and is published using a Primo and a Kino almost in real time. Yep. Exactly. My my point of view, guys, with that would be that it should never happen. If if you set up a team, this is exactly for that. The team should play its role of a gatekeeper. Like, you define your own completeness, what you call what we call the completeness, meaning what are the information that are absolutely mandatory so that your product can go live and can be seen by your end consumers. So that should not happen, never happen. Of course, it can still happen, but, again, that must be very, very minor. That's exactly what the the PIM address. No matter the channel, we must act as a gatekeeper. And Virginia is absolutely right there because that's that was the point even of us deploying the DAM with the PIM in the first place is can we prevent this from happening, you know, prevent these issues from happening before they happen by getting your data clean? So for the most part, we're confident in that now within a season, like, in preproduction, these things can happen early, but we do see them very rarely. It's not a common occurrence for us for sure. I've definitely worked within certain dams where the data wasn't clean, and that that would not happen in real time. And and then you'd have to do the manual work update, which is a struggle. So I think with that experience, I really wanted us to to kinda get to a place where that's that is done way in advance. I think going back to a few of something we discussed earlier, the idea of enriching the source assets early in the work stream is also a great help. Right? Because if you've got the data associated with the original asset, you have the ability to have plenty of more time to be able to see that, to validate the data, to cross reference and reference all of that with the PIM and the DAM before you ever get to that point where, oh my goodness, we published something that perhaps we shouldn't have published. Right? It's a great thing that you can enrich early, and you don't have to wait to the very last final stage of the workflow. Yeah. Absolutely. One of the things I think which is interesting, and I'm sure people listening would like to know, Edward, if you think a little bit about speed to market, what do you think was the kind of biggest unlock when you brought a KINO and a PRIMO together? Was it the idea of fewer handoffs? Was it the idea of fewer errors? What is was it faster approvals, better reuse? I mean, I'm sure that it's probably a percentage of all of those, but if you had to think of one that was like, hey. Before this was incredibly difficult for us to do x. Now we don't really think about it anymore because it's so easy for us to to to move past those pieces. Yeah. Yeah. I think the biggest piece of it is having the confidence to have those final assets, especially for campaign drop. I think what we had seen in the past is, as a big challenge was the way the old ecosystem worked for us in in sort of a a non DAM infrastructure is that it would create multiple duplicates of an asset versus how it works in DAM and a Primo is that it it's effectively a rendition. It's sourcing the original asset, not creating a secondary asset. So if you have, you know, one asset, it's not creating two all of a sudden. It's it's sourcing that original asset. So what would happen is that our end users were not confident in what was the true asset because they were being they were showing up in search results everywhere. So if you're looking for a beta jacket, you know, beta black sapphire jacket, it might show up at, you know, a 100 times versus that one or two results that you're looking for. So we're getting those assets in the hands of users way quicker, And the same thing goes with the ecomm assets with the enrichment of that PIM data is that there was never any metadata before. Right? So you're purely reliant on the file name and hoping that that is correct. And if it's not, then good luck trying to find it. Right? So what we're able to do is have users not being fully reliant on that name convention, but also leveraging a lot of that taxonomy that's been built out, whether it's through the PIM or or what we've already embedded in the classifications, of the system. So that's been the huge, huge benefit for our end users. Perfect. Can I ask a naive question, Max, about about DAM and about metadata? Do you translate, adapt, prepare for the market, the metadata, in the DAM? Or do you do you manage only one language? Oh, for us, do we use, like, the generative AI sort of localization tools? Okay. That's a that's a interesting question. We haven't leveraged the ones that a Primo offers yet, mainly because of a I'd say I'd say internal policy of just wanting to work with our teams first to just see, hey. Is this is this where you wanna go in terms of localization? All asks do get localized. In fact, when we do our channel deliverables, they're already set up as deliverables in different languages. So those are all done by our designers in advance. And then anything else that gets done in terms of, like, dubbing or or subtitling or, like, captions, that all gets done by our our localization teams in in tandem with our our video teams. So it's a little more, manual, and we are I think what Arteryx is doing is we're doing a lot of modernization in our work, which is DAM was really a big first step in that. And so I think where we're going forward is there's certainly possibilities that we do leverage some of these tools for it, but, we're doing that very diligently and and, being conscious of of the work. Yeah. Yeah. Because we were talking about speed to market, Max, and and this is exactly also what Dan plus PIM really address. Because as soon as you receive those assets, the teams all the teams can work simultaneously in the PIM, preparing the content based on these assets for all the markets. So it really accelerates and and ease the expansion on any geos. What I will say is something that we do leverage heavily in the dam though, which is a really nice feature, which is something that really sold me on the platform originally, was the ability to configure the UI into different languages. So as you're a user going into the system, you can configure that into a different language based on your region. So that has really unlocked a lot more opportunities in access to our users in in Asia and Europe because they're now able to see them in their own language. It doesn't necessarily do do it on the asset level, but from the UI level, it's way easier for them to to understand now. So it's it's quicker access, way way more turnkey than than it was before. So I think for Ginny, the way that I would answer the localization question is, are there tools within a prima where you can do localization? Sure. Can you change the u UI labeling and other pieces to different languages? Sure. Every organization, I think, is is is unique in how they handle localization. Right? They may have a team of people who do localization for them. Right? They may go out to third parties and do localization. I think that you kind of hinted at one thing, which is a great ability of PIM is you may have your initial text strings and phrases and and product data in English, but you would probably have secondary fields for Spanish or French or German that live in the PEM. And then, obviously, when you propagate or feed the site in German or in Spanish, you would go to the PEM for that information as well. So I think there are lots of different ways that localization can be handled, and there's flexibility there. I think I'd love to get your view. And this may be somewhat controversial, but when we talk about integrations in a lot of organizations, the word integration can somewhat be an unpleasant word to use, like, oh, it's an integration. There's a lot of work involved. And from now through the end of time, we have to maintain it all. It's it's overhead. Right? So I I think, Virginia, what I would love to find out from you, can we talk a little bit about maintenance? And can you actually set and forget once you implement? You know? And what design choices would you recommend when you're interweaving DAM and PIM together into that workflow to try to make it as resilient as possible, you know, so it will be easy to grow with your organization as channels and as platforms, you know, continue to grow as we move forward. It's probably a big thing on people's mind when they think about having any type of integration or sending up a tool. But I would say that I I just I just mentioned that in in the in the previous topic, meaning that as soon as you have a process as exactly as it what explain now they have a process. So they, of course, not started only with one market, but several markets, several local, so several teams. So as soon as you have that in place, it's now super easy to add a new one, to add a new market, meaning a new team. You know how to do that. You know how to welcome new teams. What is more challenging is to address potentially a new destination. Do you need different attributes, different information, or a variation of this information? How to manage that? How to syndicate maybe? And we, of course, have tool for that to help you move and address super fast those new destination. I mentioned to you in the first part of our conversation, how we help generate the first data model the same way we also help iterate on an existing data model. Let's say that you now want to address a new destination, a new marketplaces, we help and and we provide all the expectation, all the requirements to address these marketplaces, and you know exactly, and we help with AI to auto map these attributes, this information. So, yeah, we try to ease the work so that our teams gets even more value whenever they need whenever they want. Right. And then what I would I I would say to kinda bring it down to earth is, you know, every software product, certainly digital asset management and PIM, you know, you need to have check ins few times a quarter, obviously, or more based upon your business and how often it changes just to make sure that things are humming along as they should. You know, these solutions are constantly changing, adapting, and growing, and we wanna make sure that we stay ahead of things versus behind things. Right? And and, you know, these solutions are not things that you set and forget. There are things that you, you you nurture and you check-in on occasion to make sure that you're getting the best out of the product. You know, we're adding new features to our solution all the time. Really incredible features that can impact the way that you work. Just like you are on the Akenio and PIM side, there are new things happening all the time. And if you aren't doing those check ins, know, you might miss out on those things. So it's probably worth not studying and forgetting some of these products. Yeah. Absolutely. So I think we've got about fifteen minutes left. I want to go in and talk a little bit about outcomes and touch a little bit on the ROI of some of these projects. I mean, I think that we understand that there is a great speed to market. You know, we can get things done faster with the integration of PIM and DAM. We have the ability to verify that the data is where it needs to be and make sure that those experiences are enriched and dynamic across languages and geos. I think, Edward, without sharing too much or any confidential information, you know, if you think about ROI, you know, where did you see the most ROI? Was it in the launch readiness savings? Was it in the team efficiency or the ramping up of that efficiency? Was it around fewer errors, fewer work, fewer rework of things that you had, or was it more around just being able to have richer customer journeys and experiences? I know that's a lot, but if you kinda hone in on one or two that that really had a high ROI, what do you think those may have been? Yeah. I mean, I guess if we're looking at it from a from the the MVP launch perspective, the ROI would be looking at those user journeys. We had a lot of them. We had interviewed, you know, all pretty much all the leaders within our our tariffs outside of even brand marketing and saw what their use cases were. Right? And so the way we built our dam was around those use cases. So if we're able to solve, you know, I it's a majority of these use cases by by what we built, then that is a direct, you know, ROI for us, successful ROI. What we're doing going forward are are different things in terms of, like, what's the level of effort on a on a per user basis or a team basis when they're using the DAM as a production tool? Distribution content distribution, how much more efficient are we being with content distribution as we're getting that more visibility out? Are we leveraging portals? Are we are we, you know, leveraging our consumers and contributor seats and and and gaining giving access to our EMEA and our our Asia region users? Like, how is that being leveraged? So the the sort of success rate there. So those are sort of future ROIs we are looking at, and we're we're kind of staying close to today to see, like, what are the successes there. Right. What I can say from a DAM perspective as, like, from an industry standpoint is that I think DAM is super powerful in supporting kinda what I said earlier, content distribution, especially when you look at some of the big entertainment companies. It allows you to really, like, monetize very well, leveraging a damn system. Not something we currently do today, but I that's sort of from my days working in that industry. I certainly see where that benefit comes from in that. So we're not there in terms of that using it for that. I think ours is much more internal and from a per team success rate, but, certainly, those are I see a lot of benefits there. And yeah. Makes sense. So we're not on the official q and a portion yet, but I I had a follow-up question for you, Virginia. And I see that we also have a q and a question, which is somewhat tied in. So rather than answer it twice, I think we could probably do it once. So the question is, we're PIM shopping, and what are the three or four things that we should keep top of mind when we're shopping for a PIM? And I think my iteration of the question was something like, you know, what would you recommend for the first steps on your journey to thinking about selecting a PEM? Right? How do you build that momentum? You know, is it do you first start by defining the data model and aligning on some of the basis that you need and then go out into the market and select, you know, a few PIMs that you think will work? Or or do you look at the PIM page first and then go back and you know? So I I think it kind of ties in with our audience question. Hey. I'm PIM shopping. What are the top of mind, three or four things that we would want to look for or think about? We we talked we talked about it a lot about how do we adapt fast to new changes, meaning also the data model. So I would definitely look at how flexible is the tool I'm looking for, asking if it's easy and how painful it is to change the model, adapt, to readapt, to refine the model consistently, you know, in a position to what it used to be for earpiece, for instance. You know, we have all heard about how complex it is each time you want to change a little thing. So look at the flexibility, how easy to iterate, to refine a model, I would say, how easy to also interfere? How is it used to connect Primo and Akeneo, for instance? What are, you know, all the API, even platform? Are you vibe coding ready? So all this kind of new technology look at so at that, at the vision of the company. Look at AI, of course, because that's the reality. That's our new reality. And I would say also look at the the network of customers and partners. That matters a lot because you will know that you would also access a community of other customers, of the players that you can learn from and exchange with. And, you know, like for us, some of our customers sell some of the Arteryx items. So it's also super nice to talk together and say, okay. What are the missing information? How can we here's your life to distribute our products. I would love to to to our customers to have that kind of conversation. How easy it is for them to now share product information and assets. So I think that's super powerful to be part of the community. So I would also look at the community and the events that that brings. I think it makes sense. And I I love what you said about making sure that the solution is not rigid. Right? And by rigid, we mean, is it good for what you need today? But is this flexible enough so when your needs change tomorrow that that you're future proofed in a way that you have the ability to change? Because if you put a lot of work into a metadata model and triggers and other pieces and not being able to change that easily either you're either by yourself or as you mentioned earlier, reaching out to the community to do that, I think that you're in a disadvantage. And I think, obviously, integrations are really, really key. Right? You wanna make sure that that solution that you've chosen will connect to your key business systems with ease. And, hopefully, there is a prebuilt integration already in place that you can tune a little bit. Now we oftentimes say that integrations are prebuilt. Now there may be 95% of what you need, but there's still a portion of that which you're gonna have to work with a little bit. And, you know, obviously, AI is a really big thing. It's impacted TAM dramatically over the last several years. I'd love to see that you guys have also embraced that into the KINO product. It really you know, I think those are things that you should look at and make sure that they can give you that speed that you're looking for. So, Edward, I have a question for you. As a practitioner, What would you advise someone who is, you know, watching this webinar you know, what could they do themselves, you know, if they're thinking about implementing a DAM or implementing a PEM, let's say, in the next thirty days after they've watched the webinar. You know, if they're on the fence about, gosh. I need a DAM. I need a PEM. What are the things that you would advise them to think about first? I mean, we got some great, you know, ideas from Virginia when we're thinking about software. But, you know, if we go a little bit deeper as a practitioner, these are the top things you need with your DAM. These are the top things we really needed in the PEM that helped us decide which direction to go. Yeah. I mean, I can only kinda speak from the approach of of this particular DAM deployment. Mhmm. I'd say we looked at all the use cases, and truly what we tried to do with this DAM is build it for the end user. That's not necessarily what it is that I would want in a perfect world in terms of, like, it's gotta be the way I want it to be, because I'm certainly kind of a technical individual and and sort of like things turn way, but it's more so putting myself in the seat of an end user and what they're gonna need on a day to day. So whether it's a they're gonna need to be searching using PIM information or product information. So then, okay, we need the PIM. Because then if we try to do that manually, it's gonna someone's gonna sit there for a million years and try to enrich that. Right? So we can't have that, so we need the PIM. Right? And then how we configure and build up the DAM in the way we've done it is purely built and tailored for the Arteryx user. So I know that Primo is heavily involved with the overall Amber Amber family now, which is great. And we've spoken to several of our other sister brands, and the way they're using it is also different from how we use it. So we know we've built it for our Tirx end users. Yeah. So I'd say if anyone's shopping and really looking for whether it's the PIM or the DAM, really build it for who your end users are. Know your you gotta know your audience. Right? I I think it's really, really a great point. Right? It's one thing to be able to list your use cases. And, you know, we can come up with probably twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty use cases of how a DAM and PEM might need to be used in an organization. But I think then going that extra level and saying, okay. Let's just think about our users. What's gonna benefit them? How are they going to use it? What individual features of that use case are really going to move our workflows, our brand, our product forward? And I think that's oftentimes we probably spend too much time on the use case and don't think, well, you know, the users, they'll figure it out. But I think if you do use cases first and then really boil up what's needed for the end users, I think you're gonna be a lot more successful. And as, Regina, you and I talked about earlier, it's gonna really help with the adoption. Absolutely. I I love saying yeah. Sorry, Max. Sorry. No. No. Go ahead. I said I was I I was just about to say we we talk a lot about customer experience, product experience, but at the end of the day, user experience, employee experience is key for all the other ones to be successful. Really is. I think we have time for one more question. We'll have to be fairly quick with it. Let me let me look here in the QA tab. So here's one. We already have a PIM in place, but content and assets are managed across different systems. If we're evaluating a DAM to complement the PEM, what should we be looking for to improve the workflow, and we don't want it to add more complexity? So I guess it's a very long winded question. So they have a pen. They wanna think about adding a dam, but what can they do there to not make it overly complex? I guess, Virginia, let's give you give you a chance to answer, then we'll get a closing statement from Edward on the question. Yeah. I I would I would definitely take inspiration from what what Edouard shared with us today, having a deep understanding of what the mapping should look like. How do we ease the mapping? How do we make that easy? What the dam should handle, what the team should address. I would check also rights and usage governance, making sure that we do not over, you know, conflict. And and I would look at the native integration of of both system or so, how how how they are working together. Right. So I think defining the ownership of certain tasks for DAM and the ownership of certain abilities and tasks for the PEM, in that way, you are keeping it very simple. You're not doing double work in both systems, and I think it keeps things flowing nicely. Absolutely. Otherwise, you are building another repository, and it does not help accelerate, and that's what we are looking for. Yeah. Everybody, you think? What would you recommend to people that have a PIM already and they wanna they attach a dam to it? What could they do to make it not feel more complex than it needs to be? And I think, Virginia, you really touched on something, which is we don't wanna we don't wanna lose any of that speed to market or slow down our workflows when we make these combinations of tools. Yeah. I mean, I think with our with the approach I kinda took with it is, as you you all know, I really did a lot of work in the in the prework of trying to determine what's the best damn for us. And so I think what we had to do was really look at what our metadata structure was gonna be, how much PIM are we gonna ex data we're extract, and then does the DAM support the attributes that we're we need to to to make visible on an asset detail page. So if I were to kinda do this project, and if I was in the seat of of that individual who asked the question, I would ask the vendor to be like, hey. Like, can we configure all this data that we're looking for and show them, like, is it rights? Is it pinned data? Like, what is all there? And then that will inform me of whether I should kinda go forward and see if that's something I wanna pursue. Right? Which is what I was able to kind of figure out with this one. Right? So that's and that's why we're kind of successful in that area with being able to enrich our our assets with that. So that that would be my recommendation is really, like, ask the hard questions and get super technical and detailed about it. That doesn't convolute what you're trying to do. It just means that you're really future proofing because, like, you may get down the road and you've got this damn deployed and realize, oh, I can't map this data to an asset because it just for whatever reason, I can't I'm limited to how many values it can have up or or just the there's no connector associated to it. So we're trying to build that relation. You gotta make sure that that damn is compatible with PIM. Right? You just you can't do a square hole round peg situation. It's gotta there's gotta be any good marriage of the two systems. Right. Well, guys, we are out of time at Virginia, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Edward, thank you so much. Great seeing you. Yes. Thank you. Thanks, everybody, for joining, and we'll hopefully