Why DAM and PIM are important for catalog production?

CIERTO DAM / PIM

2026-03-03

Workflow Management

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We have talked about how DAM and PIM help EC business, to build up an efficient workflow for modern marketing. However, we cannot neglect the importance of catalog production, which is still an essential task for corporate marketing and sales support. Catalog production is complicated, fragmented data and manual updates often lead to significant bottlenecks. In this article, we will introduce you to the reason why catalog production is full of setbacks, and how DAM and PIM resolve the issues.

1. Catalog Production: An “Eventful” Workflow

Catalog designers are always confronted with different problems during the job. Here are some common issues where a designer or a project manager battling with:

Managing Vast Amounts of Data

To create a catalog, you need product images, descriptions, pricing, and sometimes technical specifications. When this data is scattered across different folders or cloud storage systems, it takes more file searching time than we imagine. Furthermore, if digital assets like images and videos are not properly categorized, it can be impossible to find the right materials from the data mountain, leading to redesign or reshooting. The more the data a company is managing, the more severe the problems will be. As management becomes more disorganized, the risk of misinformation increases, which will ultimately affect the credibility of the company.

Complex Updating Processes and Human Error

You have to update the information on the catalog regularly to show the latest information to the customers. What if you do all the processes manually? The most feasible thing will happen is human error, forgetting to update the price or image will mislead the customers and incur great loss. At the same time, if the project members do not manage all the catalog versions well, identifying the most up-to-date data becomes a challenge and there is a high risk of publishing the outdated data to the public.

Lack of Information Sharing Between the Teams and Departments

Creating a catalog is never a sole responsibility of the designer. Either information provision or catalog publication involve the sales team and the marketing team. If the communication did not go smooth, ultimately it leads to the bottleneck of the workflow.

Another problem may happen when all the teams and departments possess their own, undisclosed file management system. Here is a very dangerous scenario: one team is using the accurate version of materials but other teams are having the outdated or wrong data, but all of them know nothing about the issue. Publishing a catalog with wrong information may be a PR disaster.

Difficult to Reuse the Data

Reusing data from previous catalogs can significantly reduce production costs and improve operational efficiency. However, without proper management, it becomes difficult to locate past raw data of the design. Ultimately the designer has to redo the job again and again, which is an ineffective working style.

2. Take a Review for DAM and PIM

We have talked about several problems that may arise while designing the catalog. So how can we prevent these problems? In fact, implementing DAM and PIM will be useful. Though we have introduced you to the basis of DAM and PIM, let’s review once again!

What is DAM?

DAM is a central management system for media assets including image or video data. It contributes to the management (organize, search and share) of vast amounts of digital data. Using DAM can help you to locate the specific file in a short time. Besides, the version control by DAM can help you to figure out the changes and the latest version immediately, reducing the possibility of publishing misinformation vigorously.

What is PIM?

PIM is a central management system of product information, from names and descriptions to specifications, pricing, and even Stock Keeping Unit (SKU). By using PIM, users can manage the product data collectively, changes will be shown on all the channels by modifying the data one-time. It ensures the accuracy, consistency and integrity across all the distribution channels.

Integrating a powerful data management system with the product information management system will be the best way for catalog production, that all the data will be connected seamlessly.

3. DAM and PIM will be the best solution for catalog creators

The feasible positive changes by implementing DAM and PIM are:

Reduce Project Working Time

As users can find the necessary data quickly through DAM sophisticated search functions, and utilize the auto-update feature without manual correction, working time will be reduced by introducing DAM and PIM.

Maintain the Brand Consistency

It is important to maintain consistency across catalogs for enhancing brand style. By using DAM, you can utilize images and design assets that adhere to corporate brand guidelines. Furthermore, integration with PIM minimizes the risk of publishing incorrect information. It is the best way to brush up your brand image.

Smooth collaboration with your teams

By using cloud-based DAM and PIM service, project members, even in different departments can share files and messages in real-time. It eliminates the time lag of file processing and communication.

Cost reduction and ROI improvement

The reduction of working time is actually related to the cost reduction. Especially when it comes to catalog production, the production period can be unbelievably long, and the number of members in the project can be implausibly big. Thus, DAM and PIM will be the great solutions for both time and cost reduction. While Return of Investment (ROI) will also increase by using DAM and PIM, as time of data modification and assets recreation reduced significantly.

4. CIERTO and Catalog Production

We have introduced how important DAM and PIM are for catalog production. CIERTO, as a highly-evaluated system, fully equipped with functions to make catalog production becomes easier. Here are the things that CIERTO can bring you.

The central management of images and product information contributes to the material collection for catalog production. Data searching time can be reduced significantly.
CIERTO automatic data renewal helps the marketing team and the sales team to share the updated information instantly. The project can be processed more smoothly.
The flexible file conversion function of CIERTO helps designers to produce assets with different sizes and colour bases in one single source. In other words, they can reuse the data without limit, which vastly improves the working efficiency.

Besides, the Adobe integration provided by CIERTO is a powerful function for catalog design.

Online Adobe files preview: Adobe files including Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign can be directly uploaded to CIERTO. And all the members can access the file on CIERTO too. Even if users do not have an Adobe application, they can still preview and annotate the files on a web browser, which is a convenient solution to both the designer and the reviewer.
Preview linked data: There is a “linked image column” on CIERTO, where users can preview all the images used in the Illustrator or InDesign files. And vice versa, users can also check which Adobe file is using the data when previewing the image asset. It is useful to locate the materials precisely.
Online Adobe data editing: Not only preview, users can in fact edit Adobe files with CIERTO seamlessly. By installing the plug-in function in Adobe applications, users can transfer the files to Adobe and edit without downloading or uploading any data.
Workflow management: The whole catalog production can be managed via CIERTO. Design review and annotations can be done on the platform; the work approval/rejection of each step can also be operated on CIERTO.

5. To sum up...

Even though there are different challenges and constraints when handling a catalog project, DAM and PIM can really help you to create the best product effortlessly. And the convenient and brilliant functions by CIERTO streamlines your whole workflow. Especially the Adobe related functions can be a powerful tool for all the creators. For more details, click the button below and to check out more information for CIERTO.