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PIMgate
Use case · Illustrative scenario

01 · MULTI-BRAND GROUP

Four brands, seven countries, three PIMs — one gate.

A group of technical brands, grown through acquisitions, runs three PIMs and a dozen websites. PIM Gate gives every brand and country its own branded portal and one API for all sites — and becomes the bridge on which the PIMs underneath are consolidated.

Book a scoping callSee the setup
“The group decided to consolidate its PIMs — and every website, portal and feed is wired to one of them.”
SCENARIO · MULTI-BRAND GROUP · 3 PIMS · ~180K SKU

02 · SITUATION

Grown by acquisition. Wired point to point.

The group owns four brands of technical products and sells through seven country subsidiaries. Each acquisition brought its own systems: one brand runs Akeneo, one Pimcore, one an in-house product database; the fourth maintains data in the group's ERP and spreadsheets. Together about 180,000 articles in eleven languages.

Every brand has its own website, some country subsidiaries run their own sites, and each site is integrated directly with "its" PIM. Dealer portals exist for two brands, built on different technology. Group key accounts buy across brands but get separate catalogs from each.

The group has decided to consolidate on one PIM over the next 18 months. The risk everyone sees: every consolidation step breaks a website, a portal or a feed somewhere.

BRAND × SYSTEM · TODAYRoleStatus
BRAND AAKENEO · 3 SITESDEALER PORTAL (CUSTOM)
BRAND BPIMCORE · 2 SITES—
BRAND CIN-HOUSE DB · 4 SITESDEALER PORTAL (CMS PLUGIN)
BRAND DERP + XLSX · 1 SITE—

03 · CHALLENGES

Why consolidation stalls.

Channels are welded to PIMs.

Ten sites and two portals read directly from a specific PIM. Replacing the PIM means rebuilding every integration.

Brands must stay distinct.

Each brand and country needs its own look, domain and range — even when the data comes from one place.

Group customers see four catalogs.

Key accounts buying across brands get separate files, formats and price logic.

Eleven languages, four translation setups.

Each brand translates on its own; shared terms are translated four times, differently.

No common data model.

Attribute names, units and classifications differ per brand. A group-wide view needs a canonical schema first.

A big bang is not an option.

The subsidiaries' businesses cannot stop for a cutover weekend, and a failed step must be reversible.

04 · THE PIM GATE SETUP

Brands and channels on top. PIMs underneath — replaceable.

PIM Gate reads from every PIM the group runs today and maps them to one canonical schema. On top, each brand and country gets a branded tenant with its own domain, look and portals, and all websites use one API. When the group consolidates, the migration bridge switches sources attribute group by attribute group — the channels above never notice, and every step can be rolled back.

Tenant and portal treeA PIM Gate tenant with its own domain, holding a customer, sales, supplier and media portal, each on its own address and drawing from one governed catalog.SaaS platform · EU / DEPIM GateShared codebase · isolated tenants · row-level isolationTenant · MESSARAmessara.pimgate.aiOwn users · own data · own brandingmessara-de.pimgate.aiBrand tenant · DEmessara-ch.pimgate.aiBrand tenant · CHPortals · selected by pathCustomer portalmessara.pimgate.ai/p/customerCatalog viewscollectionsshare linksSales portalmessara.pimgate.ai/p/salesCustomer scopeagreementsactivitySupplier portalmessara.pimgate.ai/p/supplierSubmissionsvalidationre-submitMedia portalmessara.pimgate.ai/p/mediaBriefsversionsapprovalsOne tenant per brand or country · no per-portal DNS or certificate

Diagram, tab "Now". Akeneo, Pimcore, an in-house database, ERP spreadsheets and the group ERP feed PIM Gate, which maps them to one canonical group schema. Above it, twelve branded tenants for four brands and their countries, each with customer and sales portals, and one API serving ten websites. Diagram, tab "During consolidation". Old PIMs and the new group PIM feed PIM Gate in parallel. Sources are switched per attribute group from old to new, with rollback per group. Portals, tenants and websites stay unchanged.

One view across brands for group customers

One memory, four brand voices

Migration bridgeAn old and a new PIM both feeding the gate, switched over per attribute group, with rollback — while every downstream channel stays unchanged.Sources · in parallelOld PIMLegacy export · read-onlyNew PIMViamedici · Akeneo · Pimcore · StiboPIM / GateSource per attribute groupCore dataold → NEWTechnical attributesold → NEWMedia & documentsOLD → newPricing & logisticsOLD → newRollback · per groupChannels · unchangedShop / DXPPortalsFeedsPrint / PDFNo channel rework · no downstream changeSwitch one attribute group at a time · roll back the same way

05 · WORKFLOW

Open the channels first. Consolidate underneath.

  1. STEP 01

    Read every PIM as it is.

    Akeneo and Pimcore via their standard connectors, the in-house database via a custom connector, brand D's ERP and spreadsheets via scheduled SFTP. Nothing changes in the source systems.

  2. STEP 02

    One canonical group schema.

    Attributes, units and classifications of all four brands are mapped to one schema. Differences become visible — and are decided once, at group level.

  3. STEP 03

    One branded tenant per brand and country.

    Each gets its domain, look, languages, range and portals. Group sales additionally gets a cross-brand view for key accounts.

  4. STEP 04

    One API for all sites.

    Websites move from their PIM integration to the PIM Gate API, one site at a time, filtered by brand and market and synced by delta.

  5. STEP 05

    Shared memory, brand terminology.

    A group translation memory for eleven languages, a termbase per brand, review by the country teams.

  6. STEP 06

    Switch sources, not channels.

    When the new group PIM is ready for a brand, the migration bridge switches that brand's data attribute group by attribute group. Versioned exports show every difference before and after; any step can be rolled back.

06 · MODULES & PORTALS

What this setup uses — and what is live today.

  • PIM connectors Akeneo, Pimcore (and Viamedici, Stibo, Censhare)

    Brand A and B sources

    LIVE

  • Ingestion XML · REST pull · scheduled SFTP

    Brand D and group ERP

    LIVE

  • Custom connector

    In-house product database of brand C

    available now (add-on)

  • Canonical schema · attribute metadata

    Group data model

    LIVE

  • Source → canonical mapping UI · safe cutover

    Mapping four brands

    2026

  • PIM migration bridge (old + new in parallel, rollback)

    Consolidation without channel disruption

    LIVE

  • Multi-tenant platform · tenant subdomains · custom domains

    12 branded tenants

    2026

  • White-label branding per portal

    Brand look per tenant

    2026

  • Customer Portal

    Dealers per brand and country

    LIVE

  • Sales Portal

    Cross-brand view for key accounts

    2026

  • Supplier Portal (optional, included in L)

    One set of submission rules for all brands' suppliers

    2026

  • Versioned REST API /v1 · delta sync · webhooks

    One API for ten websites

    LIVE

  • Product-data translation (shared TM, brand termbases)

    Eleven languages

    2026

  • SSO OIDC/SAML · SCIM

    Group identity provider

    ROADMAP

  • Attribute/text inheritance

    Shared texts inherited across brands

    ROADMAP

07 · EXPECTED EFFECTS

What typically changes.

Indicative

Each site integrated with its own PIM

All sites on one API — the PIM behind it can change.

Indicative

Consolidation as a big bang

Consolidation per brand and attribute group, each step reversible.

Indicative

Separate portal technology per brand

Branded tenants on one platform, each with its own domain and look.

Indicative

Four catalogs for group customers

One cross-brand view scoped to the group agreement.

Indicative

Four translation setups

One group memory, brand-specific terminology.

Indicative

Attribute chaos across brands

One canonical schema, decided once.

Qualitative expectations for this scenario, not measured results.

08 · TYPICAL CONFIGURATION

Version L, twelve branded tenants, one custom connector.

Group product data, brand marketing and country e-commerce teams add up to 26–100 seats; 180,000 articles fit the ≤ 500k band; eleven languages need Version L. L includes ten branded tenants and all three portal modules; two more tenants cover the remaining brand/country combinations. Dealers, reps and key accounts are portal users — unlimited. Indicative list price €29,100, EUR, annual prepayment, excl. VAT. Includes 99.9% SLA.

Custom connector set-up €3,500 one-off. Onboarding and PIM migration support quoted after scoping. Version XL (101+ seats, unlimited branded tenants, CSM): €40,800 / year. Test tenant at full capacity (50%): €10,200 instead of the half-capacity price. See Pricing.
Item€ / year
Version L — 26–100 seats, ≤ 500k SKUs, all 3 portal modules, 10 branded tenants, unlimited languages and connectors€20,400
2 additional branded tenants (per tenant)€2,400
Custom connector for the in-house database · annual€1,200
Stage/test tenant · half capacity (25% of Version L)€5,100
Indicative list price€29,100

09 · ROLLOUT

Channels in months. Consolidation at the group's pace.

  1. 01

    WEEKS 1–4 · SCOPE

    WEEKS 1–4Group schema and tenant plan. Attribute comparison of the four brands, canonical group schema, tenant and domain plan, API contract for the websites.

  2. 02

    WEEKS 5–10 · FIRST BRAND

    WEEKS 5–10Brand A end to end. Akeneo connected, brand A tenants and dealer portal live, first website switched to the API.

  3. 03

    WEEKS 11–24 · ALL BRANDS

    WEEKS 11–24Brands B, C, D. Remaining sources connected (incl. custom connector), tenants per country, websites migrated one by one, cross-brand sales view.

  4. 04

    MONTHS 6–18 · CONSOLIDATE

    MONTHS 6–18PIMs underneath. As the group PIM goes live per brand, the migration bridge switches sources per attribute group; parallel running until each brand is signed off.

  5. 05

    AFTER SIGN-OFF · DECOMMISSION

    AFTER SIGN-OFFRetire old PIMs. Old sources disconnected once all attribute groups run on the group PIM; channels untouched.

Indicative plan. Consolidation timing is set by the group's PIM project, not by PIM Gate.

10 · NEXT STEP

Recognize your group? Book a scoping call.

Bring your brand-by-system map. We sketch the canonical schema, the tenant plan and the order in which channels and PIMs move.

Book a scoping callTalk to an architect

11 · Keep reading

More on this scenario

LIVE

Connect & consolidate

Attach the PIM, ERP and supplier files you already run — without touching any of them.

Put a gate between your catalog and chaos.

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