This diploma thesis deals with the Product Information Management (PIM) and compares PIM software tools. Its goal is to introduce the area of the PIM systems in Czech language. Next subgoal is to define system of criteria. It is also necessary to achieve the last goal -- to analyze and compare PIM software. The method I used is the exploration of information sources; obtaining information through email communication and use of empirical knowledge to define system of criteria. The contribution of this work is the same as its goals. The work is divided into two parts. The first theoretical part deals with PIM definitions, context, functionality, architectures and PIM market developing. The second practical part involves selecting of particular PIM software tools, defining system of criteria and comparison of PIM software tools.

Information är något som i dagens samhälle ständigt expanderar och utökas varje dag. För mycket information kan ofta leda till komplexa förhållanden i verksamheter, framförallt när det kommer till hantering av produktinformation. Syftet med denna studie är att ta reda på vilka utmaningar och möjligheter verksamheter ställs inför vid ett införande av ett Product Information Management (PIM)- system, ett system som litteraturen säger krävs i en verksamhet för att bemästra komplexa förhållanden som ofta uppstår vid en omfattande hantering av produktinformation. Genom en kvalitativ datainsamling med induktiv ansats genomfördes fyra intervjuer med personer på ett företag som idag har en relativt komplex lösning för hantering av produktinformation. Undersökningen utgick ifrån två teman, utmaningar och möjligheter, för att ta reda på informanternas åsikter kring ett införande av ett PIM-system i verksamheten. Resultatet visade på en relativt enad bild bland informanterna över vilka utmaningar och möjligheter som företaget står inför vid ett införande av ett PIM-system. Studiens teoriområden kunde sedan styrka det resultat som framkommit utifrån empirin och påvisade att utmaningar och möjligheter representerades av totalt fem faktorer. Utmaningar utgjordes av språk och förändring medan möjligheter utgjordes av innehåll, central källa för information samt spårbarhet/navigering. / Information is something that in society is constantly expanding every day. Too much information can often lead to complex business conditions, especially when it comes to managing product information. The purpose of this study is to find out which challenges and opportunities businesses face when introducing a Product Information Management (PIM) system, a system that the literature say is required in an effort to master complex conditions that often arise in a comprehensive handling of product information. Through a qualitative data collection with an inductive approach, four interviews were conducted with individuals at a company that today has a relatively complex solution for managing product information. The investigation was based on two themes, challenges and opportunities, to find out the informants' views on the introduction of a PIM system in the business. The result showed a relatively united image among the informants on the challenges and opportunities that businesses face when introducing a PIM system. The theoretical areas of this study could then strengthen the result that emerged from empirics and demonstrate that challenges and opportunities were represented by a total of five factors. Challenges consisted of language and change while opportunities consisted of content, central source of information as well as traceability/navigation.

E-commerce has grown rapidly in the last couple of years and has gotten more demanding customers that want better and more consistent product information. With more products on the market than ever, spreadsheets are not enough. Product Information Management (PIM) systems have been developed to meet those needs. Because these systems contain a lot of different processes and handles a lot of data, they can be complex and contain usability problems. The purpose of the study is to understand and explain the usability of the PIM system process of enriching products. The study answers the research questions: “How do the users experience the usability in the process of enriching products in PIM systems?” and “What are the main usability problems in the enrichment process in an existing PIM system?”. The result shows that the overall usability in the enrichment process is good and the investigated PIM system is easy to use and is flexible. The analysis shows that the main usability problems are the lack of functionality and efficiency. The two problems are connected to each other as the users need to do workarounds because the lack of certain functions. The efficiency would be improved if the missing functions were added. These usability attributes can be difficult to evaluate before the system has been used for a while because it can take time for the users to discover problem regarding them.

Product Information Management (PIM) is a field that deals with the product master data management and combines into one base the experience and the principles of data integration and data quality. Product Information Management merges the specific attributes of products across all channels in the supply chain. By unification, centralization and standardization of product information into one platform, quality and timely information with added value can be achieved. The goal of the theoretical part of the thesis is to construct a picture of the PIM, to place the PIM into a broader context, to define and describe various parts of the PIM solution, to describe the main differences in characteristics between the product data and data about clients and to summarize the available information on the administration and management of knowledge bases of the PIM data quality relevant for solving practical problems. The practical part of the thesis focuses on designing the structure, the content and the method of filling the knowledge base of the Product Information Management solution in the environment of the DataFlux software tools from SAS Institute. The practical part of the thesis further incorporates the analysis of the real product data, the design of definitions and objects of the knowledge base, the creation of a reference database and the testing of the knowledge base with the help of specially designed web services.

This thesis is focused on Master Data Management of Product Data. At present, most publications on the topic of MDM take into account customer data, and a very limited number of sources focus solely on product data. Some resources actually do attempt to cover MDM in full-depth. Even those publications are typically are very customer oriented. The lack of Product MDM oriented literature became one of the motivations for this thesis. Another motivation was to outline and analyze specifics of Product MDM in context of its implementation and software requirements for a vendor of MDM application software. For this I chose to create and describe a methodology for implementing MDM of product data. The methodology was derived from personal experience on projects focused on MDM of customer data, which was applied on findings from the theoretical part of this thesis. By analyzing product data characteristics and their impacts on MDM implementation as well as their requirements for application software, this thesis helps vendors of Customer MDM to understand the challenges of Product MDM and therefore to embark onto the product data MDM domain. Moreover this thesis can also serve as an information resource for enterprises considering adopting MDM of product data into their infrastructure.

This thesis deals with the Master Data Management (MDM), specifically its implementation. The main objectives are to analyze and capture the general approaches of MDM implementation including best practices, describe and evaluate the implementation of MDM project using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services (MDS) realized in the Czech environment and on the basis of the above theoretical background, experiences of implemented project and available technical literature create a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool. To achieve objectives above are used these procedures: exploration of information resources (printed, electronic and personal appointments with consultants of Clever Decision), cooperation on project realized by Clever Decision and analysis of tool Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services. Contributions of this work are practically same as its goals. The main contribution is creation of a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first (theoretically oriented) part deals with basic concepts (including definition against other systems), architecture, implementing styles, market trends and best practices. The second (practically oriented) part deals at first with implementation of realized MDS project and hereafter describes a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool.

This diploma thesis deals with problems of development of chatbots. The theoretical part of the thesis introduces the concept of the conversational interface in general and analyzes available technologies for its development. The practical part deals with the design and implementation of a particular chatbot, whose goal is to be a virtual assistant in the process of selecting and purchasing goods. This is accomplished by connecting the chatbot to the product information management system using OData web services. One of the biggest problems was to determine the order of questions asked about product properties. For the implementation was used decision tree theory.

The exceeding supply over demand and very hard competitive conditions are nowadays the main features of the majority of sectors. A successful company is the one that is able to satisfy specific customers' needs, the one that has efficient cooperation with its suppliers throughout the whole supply chain and also the one that is able to speed up the in-house information exchange. Thus the company has to seek constantly new and innovative solutions. This is not possible without standardization and automatization of business processes. This master's thesis is dedicated to one of the possible solutions -- the Product Information Management (PIM). Since it is intended for business managers (without deep IT knowledge), at the beginning it answers the question why it is so important to know master data and to manage it. It specializes in managing product data, brings its comprehensive overview and identifies the advantages and drawbacks of the implementation as well as financial and organizational impacts. The consecutive chapter deals with simplified yet applicable approach to data management analysis (with emphasis on the PIM) and based on research, it mentions main mistakes of the implementation. In addition to the overview of main vendors of the PIM solution, it presents the latest trends in the PIM. Besides internal data synchronization, the thesis analyses several product standards -- the fundamental step towards external data synchronization, the key topic of the practical part. The whole thesis is conceived to provide an organization with a simple yet compact and therefore very effective tool for master product data insight and thus to help it to gain a competitive advantage.