Perfion PIM for Business Central

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

The Add-in gives users access to product reports. With the Reports button in the Add-in window, the user selects a product report and its settings, and Generate downloads the report, to be opened in the application for its file type.

• The Reports button in the Add-in window
• Report settings before generating
• The report downloaded

Apps and prerequisites: The Perfion Add-in app: from Microsoft AppSource for Business Central online, or the on-premises package; the Perfion Web Client set up for https

Executive ROI Value

A product report can be generated from the Add-in window without leaving Business Central.

• Product reports on request
• Reports from the same product record

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

Release2ERP for Business Central imports and persists information from Perfion in Business Central. Each integration has a Perfion API query, which can be executed inside Business Central, and a field mapping that writes Perfion values to Business Central tables and fields, such as items or sales prices. Conversions turn Perfion values into Business Central values, and images can be imported with a size or a resolution, and a format, chosen in the mapping.

• A Perfion API query per integration
• Field mapping to Business Central tables
• Conversions and image import

Apps and prerequisites: The Perfion Release2ERP app: from Microsoft AppSource for Business Central online, or the on-premises package; the Perfion Web Client set up for https

Executive ROI Value

New and changed product data reaches Business Central from Perfion instead of being typed in twice.

• No double entry of item data
• Images and values in one import

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

A Release2ERP integration can run from the Business Central Job Queue, and its query can use the date of the last successful run to pick up only data changed since then. Integration runs write log entries, and from Release2ERP 3.1.0.9 a Job Queue entry can delete log entries older than the log period automatically.

• Integrations run from the Job Queue
• Changes since the last successful run
• Log entries with automatic clean-up

Apps and prerequisites: The Perfion Release2ERP app: from Microsoft AppSource for Business Central online, or the on-premises package; the Perfion Web Client set up for https

Executive ROI Value

Item data in Business Central follows Perfion on a schedule you set, with log entries for the runs.

• Imports that run on their own
• Import results in the log

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

Features are the building blocks of the Perfion data model, each of a data type such as String, Number, Date, Image, File or Link. A configuration is the data model of a selectable feature, such as Product, and every selectable feature can have one. Localizable features hold values in several languages, and Inheritable features pass values from a parent item to its children.

• Features by data type
• Configurations as data models
• Localizable and Inheritable values

Executive ROI Value

Product information follows one agreed model instead of a different spreadsheet layout in each department.

• One product model for every team
• Values set once on a parent item

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

Feature Data holds the values of selectable features, such as categories, colours and materials, and can be exported to Excel and imported again. Filtered Values limit the values allowed for one selectable feature by the value of another, for example the colours allowed in a category, in the grid, the Item Editor, copy and paste and the Perfion API.

• Pick lists for selectable features
• Export to Excel and import again
• Allowed values filtered by another value

Executive ROI Value

Products are described with agreed values, so the same colour or material is not spelt three ways.

• Consistent values across products
• Only allowed combinations offered

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

The grid shows many items at once in Table or Grid layout, both editable, in Dynamic layout or as cards, with filters, extra language columns and Replace for changing values across items. The Item Editor focuses on one item at a time, with its features in Top View Groups, its place in the hierarchy and its values in the languages chosen.

• Editable grid layouts
• Languages side by side
• One item in the Item Editor

Executive ROI Value

Product teams update many items in one grid and still have a full view of a single item.

• Bulk changes in one place
• A full item view when needed

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

The Item Creator creates items for all combinations of the values chosen for selectable features, for example every colour in every size, and can also create virtual items as parents. Default Values, set per feature in a configuration, fill chosen features on new items.

• Items for every combination
• Virtual items as parents
• Default Values on new items

Apps and prerequisites: Item Creator: Perfion 4.5.3 or later

Executive ROI Value

A new product range with many variants is created in one step, with common values already filled in.

• Faster variant creation
• Fewer missing values on new items

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

Related Values show on an item the values that belong to another item, such as the details of its colour. Formulas compose feature data into display values used in the grid, reports and exports. Swap Relation Tables add table data with rows and columns to a product, such as an ingredient list or a bill of materials, visible in the Item Editor.

• Values shown from related items
• Formulas for composed texts
• Tables such as bills of materials

Executive ROI Value

Titles and descriptions are composed from the data itself, and component lists are kept with the product.

• Texts composed from the data
• One place for component lists

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

Business rules on Number, String and Text features are checked in the user interfaces and on import, with values that break a soft rule highlighted in yellow and a hard rule in red. Item Triggers make a change to an item start a reaction, such as setting a status to review or notifying a product manager.

• Business rules per feature
• Soft and hard rules
• Item Triggers on change

Apps and prerequisites: Item Triggers: Perfion 2021-R2 or later, activated by an administrator

Executive ROI Value

Values that break a rule are highlighted in Perfion, so problems are visible before product data is imported into Business Central.

• Problems visible at entry
• Reviews started by changes

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

Localizable features hold one value per language, and the grid and the Item Editor show languages side by side. Machine translation works through Google Translate or DeepL with an API key for the chosen service, and DeepL glossaries keep company terms translated the same way. Spell checking works with dictionaries per language.

• Values per language
• Google Translate or DeepL
• DeepL glossaries and spell checking

Executive ROI Value

Datasheets and catalogues in other languages come from the same product record.

• One record, many languages
• Company terms translated consistently

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

Create with AI generates values for explicit String and Text features that hold a single value, from a prompt that can use the product’s own features, and images and files where the model supports them. Enrichment Templates store prompts per base feature and feature, and from Perfion 2026-R1 a template can be applied to several items at once.

• Texts generated from product data
• Enrichment Templates per feature
• Templates applied to many items

Apps and prerequisites: An API key in AI Setup; templates are managed by users with the Can manage AI Integration role

Executive ROI Value

Product descriptions are drafted from the data already in Perfion, ready for review.

• Faster drafts
• A consistent text structure

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

The Supplier Portal is a browser-based tool in which suppliers manage data for their own products. Suppliers either create items and submit them for acceptance, or enrich items exposed to them, and their updates can be accepted or rejected in Perfion. The Expose and Expose Read Only views decide which features a supplier sees and manages.

• Suppliers create or enrich items
• Accept or reject supplier updates
• Control over what suppliers see

Executive ROI Value

Supplier data for bought-in components arrives in the agreed structure, and supplier updates are accepted or rejected in Perfion.

• Less retyping of supplier data
• Full control of accepted data

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

Images and files are held with the product. The Image Previewer shows a preview with the image metadata and sets a point of interest, media services deliver images and files out of Perfion with image processing, and Perfion Asset Cloud, offered as a service, can move them out of the database into Azure Blob Storage.

• Images and files with the product
• Image Previewer and point of interest
• Perfion Asset Cloud

Executive ROI Value

Product photos and drawings are found in one place instead of shared folders.

• One home for product images
• The right image size for each use

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

Reports generate printed material such as datasheets, pricelists and simple catalogues straight out of Perfion, and Publishing combines many reports into one publication with chapters and an index. Tables built in the Table Designer render inside reports.

• Datasheets and pricelists
• Catalogues as publications
• Tables in reports

Apps and prerequisites: Designing reports needs the role Can design reports; the Perfion Application Service must be running

Executive ROI Value

Datasheets and catalogues come from the same product record that feeds Business Central.

• No hand-built datasheets
• One source for print and ERP

Operational Reality (Capabilities)

The Import Wizard brings product data in from Excel and other formats, with images in a zipped folder, in four steps: Select File, Configuration, Mapping and Validate. It replaces the old Import Items overlay, and from Perfion 2025-R3 mappings can be saved and loaded and columns mapped with AI.

• Excel, CSV, XML and XLIFF files
• Images in a zipped folder
• Validate before import

Apps and prerequisites: Perfion 2025-R1 or later

Executive ROI Value

Existing item spreadsheets are brought into Perfion with a check before anything is loaded.

• A faster start from existing data
• Errors found before loading