MBI Spent Six Months on the PIM Choice and the Data Role

MBI used six months to choose a PIM and to put someone in charge of the data. MBI, known as De Steenmeesters, has made concrete paving for more than 75 years. The products go to garden centres, project developers and governments, for homes and for commercial outdoor space: paving, facing bricks and garden solutions. PIMvendors audited the data, guided the selection, advised on skills, and supplied a data manager for the implementation. The same six months transferred enough method for MBI to run the data program itself.

Client Introduction

MBI, De Steenmeesters, manufactures concrete paving materials. Garden centres, project developers and governments buy them. The company has more than 75 years in the trade. The range covers paving, facing bricks and garden solutions, used on residential and commercial outdoor projects and on infrastructure work.

The Challenge

The same paving, facing bricks and garden solutions go to garden centres, project developers and government buyers, and they also go into catalogues, onto the website and into tender submissions. MBI needed one product record for that range, with a data manager who owns it. Buying a PIM before that record and that owner were in place would have added a system to the split that was already there.

The Solution

PIMvendors audited MBI's data infrastructure and recommended a PIM fitted to how the company sells. The work also covered the surrounding applications and the skills MBI would need in house. PIMvendors supplied a data manager to oversee the implementation.

The Results

In six months, MBI had the strategic picture, a guided PIM selection, and a data manager. PIMvendors also transferred the method, so MBI could implement the data program on its own.

The trade-off is what "on its own" costs. The data manager stays on the payroll, and the team has to keep applying the transferred method. Six months is long enough to put both in place, and too short if the team treats the PIM signature as the end.

The role is the lesson, ahead of the logo on the software. Product data quality and governance is the ownership MBI staffed during those six months. How to select a PIM is the selection that sat inside the same six months. The PIM implementation guide is where the data manager sits on the build, and where the work has to land with the internal team. The commerce stack sets out which system owns the product when catalogues, the site and tenders all publish from one record.