Rackfinity Ran Its Own PIM Selection in 3 Months

Rackfinity finished a PIM selection in 3 months by running it themselves. PIMvendors supplied a selection manual, requirements written as scenarios, and an independent shortlist. The PIM they chose came from that shortlist. It was one they would likely not have considered on their own.

Client Introduction

Rackfinity is a Minneapolis retailer of IT supplies: rack enclosures, technical furniture, server solutions, networking equipment and computer hardware. Customers include the U.S. Navy, SpaceX, Raytheon Technologies and Microsoft. The team is small. The catalog is not. It runs to thousands of technical SKUs, and the specifications have to be right.

The Challenge

A wrong dimension on a rack enclosure, or a missing compatibility attribute on a network switch, means a lost sale or a costly return. Product data was managed by hand. Updates were slow. Publishing a complete, consistent record to the BigCommerce store took too long for a lean team.

They knew they wanted a PIM. They had no dedicated IT department and no earlier PIM selection behind them. The vendor market was a long list of tools, each presented as the right one, with no way to compare them on Rackfinity's own work. They wanted a rigorous selection without the cost of hiring a consultancy to run the whole thing.

The Solution

PIMvendors did not run the selection for them. We wrote a DIY PIM selection manual for their situation, and stayed available at a few decision points.

• Scenario requirements. A handful of scenarios from the working day, in place of a generic list of hundreds of requirements: onboarding a new supplier's product line, enriching the technical specifications of a rack enclosure, and syndicating data to BigCommerce. Vendors could see the job. Rackfinity could judge a reply against that same job.
• Independent shortlist. The list was based on fit, not on a commercial relationship. Several vendors on it were ones Rackfinity had not come across in their own research.
• Input at decision points. Demos were structured so vendors were compared on the same scenarios. We advised on how to read the responses, and we flagged pitfalls during the contract discussions.

The Results

The full selection took 3 months. For a small team doing a PIM selection for the first time, 3 months is a strong result. The PIM they selected came from the independent shortlist, and it was one they would likely not have considered on their own. They left with an implementation roadmap, and with a PIM matched to the technical catalog and the size of the team. Running the selection themselves, with PIMvendors' manual and guidance at key moments, kept costs low while still following a structured method. That was the reason for the DIY route.

The trade-off is where the hours sit. The team still runs the demos and the comparison. The manual does not take that work away. It keeps the comparison on scenarios instead of on a sales deck.

How to select a PIM sets out a selection from requirements, a shortlist and demos. PIM features and capabilities is the long capability list a scenario should cut down. The PIM implementation guide is the roadmap that starts once the selection is signed. What PIM is is the baseline for a team that had not run a selection before.