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Finding A Solution To Keep Product Information Flowing
Most PIMs come at it as a data solution, but Akeneo approaches it as a business solution.
Founded in Ontario, Canada in 1955, Boshart Industries has become a well-known maker and seller of rough plumbing and water well accessories.
After more than six decades in the business, the company was highly experienced in selling directly to wholesalers and other businesses. But, as the company continued to reach new heights, it also realized it had serious product information problems that could impede future growth.
The manufacturer lacked a single source of truth for product information. They were managing products via legacy solutions like home-brewed PIMs and Microsoft Excel. As a result, customers were flooded with streams of inconsistent or even incorrect data, causing them to lose trust in the brand. These inaccuracies and inconsistencies were particularly problematic, as the company’s customers require high levels of trust that the highly specific and technical pipes and parts they are ordering will arrive as expected.
These challenges also slashed the company’s productivity and delayed its time-to-market, which was particularly painful in an age where customers have grown to rapid shipping and delivery. What’s more, digital channels were not the only ones affected by these slowdowns. Updating the company’s 300-plus page print catalog was also a massive manual undertaking, and a slow-moving one at that.
We faced the problem of not having consistent product data because we didn’t have a single source of truth for our team to manage product information.
After floundering with outdated and poorly-suited solutions to manage product information, Boshart knew it needed a purpose-built solution to manage its data. But this solution couldn’t just be a powerful source of product information — it also had to be easy-to-use for a wide range of employees, including everyone from translators to marketers.
After reviewing multiple solutions, Boshart opted to go with Akeneo. Chris Windsor, sales and marketing manager at Boshart, said that decision was made easier thanks in large part to Akeneo’s easy-to-use interface, along with the company’s wide-ranging ecosystem and community of partners, and understanding of Boshart’s needs and requirements.
“What set Akeneo apart was its user interface, and the fact that Akeneo really understood who they were building their PIM platform for,” Windsor said. “I think it was really designing a tool for business users and their user-friendly interface that makes the difference.”
Once selecting Akeneo, Boshart took off on a roughly six-month implementation process, beginning in early 2019. There are now more than 20 employees working in the system on a regular basis enriching 12,000 various products — and the company plans to expand the use of the solution in the near future.
The biggest benefit is to easily pinpoint errors and inconsistencies, and oversee the enrichment process.
A single source of truth
Using a PIM to create a single source of truth for all product information stopped the flow of inaccurate and inconsistent information and welcomed a stream of correct, consistent, and compelling data. This allowed the manufacturer to build trust with customers and eliminate errors in its publicly-displayed product information.
Better, faster, stronger
Removing the clogs caused by an in-house PIM, Excel spreadsheets and other legacy solutions allowed Boshart’s team to not only be more accurate, but more agile as well. This has led to an accelerated time-to-market and increased productivity from the company’s marketing and product team.
Ready for whatever comes next including cross-border commerce
Boshart’s PIM solution has not only helped the company conquer the product information challenges it faced before implementation, but it has also armed them for future battles in the name of growth. With the PIM in place, Windsor said the company plans to publish product information in two new languages (Spanish and English) and may consider expanding into other markets.
A special thanks to our partners who supported this project:
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