We invested in Bombiix because we recognised the strength of its PLM offer and the impending EU requirement for Digital Product Passports.
With decades of experience investing in SMEs – from starting at 3i, to opening the Bahrain Development Bank and now co-owning Anticus – I’ve seen the challenges businesses face and the opportunities that come with them. Our role is to be a supportive investor, guiding Lucy in growing Bombiix and in future fundraising.
With experience across manufacturing, financial services, SaaS, e-commerce, and retail, I help Bombiix navigate growth while keeping a close eye on cash flow, performance and strategic alignment.
From the first time I met Lucy, I knew I wanted to work with her – she’s a breath of fresh air and the passion that fills her is infectious. It’s a pleasure to complement her skills in delivering the vision of Bombiix.
I make sure our software meets your needs, spotting areas for improvement and helping your team streamline and grow.
Having worked in hospitality, manufacturing, supply chain and agriculture, I bring a wealth of experience when it comes in creating digital solutions that tackle real-world challenges.
I joined Bombiix after being a customer – it’s hugely refreshing to see a platform that focuses on the needs of product people. After managing many global teams across multiple industries, including pharmaceuticals, FMCG, toiletries and cosmetics, sporting goods and apparel and fashion, I can see real potential in Bombiix, and I’m excited to lead the business and achieve it.
My experience is in garment technology, pattern cutting, product development and technical design and I understand the everyday struggles our customers face – the chaotic workflows, confusing email threads and out of date spreadsheets. So I created Bombiix to change all of that.
The concept for Bombiix was born from one product developer’s frustrations with outdated legacy PLMs. So, when we say we get it, we really do. Whether you’re a growing start up or experienced enterprise, our team is with you every step of the way with personalised onboarding and ongoing support. My experience is in garment technology, pattern cutting, product development and technical design and I understand the everyday struggles our customers face – the chaotic workflows, confusing email threads and out of date spreadsheets. So I created Bombiix to change all of that.
Manage your entire product lifecycle, from initial concept and design through to development, manufacturing and bringing it to shelves.
Automate your Digital Product Passports in a way that’s affordable, scalable and removes the need for multiple complex systems.
Unify all your product information with an automated PIM that ensures consistency and accuracy while reducing workload and manual data entry.
Organise, store and access all your digital assets into a single, easy-to-use hub so you can effortlessly find, share and use content whenever you need to.
When trying to choose the best PIM solution it is common to feel overwhelmed. This is because you are not just choosing a piece of software, you are trying to solve the difficult problem of data fragmentation, where product data can live in multiple places with multiple conflicting versions, all of which can only be found by specific team members.
That’s why we’ve created this guide to make the process of picking the best PIM software easy and relatively painless.
The whole point of investing in a PIM solution is to make your team’s lives easier. This is exactly what the best PIMs will do. However, you do need to be careful that you don’t move from one fragmented system to another. Legacy systems are very rigid, and may not improve your workflow in any significant way.
It is not just a case of checking what features a PIM software offers; the philosophy behind a PIM solution is also very important.
If you want your PIM software to be genuinely useful, it needs to have the following key features as a minimum requirement:
The main focus for a PIM is to create a ‘single source of truth’ that can be accessed and used by all relevant parties.
A truly effective PIM software should be capable of collecting all data about a product, from multiple locations, to centralise the data in one place. It should also be able to create a product profile that contains all product information for every product in your portfolio.
The best PIMs do this by connecting to PLM and DAM solutions directly, and pulling the information from them whenever it is updated. They also convert product data into multiple formats for different marketplace channels, allowing all product information to be used on different e-commerce platforms with seamless integration.
By creating a ‘single source of truth’ that is available to all members of your product team, an effective PIM solution allows you to focus on trading rather than data management.
This is because everyone is always on the same page at the same time. It allows a product profile to be created in real-time, without any version control issues or missed updates.
When a designer adds a new product image to a DAM, the best PIM solutions will pull this through without any need for manually updating. This applies to any new information that is added to a PLM or DPP too.
An effective PIM is not just a database that stores information, it is a collaborative team member that reduces the need for administrative tasks.
It completely removes the need to search for product information across multiple locations. Instead, everything is stored in one place that is constantly being updated to the latest ‘truth’. This saves a lot of time and effort that would have previously been wasted on searching.
The best PIM solutions are gatekeepers too. They flag if a product has any missing information and will not allow it to be sent to any sales channels until the complete required information is present. This allows teams to focus on what their next task is rather than worrying about if anything is missing.
Once a product has a complete information profile, you don’t want to have to rewrite it for every different sales channel that your product will be available on. This is where a truly effective PIM can save you hours of busy work.
The best PIM software handles data formatting for you for every channel that it is connected to. This reduces the time-to-launch for a new product significantly, with it taking minutes rather than days.
The main focus for a PIM is to create a ‘single source of truth’ that can be accessed and used by all relevant parties.
A truly effective PIM software should be capable of collecting all data about a product, from multiple locations, to centralise the data in one place. It should also be able to create a product profile that contains all product information for every product in your portfolio.
The best PIMs do this by connecting to PLM and DAM solutions directly, and pulling the information from them whenever it is updated. They also convert product data into multiple formats for different marketplace channels, allowing all product information to be used on different e-commerce platforms with seamless integration.
By creating a ‘single source of truth’ that is available to all members of your product team, an effective PIM solution allows you to focus on trading rather than data management.
This is because everyone is always on the same page at the same time. It allows a product profile to be created in real-time, without any version control issues or missed updates.
When a designer adds a new product image to a DAM, the best PIM solutions will pull this through without any need for manually updating. This applies to any new information that is added to a PLM or DPP too.
An effective PIM is not just a database that stores information, it is a collaborative team member that reduces the need for administrative tasks.
It completely removes the need to search for product information across multiple locations. Instead, everything is stored in one place that is constantly being updated to the latest ‘truth’. This saves a lot of time and effort that would have previously been wasted on searching.
The best PIM solutions are gatekeepers too. They flag if a product has any missing information and will not allow it to be sent to any sales channels until the complete required information is present. This allows teams to focus on what their next task is rather than worrying about if anything is missing.
Once a product has a complete information profile, you don’t want to have to rewrite it for every different sales channel that your product will be available on. This is where a truly effective PIM can save you hours of busy work.
The best PIM software handles data formatting for you for every channel that it is connected to. This reduces the time-to-launch for a new product significantly, with it taking minutes rather than days.
Our PIM solution connects directly to our PLM, DAM and DPP to keep product information up to date. It also formats product data to be compatible with multiple sales channels including Shopify, WooCommerce, marketplaces, and many more.
Hidden costs
The annual cost of a PIM is not always a case of what you see is what you get. There are many PIM payment models that have hidden costs. They may have reasonable upfront annual costs, but there can be a lot of costs hidden beneath the surface.
Some systems have microtransactions linked to their API. This means that for every API call there is a cost attached. If you sync your data to multiple sales channels frequently, this can lead to a high quantity of microtransactions that result in skyrocketing costs.
There can also be extra costs attached to successful growth. For example, a vendor may have a limit on how many SKUs you can have within their PIM solution. Once you hit this soft cap, there is usually a large increase in price that punishes you for being successful.
It is important to be aware of what is actually included in the base price too. Many companies will charge extra for connecting their software to different marketplaces as expensive add-ons that drive your overall costs up.
Difficult implementation
Legacy PIM systems can take a long time to implement with nothing going live for at least 12 months. This is because they have to acquire the correct, up-to-date information and upload it to their solution without any form of data cleansing.
This can result in messy data that has typos and requires manual mapping to the right fields. It can take months of busy work until the system is fully functional.
Developer reliance
The worst PIM systems are those that require a developer every time any kind of change is needed.
These systems increase timelines for updating product information and for getting new products live. This is because you are constantly at the mercy of dev availability which results in frequent bottlenecks that can hold the entire product development process up.
Over-reliance on dev also limits what a PIM system is capable of doing. If everything is fully customised with custom integrations, this gives you less room to make changes in line with your growth.
Eventually, implementing new code will break the existing custom integrations. Leaving you with a choice between moving to a new solution or sticking with the old version of a PIM that is not truly fit for purpose.
Rigid workflows
PIMs that have a rigid unbending structure will discourage your team from using them and ultimately result in the PIM solution being rejected internally.
If there are too many steps to complete a simple option, team members will become frustrated quickly. There will also be increased frustration if there is no form of self-service within the PIM. If you can’t do something straightforward like adding a new sales channel without having to raise a support ticket, the PIM system is too rigid.
There is an ongoing struggle between product teams and enterprise software that can be summarised with a single question: ‘Does the tool serve the team, or does the team serve the tool’?
Legacy PIM systems are built with the latter of the 2 options in mind. They have rigid architecture that has no interest in what is best for your workflow. It results in you having to abandon your most efficient workflows in order to fit in with the software’s technical limitations.
This eventually leads to using the PIM software becoming an untenable solution that needs replacing. It’s essentially a sticking plaster that only solves your problems in the very short term.
Many PIM systems require you to align with their rigid terminology too. With extra training needed to help get your product team on board. This can cause conflict between existing terminology that is still used by suppliers, and the new terminology that your team is being forced to use.
All this does is add an extra layer of confusion to the product development process, and cause unnecessary friction between your team and the new PIM solution.
If a PIM solution is not able to adapt to your existing workflows and forces its own terminology upon you, it is not going to be the best PIM for you.
Focus on finding a PIM solution that is able to adapt to your workflows and existing practices with the least amount of effort. This will help you to find a PIM solution that you can use in the long term without issues developing as you grow.
The majority of PIM pricing is not as simple as just looking at the sticker price and the features included. Many PIM software solutions have a low entry cost, to get you on board, that is then ramped up with costs that are connected to extra features or hitting limits.
It is best to choose a PIM software that allows you to forecast your software spend with high accuracy. These providers will allow you to see cost levels in black and white on their pricing pages.
Transparent pricing models will include the following information:
If you want your PIM software to be genuinely useful, it needs to have the following key features as a minimum requirement:
At Bombiix we offer 4 transparent payment tiers that are tailored to the size of your company. This includes our ‘Free tier’ that allows you to try our software out with no financial risk.
There are 3 main phases to evaluating a PIM software to see if it’s suited to your company.
We go into each of these in more detail below:
Before you can do anything, you need to understand how complex your product data is. This helps you to pick a PIM system that is suited to your specific data requirements. There is no use in picking a PIM software that has way more features than you need or that you’ll outgrow in a matter of months.
To do this you should consider how big your team is, how many SKUs you have and how much unique data each one has, and what your growth plan is.
This will help you to invest in a PIM that suits your data and aspirations.
This helps you differentiate between whether a solution is just a storage tool or an actual trading-focused tool.
To help you evaluate this you can ask questions about the following things:
By asking these questions you can uncover how suitable and trade-focused the PIM system on offer is.
What security systems do you use to ensure data hasn’t been tampered with?
With your software is it possible to prove exactly which individual uploaded a specific certificate at which supplier, including a timestamp?
Can audit logs be exported?
How do you prove compliance to regulators while protecting IP secrets? E.g. material ratios.
To ensure that the PIM solution you are working with is futureproof, you should have 3 non-negotiables that a provider’s solution must include:
The best PIM solution will be able to feed data into anything via a robust API. This includes future marketplaces, mobile apps and more.
The best PIM will be connected to a DAM that handles high resolution assets natively.
You must be able to change any part of your data without the need for dev work. This includes adding categories, changing attributes, and creating new fields.
If a PIM solution passes all of the above phases and fits in with your workflow seamlessly, you will then have found the best PIM for you.
While legacy PIM implementation can take many months to be up and running, modern PIM implementations are much quicker and have a much more supportive approach.
The best PIM providers will be able to get your platform up and running in a matter of weeks, without the need for slow dev support or time consuming data transfer and mapping.
At Bombiix we provide a quick implementation service, assisted by live calls and support, that will have your platform fully set up in a few short weeks.
Switching to PLM brought big changes, but our team embraced it because Bombiix provided solutions that fit our processes - and most importantly, they wanted to use it.
The unexpected element I've experienced using Bombiix is my own personal pre-knowledge of PLM systems and how they can be quite restrictive. Bombiix shows that you can have a PLM that is adaptable and flexible.
Bombiix has been a game-changer for Fimex, it just works with us. In a fast-paced environment where things can get hectic, Bombiix is always there, and a reliable single source of truth for our business.
Bombiix feels fresh, modern and intuitive. Unlike outdated, complex PLMs, it is built by people who understand product teams. It is easy to use, highly efficient and helps us get the job done.
Bombiix makes managing multiple clients and suppliers far simpler. It is the first system we have found that combines everything we need with genuine ease of use. The team understands our industry, responds quickly, and adapts the platform to how we work.
Working with Bombiix has been highly positive. Their collaborative team understood our needs, challenged our thinking and delivered meaningful solutions. The platform now gives us greater visibility, consistency and confidence in our decisions.
Contact us to learn more about our products and features or anything else. Let’s transform your product data together!
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Today, Bombiix empowers product teams with cutting-edge, affordable technology that simplifies processes, reduces admin, and enables smarter, more ethical decisions.
