Independent builders and plumbers merchant buying group National Buying Group (NBG) has officially launched its new Product Information Management service (PIM) to centrally collect high quality, accurate and timely product and pricing information from Suppliers before delivering it to Partners. The system is the first of its kind in the independent builders’ merchant sector.

PIM will help Partners and Suppliers to sell products more efficiently through access to real-time product and pricing data. The catalogue of product intelligence collected from PIM will be able to be used in NBG Partners’ back-office systems and websites to provide enriched product information including everything from size and weight to material and pricing.

For Partners, this also means more structured, detailed, and up-to date product information, access to live data, collateral and images to support the promotion of products. Suppliers will benefit from a single point of contact within NBG’s dedicated PIM team and the ability to create a product and pricing catalogue to seamlessly share product information with all NBG Partners at once. PIM also means that Partners will have access to Suppliers’ full product ranges, giving them the opportunity to offer more to customers and increase sales.

The PIM system will enable accurate data to be loaded directly onto Partner’s existing systems, reducing potential invoicing and ordering errors, increasing operational effectiveness. Previously, Partners had relied on contacting Suppliers regarding individual products and manually uploading information. However, PIM will save valuable time for both Partners and Suppliers by making product information instantly available and in a well organised format – a vast improvement on the old process.

Following a testing and development period with selected NBG Partners and Suppliers, PIM has successfully launched with access for the whole of NBG via its internal platform, The Hub.

Managing director at NBG, Nick Oates, said:

“One of NBG’s main aims is to Build Strong Brands that work collaboratively. Our new PIM system is the first of its kind and will make a real difference to the way that Partners and Suppliers work together to make the most of deals and sell products to customers.

“Gone are the days of calling Suppliers for information on individual products, Partners will now have easy access to accurate product and pricing data via The Hub which will increase the whole groups’ productivity moving forward.”