IT distributors face an “unusual” problem when it comes to product data, channel veteran Martin Balaam said as he revealed why he is targeting them with his software start-up Pimberly.
Balaam has led four buy-and-builds in the UK IT channel in the shape of Xpert Group, Redstone, BT Engage IT and Jigsaw24.
Product information management (PIM) venture Pimberly grew out of the latter, launching as an independent business in 2018 after Balaam exited Jigsaw24 via its sale to Alcuin Capital.
IT distribution is a key market for Pimberly, with Westcoast and Exertis among the start-up’s early customers.
“What’s unusual for IT distributors”
Having started with a team of four software developers, Pimberly has grown to 80 staff, with Balaam now spearheading an expansion into the US. Former Jigsaw24 Chief Sales Officer Tim Bodill joined recently as a VP, focusing on the launch of Pimberly’s Digital Product Passport solution.
Balaam pinpointed speed to market and reduced costs as Pimberly’s two biggest benefits.
PIM is for products “what CRM is for customers”, he said.
“It’s the digital 360-degree view of a product throughout its entire lifecycle,” Balaam explained.
Pimberly’s 160 customers span verticals including retail, manufacturing, construction and electricals distribution.
But for all its globe-trotting, Pimberly is on a renewed push in a UK IT distribution space Balaam said faces a unique set of challenges around product data.
“What’s unusual for IT distributors, which is different from electrical or tools and components, is that the shelf life of a product typically is a of maximum a year,” he said.
“They’ve got this huge velocity of change.”
PIM provides a methodology to ingest all this data, Balaam explained.
“Speed to market is the number-one benefit. They can get a product online in minutes and not weeks – you’ve only got probably two to three days to capture early adopters,” he said.
“Pimberly resonated with them”
The Pimberly story began after Balaam left BT Engage IT in 2012 to embark on a buy and build at Apple reseller Jigsaw24.
“I always thought Apple was for creative weirdos,” Balaam recalled.
“Usually, when you were doing the managed services, the only bit not included would be the Apple estate which would be in a little room with all the designers.
“But when they launched the iPad and started to get serious with enterprise functionality for device management, I thought, ‘this is going to be quite instrumental in B2B land.”
The spark for Pimberly came when Jigsaw24 acquired a software development business called Matrix to boost its footing among retailers. At the same time, Balaam’s family bedroom furniture business needed help with its digital transformation.
“It was pretty obvious we were going to achieve our targets at Jigsaw24, so I was starting to think about what my next project would be,” Balaam said.
“One of our first beta customers was Westcoast, and then we had the family business as well, and that was quickly followed by Exertis and some of the office product disties.
“Because we got the product data from the disties, we knew how much effort it was for them to get it into a homogenous format.
“They’ve got to deal with hundreds if not thousands of vendors giving them random product data, and then the likes of Jigsaw24 on the other side telling them they just want one file with everything in and more information, better images, techsheets, video and 3D.
“That’s why what we were building with Pimberly resonated with them.”
“Product data is going to be increasingly important”
Asked how building a SaaS software start-up compares with running a reseller, Balaam characterised the early years of Pimberly as an “emotional rollercoaster”.
“It’s 100% recurring revenue, which all the disties and resellers will know is the nirvana,” he said, however.
Would he ever do another buy and build in the channel?
“Never say never,” he responded.
“If I were to, it would be focused on security because that’s the growth market.
“I always try to do it on the back of a growth trajectory, otherwise you’re swimming against the tide. If the market is growing 20, 30, 40%, it’s easy to grow without upsetting anyone.”
Pimberly is currently growing at around 25-30% annually, which Balaam said reflects the continual growth of online product sales in both B2C and B2B.
“If [a distributor] wants to 2x revenues over five years, a disproportionate amount of that growth is going to come from online, so you have to have a strategy for online and how you’re going to win in the e-commerce world,” Balaam said.
“Product data is going to be increasingly important over the next three to five years, especially with new regulations such as the EU’s Digital Product Passport and of course Agentic AI – where exposing your product data in standard machine readable format will be essential .”
Balaam pegged the size of the global PIM market at around $10bn and said Pimberly’s addressable market is $3bn of that.
“We’d be quite happy with 10% of that. We’ve got a little bit to go yet, but I think that would be achievable over time,” he said.
This article was produced in association with Pimberly and is classified as partner content. What is partner content? See more here.
