A manufacturer or distributor of construction materials quickly manages hundreds to thousands of items, each with technical values, standards, documents and variants, and often in multiple languages. Anyone who tries to keep that up to date with Excel and shared folders inevitably gets stuck. A PIM solves that. This page explains what a PIM exactly is, why the construction sector benefits from it in particular, and what it concretely delivers for you.
What is a PIM?
A PIM, in full Product Information Management, is a central system in which you manage all information about your products: technical specifications, standards, commercial texts, prices, photos and documents. From that single source you publish the right information automatically to every channel: your webshop, dealer and B2B portals, marketplaces, and commercial or technical PDF datasheets.
The idea is simple but powerful: you enter each data point once correctly, and the system ensures it is correct everywhere. No more four versions of the same datasheet, no more contradictory values between the website and the PDF in a mailbox.
Why construction materials call for a PIM
Construction product data is exceptionally data-intensive. A single item often carries:
- Dozens of technical properties (dimensions, performance values, fire class, thermal conductivity, compressive strength)
- References to harmonised EN standards
- A CE marking and its associated documentation
- Countless variants (dimension, grade, finish, application)
- Documentation in multiple languages, often for different markets and brands
Add to that supplier data that comes in at varying quality (one supplies a neat Excel, another a ZIP with PDFs), and the management becomes unsustainable. That is exactly where a PIM makes the difference: structure, validation and a single source of truth.
The new European regulation makes correct product data critical
The construction sector faces an important shift. The new Construction Products Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 replaced the old 2011 regulation and applies to most construction products from 8 January 2026. It tightens the market requirements and adds new obligations around data and sustainability.
Concretely this means, among other things:
- The declaration of performance (DoP) becomes a combined declaration of performance and conformity
- From 8 January 2026 it must, for priority product groups, also include environmental data, starting with the Global Warming Potential (climate impact)
- The environmental requirements expand gradually to a full life cycle assessment by 2032
- A Digital Product Passport (digital product passport) is introduced, with unique identification and attention to a link with BIM
For manufacturers this means that product data can no longer live in separate documents. You must demonstrably publish the right, current values, including environmental data, with a trace of who changed what and when. A PIM is precisely the system that makes that possible.
What a PIM concretely does for a construction company
PimLayer is built to bring this within reach of the mid-market. A selection of what the platform does:
- One structured product hierarchy with an inheritance principle: what you change at a higher level flows automatically down to all variants below. A hundred dimensions stay consistent without a hundred manual copies.
- A configurable taxonomy that tags products and assets, with a search engine built on it. You find every product or document in seconds.
- Product specifications with automatic saving and logging. You never click save, and every change is tracked, with rights management. That gives you the audit trail compliance requires right away.
- Multilingual management with all languages clearly side by side, so NL, FR, EN and DE stay consistent.
- Linked assets: images, PDFs, AutoCAD drawings and more hang directly on the product.
- Related products and packaging, useful for example to link packaging data for environmental reporting.
- Channel management with an overview of channel readiness and approval per channel, plus bulk import and export.
- GS1 and ETIM publishing via our partner Qmica, so your data flows in the right, validated format to retailers and marketplaces.
Automatic technical datasheets: the biggest time saver
For construction companies the biggest gain often sits in the datasheets. PimLayer generates commercial and technical product datasheets as print-ready PDFs, on the fly, in multiple languages and even with a different logo per market or brand. One source, and from that source the right, compliant datasheet rolls out automatically for every language and every channel.
What used to cost days of manual work and endless version control becomes a matter of a few clicks, each time correct.
PIM, ERP and Excel: what does what?
Excel and shared folders break as soon as variants, languages and channels pile up. An ERP does manage your stock and orders, but is not made for rich product information and multilingual publishing. A PIM fills exactly that gap, and connects to your ERP so the data flows from source to channel.
Why PimLayer for construction
Construction manufacturers and distributors already work with PimLayer today. Three things make the difference for this sector:
- Onboarding included. We configure alongside you and you typically go live within a month. No separate IT project, no separate implementation invoice.
- Belgian and local. Service and support in Dutch and French, by people who know your market, and EU-hosted.
- Phenomenal at automatic datasheets. Multilingual, print-ready technical and commercial datasheets from a single source, exactly what a construction company most often needs.
Want to see how that works with your own products? Request a demo, or first calculate your time saving with the ROI calculator.
Sources: Construction Products Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 (EUR-Lex); CPR 2024-2032 guide (Ecochain); GS1 and ETIM publishing via partner Qmica (pimlayer.be/gs1).