Digitalization is transforming many industries, and the paint and coatings industry is no exception. Massive demographic shifts, changing consumer preferences, technological evolution, and economic imperatives are the catalysts propelling this traditionally conservative industry into embracing digital technologies and fostering the next phase of growth.

As we navigate this transformation, paint and coatings (P&C) manufacturers and suppliers face several questions and challenges. How do P&C suppliers effectively leverage digitalization? What are the pivotal strategic shifts required to succeed in the digital age? What synergies can be unlocked between digital innovation and legacy processes? 

In pursuit of these answers, PCI Magazine Chief Editor, Kristin Johansson, engaged in insightful conversations at a recent trade event with two visionaries helping to shape the future of this landscape– Jay Bhatia, Founder & CEO of Agilis Commerce, and Christophe Cabarry, Founder and CEO of SpecialChem. Agilis Commerce and SpecialChem have combined their technology know how and industry expertise to launch the chemical industry's first product information management system, ionicPIM, with direct benefits to paint and coatings formulators and buyers.

PCI: How does digitalization impact the P&C formulators and suppliers, and what are the key drivers?

Cabarry: Buyer behavior in the paint and coatings industry is rapidly changing and shaping a new digital environment. In summary, today’s formulators do their research online. They initiate the first contact with a brand digitally without relying on sales personnel. Even existing clients prefer minimal interaction with sales reps of their suppliers, especially in the post-COVID era. They have the autonomy to choose when and how they engage, even beyond regular working hours, and select the digital channel of their preference, whether it's the company's official website, specialized platforms like SpecialChem, or online marketplaces. In the analog era, the entire brand experience relied on sales representatives, however, today's landscape is transitioning toward digital avenues. The challenge for suppliers is to serve prospects and customers well using digital channels, while being ready for human interaction when they need one. Therefore, ingredients suppliers need to offer prospects and customers highly effective digital touchpoints. Suppliers who do not meet these evolving needs under the umbrella of their own brand will certainly lose new growth opportunities and definitely hurt their brand. At the core of the new digital experience proposed by suppliers lies the ability for customers to discover and select the right product quickly and accurately, on their own. In short, a great digital experience via online product catalogs. 

PCI: How do coatings suppliers meet the evolving needs of digitally savvy formulators and technical buyers? 

Bhatia: As Christophe outlined, a great digital experience starts with ready access to digitized, comprehensive, accurate product catalogs. However, aggregating, organizing, updating, and sharing product information in a uniform format, with consistent, uniform taxonomies is a daunting challenge, specifically, for chemical ingredients where one product can be used in multiple applications, and end users in each industry want to see a specific set of data. This is where, learning from other B2B industrial markets, chemical ingredient suppliers are adopting a centralized product information management (PIM) system that enables them to collect, organize, clean up, enrich, and distribute all information (data, documents, media files, even specific knowledge about the product) at one place. A PIM system manages all product data and documentation required to market and sell products through different channels, including direct sales, distribution and digital, across multiple geographies and markets. As businesses are moving to multi-channel sales environments, a PIM is becoming a necessity for most companies selling products. PIMs are to product information what CRMs are to customer information – digital cornerstones.

PCI: So how does a PIM system help drive adoption of digital channels?

Bhatia: Digitalization isn't solely about adopting technology; it's about intelligently utilizing data for value creation. Effective data utilization requires the data to be in a format conducive to large-scale exploration, which creates two primary goals for a PIM. Firstly, it serves as a dependable repository of accurate, up-to-date data that internal and external stakeholders can rely upon. Secondly, it enables rapid, accurate updates and distribution of data across all the necessary digital and analog channels.

The robustness of a PIM system lies in its ability to handle intricate layers of product data complexity, ability to connect with the enterprise systems, maintain access controls to sensitive information, while ensuring a uniform taxonomy as information scales over a period of time. 

Leveraging our deep industry experience, we have designed a PIM system that handles complex workflows of data management, from consolidation and de-duplication to enrichment, and sharing it across multiple layers of the value chain. 

Lastly, the industry is witnessing a significant shift in data governance. Data ownership is absolutely critical for business buyers and suppliers. We have incorporated robust access management workflows, ensuring privacy of data and user activity. With paint- and coatings-specific templates, taxonomies, and workflows, ionic PIM navigates complex data layers and maps content from various sources to relevant attributes that customers care about at scale. We also use the latest technology tools to identify data gaps and assess data quality. The connectivity to ERPs, websites, product catalog platforms, and marketplaces further enhances the accessibility and distribution of this information.

PCI: Beyond enabling the organization of product information for catalog management, how does ionicPIM facilitate the exchange of crucial information between P&C manufacturers and raw material suppliers?

Cabarry: There are many inefficiencies in the way product information is shared among ingredients producers, distributors, and their customers. Most of it is exchanged via emails, or physically handed by representatives, which is inefficient and often results in outdated data being shared. Does the customer have the right TDS or the latest MSDS? In this context, ionicPIM stands out for its ability to facilitate seamless information exchange among multiple stakeholders and value chain partners. 

The connectivity capabilities bring notable advantages in specific areas like regulatory information sharing and promoting transparency regarding the environmental impact of products. By streamlining this data flow, industry-specific PIM systems like ionicPIM contribute to improved operational efficiency, thereby enhancing an organization's sustainability initiatives.

PCI: What key recommendations would you make to paint and coatings manufacturers embarking on a digital journey?

Bhatia: I have two recommendations. 

1. View digitalization as a pivotal opportunity to transform your customer engagement. Prioritize establishing structured and precise data management as the cornerstone of this transformation, through a great CRM and a great PIM.
2. Digitalizing customer interface is not just an IT project, it is a vastly important business project. When customers are the users of your solution, you cannot apply a traditional, IT-driven, inside-out approach. Your solution needs to be modern, agile, iterative, scalable, and piloted by the business itself. This is not something you can or should develop with internal resources because this is not your core competency. Software as a service solution from a vendor that knows your industry, inside out, can be immensely valuable.

PCI: What other solutions do you offer to help drive digitalization?

Cabarry: SpecialChem has more than 20 years of experience in managing chemical product data with the world’s largest database of commercially available specialty chemicals (350k products from 5,800+ suppliers). We offer chemical and ingredients producers a standardized way to present their product documentation and data, making it easy to search and compare products online. This knowledge enhances ionicPIM’s ability to connect business partners of the chemical industry with a unique product information exchange model.

Bhatia: Agilis is a leading provider of digital commerce software solutions for the chemical, polymers, and ingredients indsutries. Our mission is to enable industry with modern digital tools, without disruption. In addition to ionicPIM, Agilis offers a suite of digital commerce solutions that help suppliers promote their brand digitally, and digitize every touchpoint of customer interactions, from product discovery to order management, payment, and services, via their own digital commerce portal.