# Deck 05 · Global Catalog Management — Seed brief

**Status:** Draft (not yet built)
**Saved:** 2026-06-28 by Jeff (verbal)
**Owner:** Plex / OMX Strategy + Master Data team

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## One-line thesis

A **Global Catalog Management** platform covering **every supplier's full product range** (not just OMX-ranged product), with live pricing from suppliers — so OMX can quote and run specials against the whole addressable universe in seconds, not days.

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## Why now

- OMX today only sees what it ranges. Anything off-range = phone call + email chain to supplier for spec + price.
- Quoting and specials are gated on that lookup loop — kills win rate and timing.
- Modern catalog tech + supplier API maturity make full-catalog ingest tractable.
- Aligns with Ask Max (Deck 01), PPSS (Deck 02), and Self-Service Quoting (Deck 04) — all of which need a richer catalog.

## Today vs. with Global Catalog

| Today | With Global Catalog |
|---|---|
| Rep / quoting team gets a request for off-range item | Same |
| Phones the supplier — "do you stock this? what's the price?" | Searches one catalog — sees the SKU, the spec, the live price, whether it's already OMX-coded |
| Waits hours / days for callback | Quote out the same hour |
| Misses the window on specials | Specials respond to live supplier price moves automatically |
| Customer goes elsewhere | Customer stays |

## The killer features

1. **Search "is this already coded?"** — instant yes/no with SKU
2. **Live pricing from supplier** — API or scheduled pull (depending on supplier capability)
3. **Spec sheets attached** — no more emails asking "do you have a datasheet?"
4. **Quote builder pulls direct** — no manual data entry
5. **Specials trigger from price moves** — supplier drops price → OMX flags potential special

## What it depends on

- Supplier onboarding (API or scheduled feed) — easier with the bigger 4 (NXP, DiscountOffice, McGreals, Hurdleys etc.) but valuable across all suppliers
- Master data hygiene — needs a clean global SKU spine
- Probably Snowflake-native (already where the master data analytics live)

## Data + info to work through tomorrow

### Problem framing (what's broken)

- **OMX catalog = ranged product only.** Quoting an off-range item triggers a multi-day supplier-loop.
- **Specials lag.** Suppliers drop price; OMX hears about it days later (or never). Margin opportunity walks past.
- **Spec sheet hunt.** Quote team chases datasheets every off-range quote.
- **No "is this already coded?" lookup** — duplicate codes and orphan codes proliferate.
- **N3 framing:** memory note says N3 paid AUP is mix of contract + ad-hoc + pricebook resolution, NOT a pure floor. Better catalog visibility = better N3 pricing discipline.

### Memory references

- OMX search programme already in flight (Mar 2026 strategy priority 1) — Global Catalog is the data substrate for better search
- Master Data Customer team owns this domain — `Master Data Customer` Freshservice group is the path in
- N3 not pricebook floor — 13.8% ABOVE all pricebooks; 51.9% above median for top K0-K3 SKUs
- Plex-CI: only NXP/DiscountOffice/McGreals/Hurdleys are clean supplier-side data (others are brand-owner contaminated)

### Benefits (the value story)

| Lever | Rough $ value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| **Quote turnaround time** | High | Hours → minutes. Direct win-rate impact. |
| **Specials timing** | Med | Catch supplier price moves same day → margin lift |
| **Quote team capacity** | Med | Less time on spec-sheet hunt = more quotes per FTE |
| **Margin discipline** | Med | Live cost visibility = mark-up policy holds |
| **Search programme dependency** | Strategic | Better search needs richer catalog data — this is the substrate |
| **Marketplace setup** | Strategic | A full-supplier catalog is **the marketplace** (Ask Max Stage 6 enabler) |

### Open questions to resolve tomorrow

- Supplier API readiness — start with NXP / DiscountOffice / McGreals / Hurdleys
- Master data sponsorship — who owns the global SKU spine?
- Snowflake vs. dedicated PIM (Product Information Management) tool?
- Phasing — read-only first (just see specs + price), then quote-enabled, then specials-trigger

## Cross-links

- **Ask Max** can quote against this catalog instantly when an owner asks ("Max, I need 100 of those Bic 4-colour pens")
- **PPSS** drives the promo/rebate side of the same catalog
- **Self-Service Quoting** is a UI layer on this catalog

## Layout candidates from the gold standard

- Cover: WeWork — quoting team buried in spec-sheet emails
- Problem vector grid (4): No off-range visibility / Slow supplier loop / Miss specials window / Lost quotes
- Solution mirror grid: Search any SKU / Live pricing / Pre-attached specs / Specials trigger automatically
- Market size: $ revenue at risk from lost quotes
- Tagline: "Every SKU. One catalog."
- Product: Composite of the search UI in action
- Mind-map breadth: Office / Tech / Furniture / Cleaning / PPE / …
- How-it-works: One off-range quote walkthrough — start to delivered quote in 90 seconds
- Differentiation: vs. ranged-only / vs. supplier-website-by-website
- Architecture: Supplier APIs → Snowflake → Catalog UI → Pronto + quote engine
- Roadmap: Pilot 4 suppliers → expand → live pricing layer → specials layer

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## Research deepening (background-agent, 2026-06-28)

### 1. Catalog / PIM competitor scan + pricing (OMX-size enterprise)

| Vendor | Positioning | Annual pricing band (USD/EUR) |
|---|---|---|
| **Akeneo** | Open-source-based SaaS, mid-market sweet spot, strong ecosystem | Growth from ~$25K; Enterprise ~€60K-€200K+ |
| **Salsify** | US enterprise PXM, digital-shelf analytics, retailer syndication | Enterprise ~€75K-€300K+ (rarely <€50K) |
| **inRiver** | Enterprise SaaS, syndication-heavy, MACH-certified, brand+manufacturer | Core ~€30K-€50K; Enterprise ~€100K-€300K |
| **Productsup** | Product-feed management / commerce data syndication | Custom — typically €40K-€150K+ |
| **Bluestone PIM** | Headless PIM, MACH | Standard ~€30K; Pro ~€50K; Enterprise custom |
| **Pimcore** | Open-source PIM + DAM + MDM | Community free; Enterprise ~€30K-€80K |

**Read-across for OMX**: a packaged PIM at OMX scale is a **$100K-$300K+/yr line item** before integration. Snowflake-native build leverages sunk Snowflake spend + master-data team — TCO advantage is the differentiator, not a tech beauty contest. Sources: Sales Layer comparison; SaaSworthy; Akeneo vs Salsify (PIMworks).

### 2. OMX existing catalog scale

- Active OMX-ranged SKUs (Pronto D_STOCK_MASTER, working figure): ~25k-40k active stock codes — needs confirming with master-data team for the deck. (Lens widget catalogue + sisense-imported reports reference stock_master joins but no clean single-source SKU count was found in seeds.)
- Customer ship-tos: **50,690 K0-K2** (per memory `reference_omx_k0k2_universe_cost_centre_concealment.md`).
- Customer accounts in scope: ~5,498 N3 accounts (per `reference_omx_n3_definition.md`).
- **The OMX gap is not OMX-ranged SKU coverage — it's the *off-range* universe.** Industry-standard distributors carry ~25k-50k ranged SKUs and quote against an addressable supplier universe of 250k-500k+ SKUs. The off-range hit-rate is the multiplier.

### 3. Off-range / non-stocked SKU pain (industry benchmarks)

- Non-stock items typically represent **15-30% of total distributor revenue** — yet break manual processes.
- Distributors with manual special-order processes lose **3-8% of gross margin** on these lines.
- Worked example (Bizowie): $50M distributor with 20% non-stock = **$300k-$800k profit walking out the door annually** from manual special-order ops.
- For OMX ($300M+ revenue range), the same ratio scales to **$1.8M-$4.8M annual margin leakage** from off-range/special-order inefficiency — directly addressable by a global catalog.
- Mid-market companies with 10k-100k SKUs lose ~23% of revenue to bad product data (separate, additive leak — duplicate codes, orphan codes, missing specs).
- Sources: Bizowie special order management; williamflaiz.com e-commerce SKU data.

### 4. Quote response time (industry → grounds the "instant answer" claim)

- Legacy B2B distributor benchmark: **3-5 days** for off-range quotes.
- 2026 best practice: **standard config <1 hour; complex same-day**.
- Cincom CPQ research: 48-hour turnaround = deal-loser; "first accurate quote often wins regardless of price" in time-sensitive segments.
- ChannelFlex data: every additional day to quote drops win rate ~10-15%.
- **OMX-specific opportunity**: today off-range = multi-day supplier-loop; global catalog target = **<60 seconds** from search to bookable quote. That's a step-change, not a tweak.
- Sources: Cincom CPQ blog 2026; ChannelFlex quote times analysis.

### 5. Supplier integration pattern (the clean 4 vs the noise)

Per memory `reference_plex_ci_vendor_field_classification.md` (2026-06-22):

| Supplier | Plex-CI status | Likely API readiness | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| **NXP** | Real supplier (clean data) | Medium — has supplier portal | Pilot candidate #1 (scale + range) |
| **DiscountOffice** | Real supplier (clean data) | Low — likely scheduled file | Pilot candidate #2 |
| **McGreals** | Real supplier (clean data) | Low — likely scheduled file | Pilot candidate #3 |
| **Hurdleys** | Real supplier (clean data) | Low — likely scheduled file | Pilot candidate #4 |
| acquire / elive / pbtech / jbhifi / liquorland / eelsupplies / whitcoulls / vidak | Brand-owner duplicates (contaminated) | n/a | NOT supplier-side; do not approach for catalog pull |

**Pattern**: phase 1 = scheduled SFTP/CSV pulls daily (already proven model for the 3 DS suppliers running today per `project_omx_ds_supplier_visibility.md`). Phase 2 = API for the willing. Phase 3 = QR-sticker-style fallback for stragglers.

### 6. Snowflake-native catalog as differentiator

- None of the major PIM platforms (Akeneo, Salsify, inRiver, Productsup, Pimcore) is Snowflake-native — all are operational stores with their own DB layer, exporting to a warehouse downstream.
- A Snowflake-native catalog inverts the model: master data lives in Snowflake (where OMX analytics already are), surfaces via Snowflake-native apps + lightweight UI.
- Wins: zero ETL, real-time joins to sales/customer/contract data, instant pricing analytics, no per-record licence creep.
- Risks: write-side workflow + UX patterns must be built (PIMs ship these out of the box).
- Plex-CI scrape evidence: none of OMX's 59 tracked competitors publishes a customer-facing PIM-grade catalog. The catalog itself becomes a competitive moat.
- Source: Snowflake Native Apps framework + Informatica integration patterns (search results).