Fluidra dives into a centralized pool of data for their global operations – thanks to inriver and CTAC

The challenge

There are over 17 million swimming pools in the world.

Fluidra is a global market leader in the designing, manufacturing, and distribution of all components required for the construction, refurbishment, improvement, and maintenance of residential and commercial pools. They currently provide products and services to 5 million pools worldwide with an aftermarket business, i.e. refurbishments and maintenance, accounting for 70% of total sales. They needed a robust PIM solution to support their entire product journey from R&D through to after-sale

Since its creation in 1969, Fluidra has become the leading manufacturing and distribution company in the world’s pool and wellness sector. Fluidra has more than 160 branch offices and production centers spread across more than 45 countries. In France alone they service 1.5 million residential ground pools and 1.2 million in Spain. They also provide products and services to competition pools and commercial hotel and spa pools.

The implementation

Implementation partner Ctac brought in knowledge and many best practices from their previous experience with InRiver implementations. They optimised the way of working and helped Fluidra roll out global brand websites and B2B e-commerce. The integration with Magento is a good example: a generic, configurable setup of the Magento integrations allowed Fluidra to get every website and country live itself.

The implementation took a total of one year. During that period, Ctac’s consultants worked closely with Fluidra’s implementation and development team to promote synchronisation at every stage of the process. However, the implementation period did not affect Fluidra’s growth ambitions. According to Carolina, Fluidra was able to open new e-commerce channels during that period – while PIM was under development. As a result, the company did not lose momentum. In fact, during the implementation, Fluidra gained momentum by creating new opportunities.

The results

With the inriver implementation complete, Fluidra can experience the benefits of having a flexible data model. As Carolina notes, this flexibility allows the company to configure the data model to match workflow. She says she has also had great feedback about other capabilities such as distribution and syndication.

With innovation at the heart of Fluidra’s corporate values, another result of implementing the inriver PIM is better collaboration between departments. “Before having a common database, everyone worked at their own pace on their own things. Now we can focus our efforts on key priorities as a company – such as coordinating product information and marketing efforts across borders,” she explains. “It also means that with many eyes on the same data, you catch mistakes much faster.”

Having a centralized product information database with additional capabilities has enabled Fluidra to launch eight new stores in eight different countries, and open new e-commerce websites. According to Carolina, none of this would have been possible without the inriver PIM solution.