Copiax faced several data management challenges as product information for more than 43,000 items was maintained mainly through a legacy PIM system, Excel lists, and the ERP system. The company relied on its previous systems to feed product data directly into its web store, which lacked optimal quality checks and approval. These systems were not marketing-optimized and therefore unable to support advanced marketing processes or effectively manage digital assets.
With a growing demand for same-day delivery, the company sought to optimize logistics, ensure collaboration, remove silos, and work efficiently to keep all data up-to-date. Copiax needed to automate data onboarding and easily provide security bundles with products from multiple vendors to increase up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. Therefore, having a media-neutral and centralized solution to manage product content was critical.
Managing a comprehensive ecommerce presence proved to be a daunting task: it requires collecting, managing, and enriching large amounts of data from different suppliers. With an extensive product portfolio, Copiax operates in conditions where inefficient processes cost time and resources – and where an integrated PIM solution can noticeably improve data quality, time-to-market, and delivery processes. After a long search for the right data management partner, Copiax chose Contentserv and its integration partner, Fiwe.
The situation
- Product data was stored in various systems, including ERP, PIM, website software, Excel sheets, and other databases. The existing software lacked the collaborative layer with appropriate workflow management
- There was a growing need to provide the company’s ecommerce channel with the correct and complete product information
- The all-round view of a product was missing. Instead, data from different sources had to be merged first before all the information could be viewed together
- Processes relating to product data maintenance and onboarding product information from suppliers were rather cumbersome
- Overall, the maintenance of product information was still very time-consuming and error-prone
Objectives
- Establish a central system as a single source of truth for all product information including supplier data
- Enable high data quality and a 360° view of all information on a product available at any time, including automated output in the appropriate formats
- Streamline the process of integrating new suppliers into the portfolio and onboarding new product information to speed up time to market
- Automate the data flow from suppliers’ ERPs and Excel files to the new PIM system
- Efficiently distribute product information to the company’s online store and other channels and significantly reduce manual effort
- Automate the creation of predictive kits and product bundles and provide product recommendations based on common purchase patterns
- Provide an interface that offers a secure, one-stop location for sharing documents and files, and managing and updating product information
