PIM instead of Excel - a new level of product communication for Sonax

Like many other medium-sized companies, SONAX faced the classic problem of product data management at some point: the established system with Excel spreadsheets, ERP and shared drives had worked for decades - but not very efficiently. Every new product creation or subsequent change had to first be processed via various departments using Excel spreadsheets. Which was not only time-consuming, but could also lead to errors and delays. The consistency of product data across all channels could never be fully guaranteed and the control effort was correspondingly high. Image files often circulated in different versions on employees' drives and it was often unclear which of them were up-to-date.

The attempt to solve this with a self-developed PIM interface based on the content management system failed due to the handling and range of functions, so the management finally decided to introduce a professional, market-proven PIM solution. After careful evaluation, Contentserv was chosen for the consulting and support of the implementation partner SDZeCOM.

The go-ahead for the introduction was given in September 2019. Together with the experienced implementation partner SDZeCOM, the team responsible initially developed the required data model and attribute definition from scratch in order to be able to work with the PIM solution later on in line with requirements and with pinpoint accuracy. This process took around six months. The interface requirements to the existing ERP system were also defined. As "quick wins", an extensive search function (open search) was implemented in the first step, as well as the automated output of product data sheets from the system. The team took a step-by-step approach to filling the system with product data, as much of the information had to be completely updated before it could be imported. Possible legacy data had to be avoided. This took a considerable amount of time, so that the last of many existing data records was not actually imported into the system until March 2023, meaning that this process was 100% complete. Today, all new articles are created directly via Contentserv - with significantly reduced manual effort.

Another milestone was the automated connection to the company website, which was implemented in a further project phase in the fall of 2023. The team also worked on the translation process to fill the English and Spanish websites via Contentserv. AI support will be considered for other language variants in the future. In addition, various export interfaces were created for easy export of product and marketing information, in particular to the largest industry-relevant platform TecDoc.

In practice, Contentserv is convincing all round: today, all departments can work together in a structured way to create, enrich and distribute product information and save a lot of time in the process. The comprehensive and reliable access to the company's own, quality-assured data set has proven to be an indispensable advantage. This means that customer service has all the important information at their fingertips in seconds via Open Search, instead of first having to consult the relevant departments. Image material can be retrieved directly in the appropriate format via the integrated MAM system. It also directly stores the purposes for which the data is approved. And should there be any incorrect product information, this can simply be corrected centrally in the PIM system and output to the connected systems via interfaces.

Today, Contentserv ensures the highest data quality and consistent information across all channels. The increases in efficiency are already clearly noticeable and further automated processes in internationalization and publishing will enable considerable cost savings in the future.