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+ Growth
  • Faster time to market
  • Global consistency across 25 languages
  • Improved brand trust through accurate information
  • Expanded international presence with streamlined processes
+ Effiency
  • Automated translation and publishing
  • Centralized product data management
  • Transparent versioning and document control
  • Reduced manual tasks, increasing overall productivity

"Contentserv enables us to deliver consistent product communication that is technically up-to-date and in the required languages. In addition, the quality of the product data has been considerably increased and it can now be reused for different systems."

Stefan Amman
Application and Data Manager PIM, Belimo Automation AG

About Belimo

Belimo Automation AG is a leading manufacturer of actuator solutions for controlling heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. Founded in 1975 and headquartered in Hinwil, Switzerland, Belimo has subsidiaries and distribution companies in more than 80 countries, with approximately 1,400 employees. Producing 5.5 million actuators per year, Belimo has a net turnover of 500 million CHF.

belimo-featured
Pain

Manual processes, a bottleneck for global scalability

Belimo creates and maintains more than 2,350 technical illustrations, 2,700 product images, and 5,500 technical documents in up to 25 languages. Among the daily challenges the company faces are the continuous updating of highly complex product structures, the lack of document versioning, and the manual processing of InDesign data. Without a concrete global data management strategy, the employees responsible for product management, marketing, and technical communication worked in silos using different systems and redundant data. Additionally, product and price catalogs had to be updated manually before translation. This made the creation of marketing media extremely time-consuming.

Belimo needed to automate the production and translation of its product documentation while gaining optimum transparency for all tasks and stages of product development. Furthermore, it was crucial to guarantee simultaneous high- performance access to the system by its sales team and different departments across the globe.

However, with a fast-moving ready-to-wear market, the colossal manual entry of different product data (6,000 color references per season, assortment tracking, product feature updates in different languages, etc.) became extremely challenging. Furthermore, primarily using spreadsheets for this purpose was very time-consuming and error-prone. These files quickly became archaic in the context of Lacoste’s digital transformation and they would often contain numerous data entry errors, which resulted in a slow time-to-market that was harmful to sales. Another major challenge involved variable data such as collections, which must be renewed every six months and had to take into account the difference between the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

Therefore Lacoste needed to adopt a tool that would streamline the creation and distribution of its product catalogs on both its merchant and marketplace sites. This made it clear that Product Information Management (PIM) was the right solution to quickly enrich databases, accurately aggregate content, and shorten time-to-market, all while increasing agility and flexibility.

Aim

Standardized data, automated workflows, and global consistency

Belimo needed a solution to standardize the maintenance of product information, translations and digital assets for publication across all channels in up to 25 languages. The solution needed to support:

  • Belimo needed a solution to standardize the maintenance of product information, translations and digital assets for publication across all channels in up to 25 languages. The solution needed to support:
  • Clear and concise mapping of the structures and relations of complex combination products
  • Synchronous transfer of core data from the SAP system
  • Maintenance and management of unstructured and product-independent text modules
  • Automated translation processes in cooperation with Across
  • Automated creation and updating of print publications in more than 20 languages
  • Transparent versioning of all documents
  • Flexible configuration of data exports (i.e., Excel, web, shop, tools, SAP, etc.)
  • Automated provisioning of digital datasheets for the external sales force via an intuitive portal

Belimo selected Contentserv PIM and DAM as the central end-to-end solution that would cover its product and media data management, its multichannel output across the globe, and the seamless supply of product documentation to its external sales staff. Contentserv PIM and DAM allowed Belimo to provide its publication channels with high-quality product data, and rich and vibrant digital assets accessible to all authorized users.

Contentserv’s Translation Manager and integrated system, Across, streamlined the translation processes and workflows, while communication with external translators also became more efficient and convenient.

In terms of publishing, a combination of Contentserv’s Dynamic Publishing Connector and InBetween together enabled Belimo to fully automate the production of datasheets from data merged in the PIM system. Additionally, Contentserv’s Publication Manager helped map the visual planning of large-scale catalogs and publications.

Lastly, Contentserv’s integrated rights and workflow management ensured efficient access and task management for the distributed teams and guaranteed perfectly controlled production processes with no loss of time or media discontinuity. An intuitive self-service portal was set up for the field sales force, enabling any users without training to access product information and media assets independent of location and time.

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Gain

Automated workflows enable instant updated and global reach

Today, Belimo continues to deliver up-to-date and consistent product information across all channels, quickly and cost- effectively. The centralized solution has enabled Belimo to manage product information once, and distribute it across all channels, making necessary changes without worrying about duplicates and inaccurate information. Contentserv’s Translation Manager has also allowed Belimo to automate print publications for 20 languages resulting in accelerated time-to-market for its international brands.

Belimo also achieved its goal of providing different departments, branch offices, and external service providers with quick, secure, and simultaneous access to the central system while ensuring transparent versioning of all documents. Additionally, all authorized users can independently access current product data and datasheets.

The Contentserv PIM solution provides great flexibility in data generation, with users managing an impressive amount of data (2,400,000 attributes, 24,000 references, and 172,000 ean/UPC barcodes). Export procedures integrated into the solution speed up the automatic creation and editing of catalogs and web pages, allowing Lacoste to export up to 40,000 items daily. Users can then assemble images, technical attributes, and prices by simply dragging and dropping them onto dynamic models subject to pre-established rules.

Other significant advances include the ease of creating new attributes such as information that allows consumers to refine their choices and maximize their shopping experience. This process used to take several months and now takes only 2 or 3 weeks. Furthermore, as fashion is governed by seasons, it is necessary to reconfigure entire offerings every six months. The Contentserv PIM solution allows Lacoste to maintain the attributes (about 300 per product) of the models that remain on sale, and thus, avoids rebuilding the catalog from scratch.

Facts and Figures

CHF 3.7 bn (2020) Annual Sales


Food Industry


Worldwide


Dairy products and vegan alternatives

Facts and Figures

15,000+ SKUs


bdigital assets


Online Print


Wholesale Supermarkets

Facts and Figures

Industrial Food Service


Business Partner SDZeCom GmbH


Contentserv solution: PIM & DAM


Contentserv solution: SaaS

Why (How) Belimo uses Contentserv

  • PIM and DAM: Centralized product and media data management for global multichannel output.
  • Translation Manager and Across: Streamlined translation processes and workflows.
  • Dynamic Publishing Connector and InBetween: Automated datasheet production from PIM data.
  • Publication Manager: Visual planning of catalogs and publications.
  • Rights and Workflow Management: Efficient task management and controlled access for distributed teams.

However, with a fast-moving ready-to-wear market, the colossal manual entry of different product data (6,000 color references per season, assortment tracking, product feature updates in different languages, etc.) became extremely challenging. Furthermore, primarily using spreadsheets for this purpose was very time-consuming and error-prone. These files quickly became archaic in the context of Lacoste’s digital transformation and they would often contain numerous data entry errors, which resulted in a slow time-to-market that was harmful to sales. Another major challenge involved variable data such as collections, which must be renewed every six months and had to take into account the difference between the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

Therefore Lacoste needed to adopt a tool that would streamline the creation and distribution of its product catalogs on both its merchant and marketplace sites. This made it clear that Product Information Management (PIM) was the right solution to quickly enrich databases, accurately aggregate content, and shorten time-to-market, all while increasing agility and flexibility.

Ready? Here you grow.

Get in touch with one of our Contentserv experts to discover the Product Experience Cloud.