Product Information Worldwide in Control

Vogel's

Since 1973, Vogel's has been a market leader in audio, video, and multimedia accessories. A support or stand from Vogel’s for a TV, speaker, tablet, or projector on the wall, ceiling, or floor means choosing optimal use of your equipment. The products are distributed worldwide.

Inriver PIM Solution

The Product Information Management (PIM) solution previously used by Vogel's was only used to provide product data to the existing CMS environment and was regularly unstable. The stable inriver PIM solution now implemented by XSARUS supplies product information to numerous other channels besides the CMS platform. Inriver is mainly used by Vogel’s product managers. The link from the ERP feeds inriver, after which the product managers complement the product data and provide specifications, commercial texts, and translations thereof. The data is distributed to the own CMS environment, a data feed manager, and a Bynder DAM system. Inriver is also used to generate leaflets via a custom-developed document generator and more comprehensive brochures via an XML export.

The PIM system is now being used for what a PIM is supposed to be: a reliable central source for all product data.

What is enormously important to us is a stable environment for our product data. An environment that can feed our main channels worldwide. With inriver, we now have a mature and stable package that we can rely on.

Ronald Boele, Head of Products & Innovation Vogel’s

Product Leaflets Automatically Generated

To provide customers with product information in an organised manner, a custom document generator has been developed within inriver to prepare leaflets. The generator sends an XML dataset with formatting instructions in XSL-FO from inriver to a FOP service. The result is created as a resource in inriver. This is done for all products known in inriver and in multiple languages. With every change to a product, a new leaflet is created that overwrites the old one. The leaflets are stored within inriver but are also automatically sent to the DAM system.

The Digital Product Passport in action

The product leaflet generation is also the starting point for the realisation of the Digital Product Passport (DPP) at a later stage. This is a digital document with information about the lifecycle of the products. It is becoming increasingly important in the context of transparency, sustainability, circular economy and regulations.

Vogel’s has embraced the DPP with their so-called ‘ecosheets’ and the inriver PIM system plays a crucial role in this. Just like the product leaflets, the ecosheets with information about materials, production and recycling are automatically generated in inriver and visible on the product detail pages. Curious about the whole story behind the realisation of the Digital Product Passport at Vogel’s?

Digital Assets Collected

To grant external parties access to the aforementioned product leaflets, DPP ecosheets and other data, it is desirable to have a portal in which this can be achieved. At Vogel’s, the Digital Asset Management platform is active for this purpose. Images are uploaded and then through the connector developed by XSARUS, they end up in inriver via an API. Based on the filename, the image is linked to the correct SKU, and several fields in inriver are filled, derived from the filename. inriver then sends back some data about the linked product. Third parties have access to the DAM system. This way, they can download the aforementioned leaflets and images, among other things.

Throughout the entire implementation, we were kept well informed of the planning and progress by the involved consultants from XSARUS. We worked closely together in sprints with a broad kick-off beforehand for the entire project team. Good preparation in such an intensive project is extremely important. This ensured that we stayed neatly within the planning. Objectives and expectations were clear in advance, and the communication went well. Very nice to be so well relieved of worries by your supplier in such an intensive and important process.

Ronald Boele, Head of Products & Innovation Vogel’s

Content Syndication via Channable

Creating data feeds for, among others, parties is done via data feed management tool Channable. Previously, many actions had to be performed manually to prepare the data feeds for the different parties. The syndication connector developed by XSARUS now ensures that employees at Vogel’s can easily generate feeds fed from inriver.

Very nice to be so well relieved of worries by your supplier in such an intensive and important process.

Ronald Boele, Head of Products & Innovation Vogel’s

Successful Collaboration

During the pre-implementation phase, XSARUS assisted Vogel's in creating a comprehensive business case. A lot had already been invested in the previous PIM solution, which unfortunately did not fully meet Vogel's expectations. Therefore, jointly developing a strong case was an important part of the process. Once the entire organisation was convinced of the need for a stable PIM system, the implementation began. Vogel's and XSARUS worked closely together during this. A pleasant cooperation was established.

At present, the technical implementation at Vogel's is complete. But PIM is never finished. Certainly not for a forward-thinking organisation like Vogel's. The pleasant cooperation that has been established will hopefully endure for many years to come.