Case Study: Manufacturing Company Automates Websites and Catalog Production

The Cosnet Industrie Group is the leader in France in the manufacturing and trading of equine and bovine equipment. The group consists of four companies, each one specialized in a sector of activity. Beyond the French market, Cosnet Industrie is also present in several European countries such as Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom.

Business Needs

Each specialization had a very large number of products that needed to be maintained and made accessible to all necessary people. Everything was being done manually including websites, catalog production, and prospectus resellers. The data was being maintained in various locations. This situation was causing confusion and inconsistencies in information. There was no interaction between ERP, websites, and print catalogs. The product catalogs had to be made manually by an employee. All of this became very time-consuming and inefficient leading to lost time which could have been used on more important business initiatives.

Translating materials into different languages required the translator to work on excel files and copy and paste the material into websites and catalogs. This method was inefficient and often lead to version control errors and thus a display of misinformation. Critical business information was being transmitted around the organization in the form of PDF, Word, and Excel files with no common source to store the information.

Pimcore Solution

Through consultation by DATASOLUTION, Cosnet Industrie was advised to use Pimcore to solve their business needs. With Pimcore’s implementation, several features and functionalities were made available including:

Centralized and accessible data for all systems and services
Updated content in real-time and made available to all necessary people
Availability of products in real time on the website and in all systems (ERP, PIM, CMS)
WebToPrint open to resellers for the design and ordering of their brochures.
4 eCommerce websites, powered by Prestashop, synchronized with Pimcore
Products access for translators
Automatic Indesign layout for Print publications
Excel and/or XML global export (all data including tree, fields collections and assets)

Business Results

With a new and efficient tool in place, Cosnet Industrie saw many benefits in their business. Firstly, with the availability of product data in a single-source, employees could find what they needed quickly and be assured that the data is accurate and up-to-date. Because the solution was user-friendly, all data could be easily updated and implemented in real-time.

The solution also significantly reduced the risk of error and spreading misinformation that was common in their former method of copying and pasting data into its destination. With that said, the website was always up-to-date which satisfied users and enhanced their business.

The web-to-print functionality significantly reduced the product time and enhanced the quality of the final catalog. Overall, this led to increased sales and revenue for Cosnet Industrie and they are greatly satisfied with Pimcore’s presence in their organization.