Case Study: Pimcore as an Expert Database for Finding Analog Products in 2-Million-Positions Catalog
Association of 14 medium-sized electrotechnical companies created to jointly solve common issues in logistics, IT, etc.
RAEC has consolidated catalog of 2 million positions. Each position has dozens or even thousands analogs and equal number of pseudo-analogs. To offer customer a replacement of chosen product sales manager has to be a technical expert and have a knowledge of all the catalog, what is almost impossible. kt.team used Pimcore and its Directories to create easy-to-use instrument that finds replacement products in 5 seconds.
Customer Details
Customer
- Russian Association of Electrotechnical Companies (RAEC)
Industry
Products Used
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Customer Key Facts
1 500
Mio. Euro Turnover 2 000 000
Products Challenge
RAEC needed an instrument to upgrade assortment knowledge and technical expertise for all sales manager to the level of most skilled ones
RAEC companies have hundreds of sells managers who deal with thousands customers daily and participate in hundreds of tenders. To be effective they need to be able to choose from vast assortment products that answer customers’ specification and are most marginal for company, and even if specific position if out of stock they need to be able to offer an adequate replacement.
But to do it, sales manager has to know all the assortment by heart and be a highly qualified technical specialist, that is extremally rare case.
RAEC needed to eliminate the gap in knowledges between managers via IT solution so that the newbie could be almost as effective as a skilled sales manager.
Solution
Pimcore as a database for all the products, Pimcore Directories to set the rules for finding product analogs in catalog
The kt.team implemented Pimcore into the RAEC infrastructure common to all member companies of the association. The entire assortment was divided into 14 product categories. Together with RAEC, the developer worked out an algorithm for selecting analogues for one of the categories (lighting equipment) on the basis of Pimcore Directories. The Directory contains the key fields, their allowable values and deviations.
The rules were created over several iterations, with the participation of electrical engineers from RAEC.
Now modify the Directory that has already been created with rules and create another Directories on its basis for other categories. Since Pimcore is a low-code platform, this will require almost no developer involvement.
Results
Any manager finds a replacement products and analogs in 5 seconds regardless to his own expertise level
Now the speed of selecting similar equipment does not depend on the skills of the sales manager. If the necessary quantity is not in stock, or a less expensive or more marginal option can be offered, the manager will see these options in the selection results and be able to offer them to the customer.
The process is automated and requires only entering the desired values into the fields: the search results appear on the sales manager's work screen within 5 seconds. Previously, the search for analogues took up to several days, depending on the manager's qualifications.