PIM with Print Generation and ERP and Shop Integration

User Report by Electro Retailer OBETA

Who is OBETA?

OBETA is an electrical wholesaler with a product range of over a million items and more than 35,000 items directly from stock. More than 20,000 companies from the electrical trade and specialized trade buy from OBETA in Germany.

What does OBETA use the ANTEROS Software for?

OBETA uses ANTEROS for the central and efficient maintenance of its product data and images (PIM, MAM). On the other hand, the product data is regularly transferred to the online shop via an interface and the print catalog is generated 100% automatically with the ANTEROS print engine.

ANTEROS at OBETA

Why do They need a Printed Catalog?

Even in the age of digitalization, OBETA‘s customers in the trades still require not only an online store but also a printed catalog that they can take with them to the construction site. In the first years of the 21st century, OBETA was still creating their catalog using templates, which meant they had to spend several weeks reworking it in the typesetting system InDesign. Nowadays, they can output the catalog with ANTEROS at the push of a button. ANTEROS can now even create scanner lists with an excerpt of certain products at the push of a button throughout the year. Even though the catalog and the excerpts are 100% automatically generated, the layout of the catalog is anything but simple. In the following, the complexity of the catalog and the automation will be explained in further detail.

“ANTEROS is a process optimizer for OBETA: we have been able to massively reduce time and personnel expenses thanks to this software. Yet we have noticeably improved the quality of our print catalog and dramatically reduced the error rate. ANTEROS offers simple, intuitive maintenance of the data, which is why product management now does this task alone and no longer interacts with marketing. This division of tasks means a significant reduction in risk for OBETA.”

OBETA
David Pfender,
Head Of Marketing at OBETA

OBETA's Complex Print Catalog is Created 100% Automatically with ANTEROS

Attractive First Page of each Chapter

Each chapter starts with a table of contents, which is also generated fully automatically. The chapter-specific background and tab photos can be entered easily via web form. All subchapters with the current page numbers are generated on a box in the respective chapter color.

Change Colors and Columns Online

The OBETA layout requires a different color for each catalog chapter and, depending on the data density, the data is printed in two or more columns. Until now, this had to be firmly anchored in print templates. Now OBETA staff can easily change this at any time via ANTEROS web forms.

Stretching Columns

For OBETA‘s layout, it is important that the columns are not only flush at the top, but also at the bottom if possible, in order to achieve a harmonious print image. In the past, this required days of moving data in InDesign. In ANTEROS, this can also be done automatically. The print engine uses two generation passes for this: in the first pass, the data in the columns is set according to fixed distances, and in the second pass, distances are then stretched proportionally to maximum distances so that the data is flush at the bottom in most cases.

Layout according to your needs

Sprinkle in Ads

OBETA can use web forms to specify whether a new column should be added before a product family. If the preceding column is fairly empty or if there are still large gaps at the bottom after column stretching, then ANTEROS automatically places the ad that fits in terms of space and product category from a pool of ads specified by OBETA. Previously, this work also had to be done manually as a final step.

Online Seminar: Product Information Management (PIM)

In the wake of digitization, product data is becoming increasingly important. Enjoy growth thanks to high-quality product data. PIM software supports you in the efficient maintenance of product data, in achieving high data quality, and in outputting centrally maintained data to other channels (print, web, app, and exports).

 

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Directories are also Automatically Generated with ANTEROS

Manufacturer Directory Automatically Generated

In the past, the manufacturer directory had to be entered completely by hand. With ANTEROS it is generated fully automatically without the need to enter additional data. For the product pages, OBETA specifies for each category or product which manufacturer supplies it - since the logo is placed there. While the print engine generates the product pages, it stores manufacturer product family page numbers for the manufacturer directory and then displays this information at the end of the catalog, grouped by manufacturer and each with the manufacturer logo above it.

Manufacturer Directory
Manufacturer and keyword index from the OBETA catalog are automatically generated with ANTEROS, also suitably reduced for the catalog extracts

Automatically Generated Keyword Index

With the cached data product family page number, an alphabetical product index is also generated fully automatically by ANTEROS at the end of the catalog following a different grouping.

“With ANTEROS, we can systematize our data very well and thus maintain it much more efficiently. ANTEROS has saved us an enormous amount of work in the layout design of the print catalog. While it used to take us six months to create the catalog with our templatebased print system, this can be done in just 6 weeks thanks to ANTEROS. We mainly focus on data maintenance and have experienced a time saving of 75% - even though we had previously partially automated the process. In addition, the print generation of a complete catalog with ANTEROS takes less than one hour, whereas it took more than 30 hours using our previous system.”

OBETA
Christopher Adler,
Marketing at OBETA

Maintain Data Efficiently for Print Catalogs and Online Store

Maintain Product Data Efficiently in the PIM

At its core, ANTEROS has a product database (PIM) to maintain a company's product data centrally and efficiently, and a media database (MAM, DAM) to manage images, documents and videos systematically and in a time-saving manner. Basic data from other systems can be transferred via interfaces.

Connection to ERP and Online Shop

Master data from the ERP system is imported into ANTEROS on a daily basis via interfaces, and the information from ANTEROS that has been enriched with marketing data is transferred to OBETA‘s online store. This allows OBETA to maintain its product data centrally and flexibly.

Software Demo of the PIM System ANTEROS - Convince Yourself!

Are you planning on introducing a PIM system in order to maintain your product data much more efficiently. Are you interested in what is possible with the technologically leading PIM system ANTEROS and how far you can optimize your processes with it? Would a PIM system with automated print generation and ERP and shop integration be of interest to you? Then request your free software demo now and try it out for yourself!

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