Automation of Declaration of Performance docs & more at Soudal

1750 documents in 27 different languages, what seemed like an impossible task is now an opportunity for Soudal thanks to the DDP Suite. Their integrated stack allows them to automate not only their DOP sheets, but also their technical sheets and labels. The result? Better internationalization of their offerings, less chance of errors and consistent...

In the construction sector, you have to be able to produce what is known as a Declaration of Performance for most products marketed in the EU and the UK. Such a DOP document contains information on product performance and must comply with legal provisions.

Soudal is a company dealing with this. They are responsible for the creation, publication and management of about 1,750 documents in 27 different languages! And we are only talking about DOP documents. Find out here how they got their content supply chain flow in order.

1750 documents in 27 different languages

Until recently, Soudal staff formatted all these documents in Word. A time-consuming and errorprone job, as it turned out. When a greater variety of products were put into circulation in even more countries, the complexity increased rapidly. The further digitisation of this process could save a lot of work.

The solution? Further digitization, which can save a lot of work. Although digitization brings challenges, the fixed structure of DOP documents actually offers opportunities. Thanks to strict rules and the use of templates, product information can easily be entered via tables. But automating this process is only half the story; collecting the right input and exporting error-free documents is just as important.

Integrated technology stack

TheDynamic Data Publishing Suite (DDPS) is now at the heart of their digitization. It ensures that InDesign templates are filled with data from the technology stack to generate DOP documents that are then published automatically.

The PIM or Product Information Management system organizes and manages the huge pool of data and synchronizes it with other applications in the technology stack. When a product specification changes, that change is immediately stored in the PIM and a new DOP for that product will automatically be published. DDPS then ensures that this document ends up in the right place, such as through the Content Management System (CMS) on the Web site, in the Digital Asset Management (DAM) or via e-mail to the right people.

DDPS takes the cumbersome work out of your hands, while a well-integrated PIM within the technology stack ensures the accuracy of all information.

More than DOP documents

Soudal discovered some valuable best practices while working with Catena Company and is now using DDPS for other publications. Technical sheets and labels for their well-known tubes are generated fully automatically, thanks to Catena Company’ seamless integration into their entire MarCom technology stack.

The integration of new technology is often delayed too long by companies because of the cost-benefit trade-off. It makes sense, because we have a natural resistance to disrupting existing processes, even if they are slow and error-prone. Moreover, each team often tries to solve problems on its own, so the bottleneck simply shifts to another department.

Integration of the technology stack is therefore an absolute must. This is inevitable for large organizations, but also pays off for smaller SMEs. Every company today needs to manage numerous publications, both for administrative and marketing & sales purposes.