Niko responds faster with Dynamic Data Publishing
Everyone has Niko products in their home. Known for its switchgear, home automation and detectors, this company from Sint-Niklaas has been operating in Europe and beyond for more than 100 years. Niko sells more than 5,000 products through wholesalers, DIY and construction material shops in several European countries and manages a wide range of product information. To further optimise data quality, the publication process of datasheets, catalogues and packaging was checked out in detail by Catena Company.
25 000 data sheets in one night
To start with, Niko provided Catena Company with a nice challenge: generating 25 000 datasheets in one night. Niko had previously worked with an automated publishing flow, but still came up against limitations. The management of product data was certainly not the issue because all the information was already centrally managed in a Product Information Management (PIM) system.
Catena Company provided far-reaching automation with Dynamic Data Publishing: the DDP suite was linked to the PIM and Catena created the required InDesign templates. When a product specification changes, the new datasheet is automatically generated.
All kinds of commercial tools
For catalogues and price lists, Catena Company also presented ample time and efficiency gains. By eliminating a significant part of the manual graphic design work, the turnaround time for the production of a catalogue was reduced from 19 to 12 weeks, including 6 weeks of pre-press and printing. For instance, all the layout and data processing was automated in the DDP Suite. This allows product and price information to be immediately presented in the correct layout in PDF and InDesign, without the intervention of a graphic designer.
In addition, the DDP Suite was used to create the packaging for the retail market. For ecological reasons, Niko decided to switch from plastic to cardboard packaging. An important requirement was that the packaging had to contain different types of information by product type. Due to the specific shapes of the packaging and the limited printable area, this still required a lot of manual correction work in the past. The fully automatic process in the DDP-Suite saves a lot of time and costs, and ensures a consistent look-and-feel of the products on the shelves. This definitely enhances the branding of the Niko brand.
Data stewards keep the finger on the pulse
The implementation of the DDP Suite, linked to the PIM system, saves the graphics staff at Niko a lot of repetitive manual work. They can now spend more time on more value-added tasks. The PIM system is managed by two data stewards. They ensure that the data is organised well in the system and, in collaboration with Catena Company, create the various touchpoints: catalogues, data sheets, price lists and packaging. Thanks to the DDP Suite, their work was also simplified and optimised. The same goes for the team of data specialists who keep the data up to date and guarantee that the various touchpoints state the correct product information.
The DDP Suite allows data stewards and marketers to work more efficiently. They were happy to see that the changes were quick and painless. To make real strides in a publishing flow at a company like Niko, it is necessary to ask critical questions from the start. Thanks to the excellent cooperation with Catena Company, this was effectively done.
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Niko responds faster with Dynamic Data Publishing
Niko sells more than 5,000 products through wholesalers, DIY and construction material shops in several European countries and manages a wide range of product information. To further optimise data quality, the publication process of datasheets, catalogues and packaging was checked out in detail by Catena Company.These blogs might interest you
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