Ampack and crossbase: synergy for digital efficiency

Ampack AG, based in Rorschach (Switzerland), is a leading provider of complete solutions for protecting the building envelope against steam, air, wind, water, noise and emissions. With locations in Germany, Austria, France and Italy, the products are distributed throughout Europe.

An individual PIM, MAM and cross-media solution with an OpaccERP® interface was implemented for Ampack on the basis of the standard crossbase software. The XML interface is used to transfer and update several hundred articles from the ERP system every day, including their assignment to the product hierarchy. This includes all PIM-relevant commercial master data, item status and prices.

Technical and marketing-oriented product information is added during the data maintenance process. The inheritance concept is used here, as a lot of information such as properties, accessories, texts and images can be maintained directly on the product. They are therefore valid for all article variants. It is important here that the properties can be maintained in the context of the test standards with nominal values and tolerances. These values can be automatically linked to a standard text using a formula.

The integrated MAM is used to manage and link product photos, application photos, pictograms and graphics as well as various document types. The graphics converter enables the automated conversion of source files into predefined target formats. To minimize the effort required for text maintenance, texts are automatically generated from assigned document modules. Similar formulations are standardized in order to achieve a high level of reusability. In order to be able to use articles as standard articles in print and online catalogs, these are referenced in marketing-specific product views for the respective country and brand-specific sales channels.

The aim is to produce all print media, in particular the catalog, database-supported and automated with Adobe InDesign. The data for the online catalog on the website is made available via an API interface. This concerns the navigation structure, the article list with the product information and the above-mentioned links. In addition, the information is made available for internal use by all employees in MS Office.