AVK Holding, one of the world’s leading valve manufacturers, manages product information for 50,000 SKUs across 20 websites in 28 languages. Their previous system posed significant challenges due to its inability to efficiently handle diverse product data types and languages.
The Challenge
AVK Group stored product data in a central database, while translations and marketing texts were kept in a CMS system that was not designed for such use. This setup led to poor performance, making it difficult to maintain, import, and export data. Additionally, generating data sheets and price lists required external assistance, adding to the complexity.
The Solution
To overcome these issues, AVK selected the Perfion Product Information Management (PIM) system for its integration with Dynamics NAV/AX and Sana Commerce, the platform for AVK’s online shops. Perfion’s built-in publishing module enables quick and easy generation of price lists and data sheets in the desired languages and formats.
With Perfion, AVK can manage product data centrally, feeding information directly to their websites, online shops, and various marketing channels. This includes:
- 20 websites in 28 languages: Product data is exported daily from Perfion to an API site, which forwards the data to the Sitecore CMS system.
- Online shops: Two shops based on Sana Commerce, closely integrated with Dynamics NAV, use Perfion for data enrichment and product navigation control.
- Price lists and data sheets: Perfion generates extensive price lists and thousands of PDF data sheets with detailed product information in multiple languages.
“Perfion is extremely suitable for versioning and language versioning, but what I like most is its flexibility. The ease of creating new fields and importing and exporting data gives us the ability to handle most things ourselves. When it comes to employee job satisfaction, Perfion has also been worth the investment. And it saves us time.”
– Rune Boa Nielsen, Project Manager, AVK Holding A/S
Benefits Realized
Implementing Perfion has delivered significant benefits to AVK:
- Enhanced Flexibility: Perfion allows easy creation of new fields and efficient data import/export, enabling AVK to handle most tasks internally.
- Increased Efficiency: Employees can generate reports and perform searches to get a complete overview of product data, reducing reliance on external consultants.
- Greater Employee Satisfaction: The ability to manage data independently has improved job satisfaction among AVK’s staff.
- Accurate Data Management: Perfion ensures high-quality product data is distributed across all platforms, maintaining consistency and accuracy.
Rune Boa Nielsen, Project Manager at AVK Holding, highlights the impact of Perfion: “With Perfion we can do things ourselves without support from external consultants, and therefore we can act faster. For example, we needed extra fields for filtering products. I could add them myself in half an hour, and the users could use them immediately afterward.”
About AVK Holding A/S
AVK Holding A/S is a global leader in the manufacturing of valves, hydrants, and accessories for water and gas distribution, sewage treatment, and fire protection. Headquartered in Denmark, AVK operates over 100 companies in 36 countries, employing more than 3,900 people worldwide.
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