Success story
Compass: catalogs and web store from one system
Water sports mail-order company Compass has been managing its print catalogs and web store with OMN since 2013. Product information and media data converge in one place and are output from there to all channels – as Creative Director Bettina Hilleke explained in an interview.
At a glance
Industry
Mail order for motor boat and sailing supplies, founded in 1979, independent and family-run
Range
over 30,000 products
Channels
print catalogs (over 6,000 pages per year) and web store
Solution
OMN – central product information and media data, digital workflows, automated catalog output
Partnership
joint project with apollon since 2013
“An important factor achieved with the new system is the improvement in data quality, as only one system is now used for maintenance and control.”
Bettina Hilleke, Creative Director, Compass
Initial situation
From a “mini PIM” to an omnichannel system
Before OMN
- Database focused on print
- Rapidly growing volume of product information and media data
- Print and web store needed to be managed more efficiently
Compass has been independent and family-run since its foundation in 1979; owner Michael Dehler manages the company together with his wife in the second generation. The first catalog in 1979 had 24 pages; at the time of the interview, the main catalog comprised over 450 pages. Customer care, personal advice on special orders and custom-made products, and a reliable ordering and delivery service form the basis of the business.
Buyers search worldwide for new products that can be offered at low prices through bulk purchases and direct imports. Proven products are constantly reviewed and improved in dialogue with customers and professional sailors; tests under tough conditions flow directly into product optimization. Compass regularly receives test-winner awards and also develops its own exclusive products. Managing Director Michael Dehler is a regatta sailor himself, and many employees are active water sports enthusiasts.
Compass had been using an electronic database since 2001 – at the time a kind of “mini PIM”. The focus was clearly on print, and a very small team was able to produce multilingual catalogs efficiently. Then the online store became much more important. Along with the number of products, the volume of high-quality product information and media data increased significantly.
Project objectives
What mattered to Compass
01
All channels in one system
Unite all departments and channels in one omnichannel system to manage print and online more efficiently.
02
Digital processes
Map as many processes as possible digitally to handle more extensive advertising materials and online ranges with the same number of employees.
03
Reuse data at any time
All data should be available and reusable at any time – for example, to fill the web store quickly.
04
Quality, security, speed
Improve data quality, ensure smooth output to all channels and produce more pages and advertising materials at increasing quality.
The solution
Central data management with OMN
In 2013, Compass and apollon launched a joint project to manage the print and online channels with Online Media Net. Since then, OMN has supported a large part of the company’s processes – from data maintenance to output in all channels.
Everything in one place
All product information and related assets converge in OMN. This organized data structure enables targeted output – even with high data volumes.
Web store and catalog from the same data
The web store is supplied from OMN via an interface. For print, catalog pages – including feature and order tables – are built automatically from OMN in Adobe InDesign; this output is continuously being developed further.
Purchasing on board
Even purchasing uses the software to manage the future product range.
Digital workflows
Processes are mapped digitally: the status of individual workflows or the entire production can be viewed at any time, and work processes can be streamlined continuously with the help of the software.
360-degree views
apollon creates 360-degree images of products for the web store and provides them via a lean process.
Moving forward with OMN 5
The solution has been migrated to OMN 5 with the new PIM.
In figures
30,000+
products in the range
6,000+
catalog pages per year
450+
pages in the main catalog
2013
start of the joint project
“In this way, individual activities, such as the maintenance of new article information, are directly interlinked, thus minimizing parallel or duplicate work.”
Bettina Hilleke, Creative Director, Compass
Results
What has improved in day-to-day work
Better data quality
Since only one system is used for maintenance and control, data quality has improved.
Less duplicate work
Activities such as maintaining new product information are directly interlinked, minimizing parallel and duplicate work.
Transparent production
The status of individual workflows and the entire production is visible at any time.
Fast to market
New products reach the web store quickly – with a range of over 30,000 products.
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