Success story
Westfalia: AI takes over the translation of product information
Westfalia Werkzeugcompany runs online stores in several European countries and manages its product information in Online Media Net (OMN). Since 2019, an AI service has handled translations directly in the PIM.
At a glance
Company
Westfalia Werkzeugcompany GmbH & Co. KG, Hagen, Germany
Industry
Specialist mail-order company for tools, electronics, home and garden, car accessories, agriculture and leisure
Solution
OMN with PIM, DAM, channel management and workflow; AI service AI Translate
Integrations
ERP (AS/400), web stores incl. Shopware 6, marketplaces
Operation
In Westfalia’s own data center
“The AI service is far superior to manual translation in terms of quality! I don’t need to make any statements about speed, because the translation takes place in real time – it doesn’t get any faster than that! The savings compared to conventional translation are also considerable! The artificial neural networks extend human capabilities and support the globalization of our business and customer interactions.”
Björn Strecker, Senior Project Leader & Head of DKT at Westfalia Werkzeugcompany GmbH & Co KG
Initial situation
Starting point
Before OMN
- Translations done manually or by external service providers
- Every receiving system had to maintain its own filter logic
- Item and image data in separate data streams
True to the motto “Westfalia… Always practical – Always there for you!”, Westfalia has been serving customers since 1923 and has been selling online since 1996. Complete and always up-to-date product information contributes to the success of its online stores.
Westfalia chose a PIM to gain data completeness and data control: the PIM is meant to decide, based on rules, which data goes to which channel – at the time already three store systems, two marketplaces and numerous online platforms.
Because Westfalia operates stores in several European countries, translating product information was to be automated as well. The first step focused on France and the Netherlands.
Project objectives
Goals
01
Automation
Translate product information automatically.
02
Internationalization
Initially for France and the Netherlands, with more countries to follow.
03
Process optimization
Automate translations as far as possible and shorten time to market.
The solution
Solution
Westfalia is a long-standing apollon customer and uses OMN to manage product information and distribute it to the relevant channels. The existing system was extended with the AI service AI Translate.
Central PIM
Master data comes from the ERP (AS/400); in OMN it is enriched and linked with images from the DAM. The PIM is set up for twelve languages.
Translate with one click
In the management view and in product search, one or more products can be selected and translated. Translation runs in the background via a connection to DeepL.
Rule-based distribution
OMN supplies the web stores of the individual countries and other channels. Since 2022, Westfalia has been running OMN 5, which also feeds the new Shopware 6 store.
In figures
1923
founded, online since 1996
12
languages set up in the OMN PIM (as of 2019)
Results
Results
Real-time translation
Product texts are translated without waiting time.
Quality and cost
Westfalia rates the quality higher than manual translation and saves considerably compared with conventional translation.
In use since 2019
The translation function has been running on the production system since October 2019.
Outlook
Outlook
After France and the Netherlands, more countries are to follow.
Success Story
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