Satisfy Customers with 4 million Products via Catalog, Online Shop and Point of SaleThe enterprise catalog solution using the example of the publishing group Weltbild GmbH

CONTENTSERVMARKETING POWER. FAST‘N EASY.

CONTENTSERV MARKETING POWER. FAST‘N EASY. CONTENTSERVMARKETING POWER. FAST‘N EASY.

The Customer The Augsburg based company Weltbild is one of the largest internet, book and media retail companies in Europe. Weltbild also functions as a publisher. Furthermore, the group comprises the retail brands Weltbild, Jokers, KIDOH and bücher.de The bookstores of the brands Hugendubel, Weltbild and Jokers are also part of the corporate net-work. Weltbild is one of the leading groups in the German mail-order business. The internet shop Weltbild.de occupies second place in online trade and was awarded fi rst place in the German Online-Han-dels Award in 2014, an honor that illustrates the company’s excellent customer service. Weltbild markets more than 4 million of its own and third-party products such as books, music, DVDs, eBooks, software, games, electronic gadgets, toys and gift items. The company is pursuing a multichannel marketing strategy, i.e. print catalogs, online shops and a close-knit network of stationary bookstores that closely work together. In its role as a B2B mail order business, Weltbild is facing the challenges of technological change and the continual merging of output channels. Moreover, customers today expect relevant and con-sistent product information in all media and at all times. Weltbild produces all advertising material for 3 brands in 3 countries in-house. As many as 3 catalogs comprising up to 320 pages are pub-lished each week. A total of 20,000 pages are published per year. In addition, approximately 2,000 further print advertising products are produced in close coordination with the parallel online campaigns.

The Requirements After 10 years, Weltbild’s previous catalog solution had reached its limits. In order to be able to attend to current market requirements effi ciently and fl exibly and to remain viable for the future, a new sys-tem-supported solution had to be found. A catalog production system that can be completely integrated in the existing IT system landscape was supposed to make the supply of the complex print channel consi-derably more effi cient while also saving time and money. The require-ments for the system were as follows: Transparency for every step of the catalog production; deadline reliability regarding the publication, highest work effi ciency in product planning, layout and production, continuous quality assurance and maximum fl exibility for production, in particular with regard to varying catalogs for different countries, and last but not least last-minute data updates and variable product planning.

The Task � Projection and introduction of a central web-based catalog produc-tion system

� Effi cient and stable system: for more than 360 users, including 160 program managers and 100 graphic designers and copywriters

� Integrated, fl exible workfl ow management for the complex coordi-nation, planning and correction processes

� “Control station” for guaranteeing transparency on the status of each document

� Parallel visual product planning via the program management and graphics department

� Automated transfer of catalogs to other country contexts � Integration of the prepress stage � Media-neutral product data base, product information and asset

management - as the basis for the online channels (more than 2 terabyte of product information, image and media data, templates)

� Central management of image orders for a seamless integration of external service providers

� Complete integration of SAP, CRM, SAP ERP/PS, SAP-BW

WEB-BASED

CENTRAL CATALOG PRODUCTION SYSTEM KPSSYSTEMS AND USERS

OUTPUT

MIM

USERS

PROGRAMMANAGER

GRAPHIC

DESIGNERS

DTP-CLIENT

SAP

CATALOGS ADVERTISING

MATERIAL

DISTRIBUTION

ONLINE MEDIA

MCMMCMMIMMIMMarketing InformationManagement

Media-neutral:

Product master dataMarketing textsImages/GraphicsMedia data/Templates

MCMMultichannel Management

Central and transparent:

Planning of advertising media and materialGraphics/art work Correc-tions/release Adaptation to specifi c country contexts Online coordination

FILESHARE

CONNECTOR

Our SolutionThe seamless integration of the CONTENTSERV solution in the existing system landscape was one of the basic requirements for the implementation of the catalog production system (short KPS) at Weltbild. All marketing-relevant information and advertising objects from the surrounding enterprise systems have to be available for the catalog production – efficiently and always up-to-date. For example: if changes are made to a price in the leading ERP system, this infor-mation has to be synchronized with the catalog production system without delay. All product information is now centrally compiled in the catalog pro-duction system where it is edited in a structured manner before being made available for use in the catalog. Page and product planning, finishing touches using the relevant media data, the final output of printable data at the push of a button and the transfer of this data to the print service provider all take place in one central system. Work-flows for ordering and storing images from external image providers are also integrated. A positive side-effect is the simultaneous supply of online channels with consistent and central product information. The central, media-neutral database for the Marketing Information Management is the supporting pillar of the catalog production system. It is based on CONTENTSERV’s multichannel-capable Product Infor-mation Management (PIM) and Media Asset Management (MAM). Product, image and media data as well as InDesign templates for product structure, page layout and page ranges, and even entire cata-logs are provided via this one system. The central advertising material production takes place on the basis of these templates. In addition, the integrated control station visualizes the complete page planning for catalogs and advertising material and provides the management department with continuous transparency on the progress of the publication. Meanwhile, the program coordinators are provided with the integ-rated Whiteboard Editor for quick and simple product planning on each page. Products are planned graphically via drag & drop on vir-tual pages. Every Whiteboard file points to an InDesign layout file, which is rendered complete with the relevant data in the final step. This way the InDesign server is not needed during the planning stage. Nevertheless, intermediate statuses of InDesign files can be rendered at any time. The planning continues to take place conveniently and efficiently in the Whiteboard Editor and any modifications and cus-tomizations are safely adopted in the layout data. The planning infor-mation is also forwarded to the scheduling and controlling systems to ensure continual transparency over all marketed products. The CONTENTSERV Workflow Management centrally, transparently and automatically controls all processes of cooperation between internal as well as external users across the entire system. All pro-duction processes are thus considerably streamlined and simplified which leads to high cost savings - for example, during the prepress stage.

Customers‘ Benefits � Significantly faster time-to-market � Full transparency over planning and status of print production � Parallel layout and product planning from one central location � Flexibly configurable workflow for any process � Company-wide reduction of costs during prepress stage � Full transparency on campaigns, also for online sector � High integration capacity allows further extension of the system � Multichannel-compatible, i.e. supports today’s and tomorrow’s

marketing

Planning view in the Whiteboard Editor with correction notes

The catalog page as InDesign document in the local InDesign client incl. notes

Automatic adoption of changes in planning - also in the InDesign Client

“CONTENTSERV enables us to produce our catalogs in a highly efficient manner. At the same time, this system guarantees transparency for all corporate divisions as well as a flexible integration in today’s and tomorrow’s proces-ses and system landscapes.”Arnim Roth

Manager Publishing Systems Verlagsgruppe Weltbild GmbH

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