Much has changed in the world of automotive accessory designing, engineering, and manufacturing in the past few years. Sales and after-sales of automotive parts have witnessed a surge in data usage across the horizontal and vertical value chains between suppliers, business partners, internal departments, and the end-customers.

The increasing importance of data and its management for the automotive accessory market cannot be undervalued, not only for production and technology but also for sales and marketing.

Accessory manufacturers that typically interact with a range of suppliers, service providers, and tier-two providers require a centralized data management platform to avoid discrepancies. Product information is no longer a mere summation of warranties and dimensions. Additionally, with a plethora of new automobile designs and regular launch of different models and brands, a new requirement has developed for sellers—to enlist compatible vehicles for each “custom-designed” product.

The role data accuracy and consistency plays in product catalog design is more critical than ever before. From general properties (product category, product group code, part number, part terminology) and product details (marketing, pricing, attributes) to fitment requirements and digital assets, the type and variety of information involved in the process is overwhelming. Manual consolidation or use of obsolete spreadsheet programs for handling all this information can cause a lot of redundant retrieval and maintenance work, often resulting in product data inconsistencies.

With a simple product information management (PIM) integration, a leading automotive accessory manufacturer was easily able to navigate these challenges.

Growth comes with its own set of challenges. A leading designer, manufacturer, and marketer of automotive accessories became all too familiar with this fact a few years ago. Offering more options and vehicle application coverage than any other brand on the market, this 50+ year old company was grabbing more and more of the market share with each passing year.

However, after years of organic growth as well as multiple acquisitions, the company was struggling with scattered data across several ERP systems in disparate sources. The organization was facing challenges in managing product information.

A variety of platforms were being used to manage these data assets which did not meet the Aftermarket Catalog Enhanced Standard (ACES)/ Product Information Exchange Standard (PIES) norms. As a result, the system lacked scalability in its ecommerce platform and significant manual effort was required for product creation, enrichment, and publishing to various output channels.

To solve these challenges, the company implemented Pimcore’s PIM solution, with the following results:

• By creating a single platform for managing product data and assets, the new system helped reduce redundancies and inefficiencies.
• The system was built to receive organized and unorganized product data automatically from various scattered sources, eliminating manual efforts required for data consolidation.
• It enabled the company to generate ACES/PIES compliant information for distribution across output channels and to suppliers. 

Since Pimcore’s PIM solution was integrated with various existing inbound data systems, it could also provide product data/assets for rendering on the front-end website.

What was the final impact? A centralized data source for the ecommerce platform, suppliers, and partners resulted in reduced time to market and improved productivity.

Source: The post originally published on SME