Thomas Kern
Herby Tessadri
Look back at the eCatalog Conference 2016 "Marketing meets Engineering"
St. Wendel, 25/04/2016: "Marketing meets Engineering" was the headline of this year's eighth eCatalog Conference. Cooperation partners crossbase, KiM, Plan Software and TraceParts invited participants to discussions, presentations and an exhibition to present interested manufacturers with sales-boosting solutions for product communication.
With over 110 attendees, the event in the pleasant surroundings of the Angel's Golfpark Hotel was a complete success. Everyone took away a lot of useful information from the presentations and the opportunity to chat to other delegates, and on the evening before the conference, they were entertained by a magician and balloon artist.
Open discussions with experts
The conference was opened the day before with a series of discussions. Discussions on the subject of "PIM – benefits, added values and areas of use" were moderated by crossbase and saw contributions from experts Martin Schreiber (fischer) and Gernot Leitner (KTM). The discussions touched on product communication requirements in the context of catalog, the Internet and tablet and in the context of country, language and sales channel.
Other topics included the consultation-intensive product relationships ("the many variants") and organizational matters ("the lack of resources"). As a result, all the participants realized that processes require standardization and automation and that this requires a database. The experts on hand provided useful tips for implementing the project.
Presentations by practitioners for practitioners
Four highly interesting presentations under the heading "By practitioners for practitioners" provided the participants with insight into the solutions available from the exhibitors. The speakers came from companies already using the exhibitors' technologies and were:
- Text...Paul Vahle GmbH & Co. KG (Plan Software GmbH, design and calculation of complete busbar systems with link to SAP)
- Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co. KG (KiM GmbH, 3D CAD visualization for the solution configurator)
- KTM AG (crossbase, a database for all sales channels)
- REIFF Technische Produkte GmbH (TraceParts, integration of CAD data in the online shop)
Exhibition of partner solutions
Here the participants had the opportunity to see the interesting functions for themselves and to talk with the customer advisers. The crossbase mediasolution GmbH stand showed the following new highlights:
- The API server with REST/JSON interface for linking to third-party systems, such as shop systems, portals, Sharepoint etc.
- The crossbase.web web front end with a brand new user interface design and extended functionalities for data maintenance
- The accessory configurator for KTM, which was produced from data based on the PIM with conflict and requirement rules which can be updated
