The medical technology company KARL STORZ was founded in Tuttlingen in 1945 and is an international leader in endoscopy. The family-run company, now in its third generation, employs 8,300 people in 44 countries worldwide - 3,000 of them at the Tuttlingen site alone. The portfolio now includes more than 15,000 products for human and veterinary medicine. KARL STORZ stands for visionary design, precision craftsmanship and clinical efficacy. In addition to Tuttlingen and Neuhausen ob Eck, production sites are also located in Schaffhausen and Widnau (Switzerland), Tallinn (Estonia) as well as Charlton and Goleta (USA).

A PIM, MAM and cross-media solution was implemented for KARL STORZ based on the crossbase.pim standard software. This was successfully validated and confirmed in accordance with the high medical device standards for production and quality-relevant processes (CSV).

 

The items are continuously imported with master data via a standard interface to the SAP ERP system. The newly imported items are classified in the product structure in crossbase. Technical features and product relationships are transferred or additionally maintained (e.g. scope of delivery, accessories and products for preparation).

The media elements, including photos in various views, brochures, instructions for the doctor, instructions for use and videos, are imported automatically and with meta data via the MAM interface to Censhare.

The products in the printed catalogs and online media are used in over 40 countries. To make this possible, marketing-specific product views and assortments are maintained for the corresponding sales channels. A special feature here is the illustration of the products in product categories and application-related so-called indications (diagnostic knee arthroscopy, refixation of the meniscus root, etc.).

The specialty-specific catalogs, which consist of product pages with a modular structure and editorial pages with a free layout, are database-supported and automatically produced with the crossbase.layout and Adobe InDesign. The layouter was also redesigned as part of this process. The data for the online media is provided via a REST API. Based on this, partner Intentive created a high-performance application with faceted search using the CMS OpenText and the Solr search engine.

People from marketing, product management, media production and translation management are involved in the process according to a finely tuned authorization system. Data maintenance is supported by workflow tasks and reporting.

KARL STORZ is currently introducing the Sales Information Service from crossbase for its "Deals Library". The aim is to enable national companies to access centrally maintained product information in order to use it in tenders and offers.

Read the interview with Dominik Kohler, Director Deals Desk - Global Sales Development at KARL STORZ, to find out what the Deals Library can do and how the project was implemented.