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/ Success Stories / Coltène

Coltène and crossbase:
All Data Up to Date

Coltène uses crossbase.pim as an efficient PIM and cross-media solution for automated product communication and media production.

"With crossbase, all information on each product is in one central location. This guarantees that the content is up-to-date in all output channels - an essential criterion for us in the medical sector."

Michael Riener

Creative Director and Manager DTP, Coltène/Whaledent AG

Coltène/Whaledent AG is a leading international company in the development, manufacture and sale of dental consumables and small appliances. The Swiss Coltène AG and the American Whaledent Inc. merged in 1990. The head office is in Altstätten (CH). State-of-the-art production facilities are located in Switzerland, Germany, the USA and Brazil, employing over 1,200 people.

Coltène/Whaledent AG

The company logo of Coltène/Whaledent AG

Contact:

René Wieczorek

Manager Marketing IT Backbone Systems

Phone: +41 71 757 5418

rene.wieczorek@coltene.com

A customized PIM and cross-media solution was implemented for Coltène based on the crossbase standard software. All items, including product structure, prices and around 15 MARA fields per item, are continuously transferred via the SAP PIM interface. The so-called article group, which groups article variants with the same form, plays an important role in marketing-specific communication. A lot of product information is maintained in the article group and passed on to the articles.


The integrated image database is used to manage product photos (packshot), application photos, illustrations etc. and the graphics converter automatically generates other image formats. Similarly, product texts are classified and linked to the article group and the article (product description, feature text, claim text ...) as well as media-specific texts (headlines, links, title, description ...) for the print and online channels. The translation itself is agency-based on the basis of a TMS interface (Across).


In order to be able to use products in the printed catalogs and on the website, these are referenced in marketing-specific product views for the corresponding sales channels. In addition, product-independent media assets are maintained via a media structure for the Media Center. The aim is to produce the five segment catalogs in around five country-language combinations and several hundred brochures in around 10 to 20 languages in a database-supported and automated process. Some of these media are several thousand pages long. The layout is flow frame-oriented with height-variable tables. A special feature is the print control in interaction with SAP, which is mapped via a print type number. The website (Typo 3, MySQL) is connected directly to the crossbase database via the API server. The product section (online catalog) and the media center are implemented externally by the agency.