Challenge
The starting point of the project was that LEDVANCE had a system environment with many different commercial systems. This best-of-breed approach was no longer strategic for the customer, and the goal was to find a holistic solution that covered all issues. These included: SAP connectivity, introduction of a PIM and DAM, website generation via CMS, and the ability to automatically export products and product data to third-party systems. In a preliminary analysis, asioso introduced the customer to the open source platform Pimcore as a single source publishing solution and explained its advantages.
Among the biggest challenges of this project were the complex product structures that had grown over the years and the interfaces to various third-party providers. There were also very complex import as well as export rules that had to be taken into account. The DAM was also completely adapted to the customer's requirements and optimized for collaboration with external service providers.
Solution
The project was implemented using the open source platform Pimcore. asioso introduced the PIM on the one hand and ensured structured data modeling on the other. In a conception phase , the product data structures were analyzed in order to then transfer them from the original system to Pimcore and optimize them in the same process. The same was done for the workflows and processes. asioso also implemented a DAM collaboration platform for managing images, videos, documents, etc.. For this, the Pimcore DAM frontend was taken as a basis and extended accordingly. The customer can manage its files internally and also has the option of sharing them with external agencies and employees so that they can also work in the system.
Furthermore, interfaces to SAP were implemented. This has the advantage that fully automated products come from SAP and are created in Pimcore. Also the content migration of all websites of LEDVANCE were implemented in the new CMS of Pimcore. Furthermore, various export functionalities for the product data were created. This allows editors to specify exactly which data they want to export in a targeted manner. This data is then made available to external partners and systems via API access.
The following systems were replaced:
DAM ⇒ Pixelboxx
CMS ⇒ FirstSpirit
PIM ⇒ Stibo
The very complex user workflows and data structures that had grown over the years were then transferred from the third-party systems to Pimcore. The result is a central system that manages all languages of the website, as well as all languages of the products and assets.
The system is hosted on Microsoft Azure. In this area, too, asioso supported the customer in setting up the entire software architecture.
"With open source, agile project management and cloud deployment, we as a company entered a lot of "new territory" and that with a very complex project. Thanks to the professional and experienced support from asioso, the project not only became a success but the "new territory" quickly became our new home."
Florian Reiter, Head of Data Management
Benefit
- Cost reduction (saving on licensing costs and interfaces, introduction of open source technologies)
- No interfaces or interfaces reduced to the minimum
- Significant reduction in system architecture complexity
- Better Time-to-Market
- All systems and themes that are needed are bundled in Pimcore
- Simple backend for editors
LEDVANCE is one of the world's leading suppliers in general lighting for professional lighting users and end consumers with a comprehensive portfolio of LED luminaires, advanced LED lamps, smart home and smart building intelligent and connected solutions, and traditional lighting products.
Originating from OSRAM's general lighting division, the company is now owned by the Chinese lighting company MLS Co., LTD. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries and business activities in over 140 countries, LEDVANCE has excellent global market access based on trusting customer relationships built up over decades and a powerful sales network.
