PB Swiss Tools and crossbase - precise product data management

PB Swiss Tools AG has been run as a family business by the fourth generation since 1878. The company is a manufacturer of hand tools that are 100% developed and produced in Switzerland. These include screwdrivers and torque tools as well as impact tools for the aerospace industry, the chemical industry, mechanical engineering and medical technology, among others. 12 million tools and instruments are manufactured annually at the Wasen im Emmental and Sumiswald sites. More than two thirds of these are exported to over 70 countries worldwide.

A customized PIM, MAM and cross-media solution was implemented for PB Swiss Tools based on the standard crossbase software. Over 3,000 articles are transferred from the ERP (Oracle) to the PIM with prices and master data such as ID number, EAN, weight, article number, etc. via the XML interface. In crossbase, the articles are classified in the product structure and technical features, keywords and product relationships are also maintained.

In order to be able to use the products in the print and online catalogs in a market-specific manner, the products are referenced in marketing-specific product views for the corresponding sales channels. These views serve as the basis for the print and online media and contain all marketing-specific product information.

The integrated MAM is used to manage and link product photos in different view variants, application photos, image photos, logos, etc. and to automatically generate other image formats using the graphics converter. Additional images, documents and videos are managed in a product-independent media structure and made available online via a media service.

In order to minimize the effort required for text maintenance and translations, structured texts are automatically generated from text components and features as well as enumeration texts from reusable document modules. Translations are carried out via a TMS interface to Trados. The print media are produced automatically with database support. This also includes language mix variants of the catalogs, which consist of modular product pages and editorial pages with a free layout.

The online catalog is supplied with services via the API server. In addition, Excel files are exported, which are compiled on a customer-specific basis using the XML or Excel configurator.