Vandemoortele is best known for its mayonnaise and frying oils, but they do so much more. As a food company, they deliver to almost all of Europe and they also have their own line in bakery products. With increasing regulations in the food sector, accurate and complete product data is crucial. To help them manage their product data, they needed a specialised partner. They found their way to Xplore Group’s competence centre Master Data Partners.
Vandemoortele used to exchange product information with suppliers and customers via Excel files or web portals. But this proved to be very labour intensive, error-prone and difficult to validate. To solve this problem, a few years ago Vandemoortele started using GS1, a central platform for data exchange between retailers and suppliers that requires specific product data.
Recently, to further improve their data quality, Vandemoortele chose a specific PIM system to manage all product data internally, namely Salsify. To integrate this system, they needed a partner with experience in PIM (Product Information Management), GS1 and GDSN (Global Data Syncronisation Network). This partner had to have experience in architecture and strategy, as well as manage the implementation and back-office teams. They found all this in our competence center Master Data Partners.
“Master Data Partners’ expertise ensured that we were in capable hands throughout the process and that opportunities surfaced that we did not even see at first.” – Vandemoortele
Master Data Partners functioned as a bridge between the various internal teams and the various external parties (Salsify, the implementation partner, GS1, and the customers).
After the project was completed, training and education were provided, including the necessary documentation and roadmaps. This way, employees could continue working within the new systems without any problems.
Necessary challenges
GS1 provides a global standard for sharing product information, but information such as daily recommended amount can vary from country to country. So this had to be taken into account: in the severely controlled food sector, incorrect or incomplete data can lead to fines and reprocessing costs, as well as reputation damage and health impacts on consumers.
“Master Data Partners ensured that all our data complied with GS1’s requirements. As a result, the quality of our data improved very fast.” – Vandemoortele
Xploration
Vandemoortele needed a partner who could help integrate their PIM system with GS1. They wanted to ensure that their product data was of the highest possible quality. In addition, they wanted to be able to monitor the data efficiently to quickly intervene if necessary.
Our solution
Master data functioned as the middelman between the internal and external partners, taking into account all the challenges of an international company within the food sector.
Integration
- Salsify PIM
- GS1
Result
An efficient system with a product data fill rate currently between 93% and 97%! Dashboards allow for the internal teams to monitor data quality and intervene when the percentage threatens to decrease.
Within a year, the Vandemoortele products in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria were almost fully automated with GS1 product master data, and new steps have been taken to grow further in quality and automation.
What a success!