Time savings of 90% with Perfion PIM live connection to SAP
”With Perfion we save 90% of the time that we used earlier to type up an article from analog data sources. The quality of the order data has improved significantly. In the catalog creation we will save a similar amount of time.“ Manfred Scheunemann, Master of Science in Information Technology, Eisen-Fischer GmbH
Challenge
In addition to the 80,000 articles that are created as standard items in Eisen-Fischer’s ERP system SAP, the company can obtain multiples of articles from its approximately 4,000 suppliers. For an efficient and error-free quote and order creation, a simple and fast access to the widest possible range of data of this product offering is imperative.
The acquisition of the data into the SAP system must - in order to avoid transmission errors - be automated and - for better acceptance among employees - easy to handle. The previous search in analog sources such as flip catalogs and the manual data acquisition must belong to the past.
Solution & benefits
With the new shadow database from Perfion, Eisen-Fischer’s employees can now quickly find all the products (stock items and suppliers’ articles) and add them directly to the order lines in the SAP system, without having to create all products in SAP.
The company will fill Perfion with up to five million shadow articles. In this way, Eisen-Fischer can cover 80% of their articles without having to add them to their standard assortment.
Manfred Scheunemann says:
We considered several systems before we decided for Perfion PIM. The combination of shadow database and PIM system in one, as well as the ability to configure Perfion completely by ourselves, convinced us. But price was also a criterion - Perfion is inexpensive compared to other solutions.
A live connection from the open Perfion API to the SAP system, developed by Eisen-Fischer themselves, allows enormous time and, consequently, cost savings. In future, several hundred yearly working hours that were previously spent looking up, typing etc., will be available for other activities. Also the “daily hour” that was required by the route planning team for updating the lack of weight information on the delivery items can be largely used for other purposes.
By linking Perfion and SAP, the order taker can quickly offer the customer alternative products (thus afford better service) and/or select the supplier with the lowest price in order to earn a better margin.
Previously, Eisen-Fischer had no PIM system. With Perfion, the company has a PIM solution in addition to a new shadow database - all in one single solution, which has many advantages. Among other things, the number of necessary interfaces is reduced to a third and the potential for inconsistencies has decreased.
With Perfion, Eisen-Fischer can:
- Create catalogs.
- Extract data for online shops and customer price lists.
- Import data from suppliers into Perfion and also add the fields to the SAP system so that, for example, weight declarations are no longer missing.
- Create frequently ordered suppliers’ articles, that are originally created only in Perfion, at the press of a button as an article master record in SAP and thereby add these to the standard range. Standard articles can be calculated more accurately and a fixed item number is a prerequisite for the storage of the goods.
About Eisen-Ficher
The Eisen-Fischer GmbH (founded in 1874) is a medium-sized, independent company that presents itself as a specialist and full service provider with an extremely large range. At three locations in Germany, Eisen-Fischer is a competent and reliable partner for professional tradesmen, retailers, the industry and the public sector. Also private customers are welcomed in the exhibitions and trade centers.