As a market leader in products and services for the safe distribution of electrical energy in industry, commerce and infrastructure, HENSEL also ensures that product information is distributed in a manner appropriate to the target group with the support of infolox.
After the old PIM system (mediando from e-pro) was replaced by an in-house development, the existing print publishing tool (Pagino/Presshouse) and the processes for the automated creation of brochures, price lists and catalogues in Adobe InDesign were also to be redesigned and optimised this year. With over 20 years of experience in PIM and print publishing as part of a comprehensive B2B PXP (Product Experience Platform), INFOLOX was exactly the right partner for this task.
Following an analysis/design of the most important page types, including layout and structure, the first step was to implement the product pages as print using InDesign automation. The PXP Control Cockpit is used as a central element of the comprehensive INFOLOX PXP Components Suite for the perfect product experience.
The PXP Control Cockpit has an intuitive interface for parameterisation for each process. In the case of the print publication for HENSEL, country- and product range-specific product brochures in various languages can be output in Step 1 via an input mask. The Control Cockpit uses the set parameters to access the API of the PIM system directly, processes the data accordingly and outputs an InDesign XML file with links to the resources (images), which can then be opened in InDesign using a simple plug-in. Decorative pages can then be added in InDesign to create a final print PDF.
Like all INFOLOX PXP Components, the entire process and all components run in infolox's own cloud and can therefore be implemented as a service without involving the in-house IT department. Only the result, in this case the finished XML file ready for import into InDesign, is downloaded and finalised directly on the workstation, as InDesign experts prefer to work with local data.
Thanks to the flexible concept in the INFOLOX Cloud, the solution can grow with HENSEL's requirements and, if necessary, more extensive publications with different page types can be generated sequentially or in parallel. In phase 2, additional page types will be added for further print publications such as the main catalogue.
The automated creation of print publications as PDF and/or InDesign files is just one typical use case that we map for our customers via the PXP Control Cockpit – regardless of which ERP, PIM, DAM or CMS the customer uses. As long as the data/assets/texts etc. are stored in a structured manner in a system and made available via a content API, we can connect to them with all our PXP components, prepare the data and fill any target systems (CMS, SHOP, etc.) with it – or even create print publications and feed them back into a PIM/DAM system.
Jochen Riegg, Chief Consultant for PIM and Publishing at infolox, on the PXP components: "The PXP components from INFOLOX are a collection of solution modules that can be seamlessly integrated into existing business processes and system landscapes thanks to their flexible REST service architecture. In future, these solution modules will form the basis for all our projects and ensure optimum transparency, efficiency and higher quality in what we do every day: using highly automated processes to create print and online publications from our customers' data and assets, which then solve the specific use cases of our customers' customers. Only then do data, texts, images, etc. become useful."
If you have any questions, please contact Alexander Pircher, INFOLOX GmbH, https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-pircher
