Case Study Vininova
Brief:
Vininova is an importer and distributor of wines and spirits from around the world. The company has more than 1,300 brands in the range, including famous and established wineries as well as smaller, boutique producers. Vininova's portfolio features brands such as Champagne Lanson (one of the most recognizable champagne houses in the world), the legendary Barons de Rothschild wines, the acclaimed Spanish Marqués de Riscal winery, the German Dr. Loosen, Catena Zapata from Argentina, and the well-known and respected producer, Niepoort. Conventional wines, which are the bulk of Vininova's selection, are complemented by highly appreciated natural wines. The range of spirits, part of the Vininova Spirits portfolio, includes brands such as Glengoyne, Equiano, Tamdhu, Smokehead, Mezan, and Foursquare. Vininova is active not only as a significant partner of Poland's best-known restaurants and hotels in HoReCa channels. The company also supplies specialty stores and is developing a network of showrooms in Poland’s largest cities (it is now a total of 10 locations).
The client had not previously had a system for managing product information. The data was scattered. In order to maintain proper data hygiene, the distributor decided to implement a PIM that would support the dynamic development of the product catalog. The choice fell on a proven open-source solution, Akeneo PIM (Akeneo Community Edition). Vininova involved our company in the digital transformation process, as we are now the only silver partner of Akeneo in Poland. The effect of the transformation was to unify and centralize product data using Akeneo's standard functionalities. They ensure comprehensive support in all processes related to product management. Moreover, the company wanted to include one customization in the solution.
Challenge:
Structuring the catalog in accordance with Akeneo’s best practices and implementing a custom solution to address the client's needs.
Solution:
Implementation of Akeneo PIM 5.0 and Customization for the Client
Akeneo PIM 5.0 was implemented. The client's site was developed using a CMS system and did not have an e-commerce platform. We extracted the information from the product pages – the product data was exported to flat files and then (after updating and refreshing them to match Akeneo's data typology) imported into PIM. For this, we used the default, standard Akeneo mechanisms such as importing data from files or mass actions (allowing an edit to be performed on all products or a selected group of products in a single operation). Taking into account the individual needs of the client, a customized functionality was implemented that enables the export of price information for a given product (price tag) directly from the PIM system. After printing, price tags are placed next to products on store shelves.
Goals and Benefits of Vininova's Digital Transformation Project
Among the most important goals behind Vininova's digital transformation project was to bring together product data in one place that can be accessed by various user groups involved in creating and verifying product data, as well as the ability to quickly edit and correct it. These are among the primary benefits offered by Akeneo's technology.
Recommendations for PIM Projects
For PIM projects, our most common recommendation is to change the types of attributes that describe products. Companies tend to limit themselves to the text attribute, making it difficult to work with the catalogue. Data hygiene decreases and there is a high risk of error. For Vininova, we also proposed modeling the data to avoid problems with integrations or imports. There are 17 different types of attributes available for the selected Akeneo version. This makes the data more structured, transparent and correct.
Outcome:
As a result of the production start up, Vininova has the catalog of 1,325 products in a dedicated system, tailored to collect, manage, enhance, and share product information. The PIM software will also help accelerate the introduction of new products to the offer. The client was serious about the reliability of the product data and realized that their customers expect precise and clear communication.
The PIM software will also help accelerate the introduction of new products to the offer. The client was serious about the reliability of the product data and realized that their customers expect precise and clear communication.
The PIM implementation was conducted using agile methodology. We adjusted and followed the work schedule closely. We had to understand the broad needs of the client and know the context to be able to deliver what they needed. The catalog is modeled according to Akeneo's best practices, so upgrading the system to a higher version will not be time-consuming or labor-intensive. More importantly, it will allow the business to scale flexibly. With the exception of one customization within the system, we used what Akeneo offers by default, leveraging the knowledge and extensive experience from previous Akeneo projects carried out for our clients.
Fast Implementation and Minimizing Text-Type Attributes
The fast implementation of the project (340 hours of development work) is also a result of this. With other PIM solutions, the time can be longer – from 3 to 12 months. Our efforts were also aimed at minimizing text-type attributes in favor of other attributes, e.g. dictionary, number.
Customized Functionality for Generating Price Tags
In addition, the client has 2 options for generating a price tag. They can create a tag for a single product using the options in the quick menu, or select more products, producing a queue with multiple items. In addition to price information, such a tag often features a photo, marketing description, promotional messages, and other attributes, such as serving temperature or dishes that match the wine.
Future Plans and Success of Partnership
The transformation did not end there. What’s next? The foundations of a major new system have been prepared and will be further developed. Further cooperation will result in an increase in product volume and new functionalities. This stage can be considered a success of the close partnership between Vininova and Macopedia, which is a hallmark of the PIM projects we run.
Highlights:
Educate the client on PIMs and build awareness
As a contractor, we guided the client through the entire transformation process and introduced them to the agile methodology, influencing a change in the way they thought about the project. We not only delivered the IT product, but also provided consulting support.
A shortened path for preparing price tags
We have implemented a technological solution that allows you to export product prices (rather than the entire product card available in Akeneo) in a form ready for direct printing (with bleeds).
Such automation saves the client a lot of time, resources and minimizes the likelihood of error. The client no longer needs to use a graphic designer every time to prepare files for printing.