La Redoute Automates Catalogs With Pimcore & Active Web-To-Print

Created a user-friendly platform to manage and enrich products while automating, as much as possible, the production of Print publications (Catalogs, brochures, etc …). The solution had to be synchronized with an ERP (SAP) and export the enriched data to different CMS systems. The project was rolled out in 9 languages (Russia, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, UK, Switzerland, and France).

Business Needs

La Redoute developed WebToPrint in Adobe Flash for the enrichment of products and their website. They had semi-automated print publications for 1 language (French) only. Translations had to be done directly in the Adobe InDesign files. Data updates after enrichment took 72 to 96 hours. No InDesign files were updated and multiple manual corrections were always necessary.

This led to bad Time-To-Market, high cost, and many Errors. No enrichment was retained, which meant repetitive handling and multiple controls were necessary. A loss of confidence and total rejection of users followed because no data updates in InDesign could be done.

La Redoute was in desperate need for a Print production which was 100% automated in all languages.

Pimcore Solution

• Print Production 100% automated in all languages
• Real-time updates in Pimcore and InDesign
• No manual corrections in files
• Automatic multilingual variations
• Data security
• Easily retrieving graphical variations of a product

After a massive import from XML files, more than 300 000 items in 9 languages and currencies, « DATASOLUTION » implemented a web service to retrieve basic information (text, sizes, colors, prices) which run at regular intervals and can be called via a menu, as well as another web service to retrieve the URL of product images stored in a DAM and automatically associates them to the products in Pimcore. La Redoute can then create a « Master » catalog and associate products with the pages of the catalog. An automatic notification system informs translators and proofreaders that a new document is available and that they have a specific date to do their job. If 2 weeks before the deadline, a person has not logged in, an automatic reminder is sent to him.

A workflow with multiple validations has been implemented in order to associate a report with pages or products according to the language (a page or product can be validated in FR and not in the UK).

Finally, when pages or chapters change to « Generate » status, an automatic notification is sent to the designers so that they can generate the pages and begin their layout work. No content correction is made in InDesign files. The generated files are then made available in Pimcore for users to correct their products before updating the InDesign files.
The prices arrive at the end of production and are updated automatically in the InDesign files.

Business Results

• Immediate reduction of delays and costs in excess of 50%
• Satisfied users
• No correction to redo
• Multilingual PIM
• DAM Integration