MBO controls B2B Shop from Alterra PIM

At MBO Osswald, cutting-edge production methods are applied to manufacture precision turned parts in top quality and with highest reliability. The product portfolio includes fasteners linking elements such as clevises, clevis joints, angle joints, rod ends, special parts, bolts and retainers that are produced for stock or by customer order and shipped worldwide.

Possibilities of digitalization recognized

Already at an early stage, the company had recognized that the sales environment is increasingly changed by digitalization – also in mechanical engineering. MBO do not understand this development as a threat, but as an opportunity to reach new international customers via the Internet. In this context, activities such as SEO and the issuance of detailed product information were addressed with high pressure.

Online and Print Strategy with PIM

Alterra PIM plays a key role for the company’s online strategy as, in particular, the multilingual maintenance of versatile components without a special maintenance tool would be virtually impossible without it. Therefore, any important product information and technical data is centralized and maintained in Alterra PIM. These are then available at any time and almost in real time for printing or to generate HTML documents or other formats such as JSON or XML.

Variants Diversity – only via PIM

The first step to optimize the product data was the “feeding” of Alterra PIM and the issuance of variant tables from the system – in real time. Before that, in the old times, they had to laboriously maintain spreadsheets with all the variants – and live with all the drawbacks involved in this approach. With Alterra PIM the staff can centrally capture new product variants and immediately issue sales documents as, e.g., extensive contingency tables covering all product groups at the push of a button or via the REST interface in JSON or XML formats.
 
 

B2B Shopware Webshop as a Milestone

A milestone of MBO’s online activities is the launch of the new B2B-oriented webshop based on the Shopware shop software. This is where MBO assumes a pioneering role in the industry by making it possible that products with many variants can be ordered directly online. The customer chooses the product they need for their production in any quantity via the online shop. If the order concerns products held in stock MBO deliver within 5 working days. Many product variants, which are not produced in stock, can be requested through the shop and are then “made to order”.

New Quality Level in Marketing and Sales

Conclusion: MBO’s customers and also their own sales organization today experience a new quality in the transmission of information and order management. Because of their outstanding presence on all distribution channels potential customers focus directly on the MBO brand. Existing customers enjoy the easy accessibility of comprehensive information on available and possible product variants and can place orders with minimal “friction loss”. Another positive point for MBO: The sales organization is relieved from the processing of standard inquiries. So, what’s the overall outcome for MBO? As the company has not spared the effort of a modernization of their product data management capacities, MBO are now able to generate any output media and serve their customers on any output channel in the shortest possible time – and is thus well prepared for the future.  

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