Coltène:
Medical Precision for Product Data and Processes

Coltène/Whaledent AG is a leading international provider in the area of dental development, manufacture, and distribution of dental consumables
and small dental devices. The merger of the Swiss company Coltène AG and the American company Whaledent Inc. in 1990 gave rise to a company with a strong global focus. The company is headquartered in Altstätten, Switzerland. State-of-the-art production facilities in Switzerland, Germany, the U.S., and Brazil, along with a team of over 1,200 employees, guarantee the highest quality and innovative strength. The broad product portfolio ranges from filling materials and endodontic solutions to precision instruments—making Coltène a reliable partner for dentists
worldwide.

As a specialist in high-quality dental products, Coltène provides dentists worldwide with innovative solutions. However, as the company grew, so did the complexity: Thousands of items with numerous variants, prices, and technical specifications were maintained in the SAP system, but it was difficult to conduct a comparison of them with marketing and sales data. New products, international markets, translations into up to 20 languages, and five comprehensive segment catalogs further increased the demands. Added to this was the need to keep the website constantly current.

This is where the collaboration with crossbase began. Based on the standard software, a customized solution was developed that redefined product communication. Today, all items—including their product structure, prices, and relevant SAP data—flow directly into the system via the SAP PIM interface. The so-called “item group” serves as the central hub: variants with the same form are bundled here, product information is maintained centrally and automatically inherited by the individual items—consistency without redundancy.

The integrated media asset management (MAM) brings order to the variety of media: product photos, application images, and illustrations are managed centrally, while the graphic converter automatically generates all required formats in the background. Text management also benefits: Product descriptions, features, and claims are flexibly maintained at the item group or product level, while media-specific content such as headlines, SEO titles, and links for print and online are controlled separately. Translations are handled by agencies via the TMS interface to Across—precisely and efficiently.

Another highlight is the market-specific product view: Each channel—whether a printed catalog or a website—receives exactly the right items and content. Five segment catalogs in five countries and languages, hundreds of brochures in up to 20 languages—some with thousands of pages—all database-driven and subject to automated creation. Intelligent print control, dynamic tables, and the website’s integration with Typo3 via the REST API ensure that the online catalog and Media Center always provide current and consistent data.

Today, Coltène completes tasks that used to take weeks in just a few hours. The company presents itself globally in a consistent, professional, and error-free manner—with crossbase as an invisible but indispensable partner in the background. For Coltène, precision is not just a quality attribute of its products; it permeates the entire flow of information.