MiniTec GmbH & Co. KG is a full-service manufacturer of aluminum profiles, workstations, conveyor systems and special machine construction. Headquartered in Schönenberg-Kübelberg, Germany, the company is represented at eight locations in Europe, the USA and China with 360 employees and 60 sales and service partners worldwide.

A customized PIM and cross-media solution was implemented for MiniTec based on the crossbase.pim standard software. Around 17,000 items, including prices and around 15 basic data items, are continuously imported from the ERP system to the PIM via the XML interface. The items are classified in the product structure in crossbase, and technical features and product relationships are also maintained. The integrated media asset database is used to manage and link product photos, application photos, icons and graphics, among other things, and other image formats are automatically generated using the graphic converter. Additional images, documents and videos are managed in a product-independent media structure. In order to minimize the effort required for text maintenance, including translations into six languages, enumeration texts are automatically generated from document modules that can be reused many times.

The service provider translates the continuous advertising texts using the TMS interface to Trados, while the technical terms and document modules are translated in-country. In order to be able to use items as standard articles in the printed catalogs, the electronic catalogs or in the online catalogs in a market-specific manner, the items are referenced in marketing-specific product views for the corresponding sales channels. These views serve as the basis for the print and online media and contain all marketing-specific product information.

The aim is to produce all print media in a database-supported and automated manner. For the product section of the website (online catalog), the data is provided to the agency in a coordinated XML format and the required image files. The XML exchange format can be configured flexibly. Similarly, the product data is provided to trade partners in BMEcat format with ECLASS classifications.