Customer Spotlight: Prysmian

Prysmian is a global leader in cable manufacturing, offering an extensive array of products, services, technologies, and expertise that spans many industries, sectors, and regions. The company is a key player in global power transmission, distribution and logistics, construction, and civil infrastructure. Every year, Prysmian manufactures thousands of kilometers of underground and submarine cables and systems, establishing the company as a key global player in connecting, supporting, and advancing societies the world over. With over 300,000 SKUs and counting, Prysmian is one of the world’s largest and most influential manufacturers.

Prysmian, a publicly listed company, prides itself on creating innovative products and delivering groundbreaking projects while demonstrating ethical and transparent governance practices. The company is also implementing strong sustainability policies and is guided by three pillars in all they do:

• Energy transition: to help the world transition to a new source of energy
• Digitalization:  to advance the digitalization of the world
• Sustainability: to consider the environment and society

“Our portfolio of products stretches to over 300,000 SKUs. This presented some challenges. As a leader in cable manufacturing, we deal with a lot of variance, a lot of markets, and a lot of commercial uses and applications.”

Giuliano Abdelmalek

IT PIM Owner, Prysmian

the challenges faced by Prysmian

The strategic importance of the company and its product portfolio comes with its own unique set of challenges, both on a macro and micro level. With complex products supporting a diverse range of commercial applications, Prysmian required a technological solution to its ever-growing data chaos. This chaos was compounded by varying market standards and the need to support multiple languages across multiple regions. The challenges faced by Prysmian included:

• Managing product data across a large number of different databases, spreadsheets, and systems
  Product information was characterized and described in different ways, on different IT systems, and on spreadsheets and data sheets. This dispersed information was difficult to manage efficiently and deliver to all their different sales channels.
• Managing a mix of technical and commercial data
  With millions of different products and hundreds of sales and distribution channels, Prysmian needed a platform that allowed it to manage both technical data and commercial data, such as short descriptions, long descriptions, certifications, videos, pictures, branding, and other information.
• Managing a vast range of products each with distinct operational, logistical, and commercial nuances
  Cables that might share manufacturing processes could vary greatly in terms of their intended commercial purposes, changing their use in different markets. This complexity resulted in a disconnection of product data needs between operational and commercial teams, which hindered the communication of product information across the globe.
• Managing the migration towards digital channels and e-commerce
  With the rapid growth in digital commerce, Prysmian’s B2B customers had new requirements. They were asking for clarity of data, completeness of information, and fresh, usable product information to run their e-commerce sites efficiently. Prysmian needed to react to these demands.

“We needed a platform that would give us the ability to collect, manage, and enrich all our product information. This included translations of product information into different languages to scale to different countries across different channels.”

Mona Mohamed

Senior IT Business Partner Energy & Communications at Prysmian Group

Prsymian’s PIM journey with inriver

Prysmian’s journey for more effective data management followed these steps:

1. Choosing the right solution

Recognizing the need for a unified source of product information, Prysmian began exploring solutions that could streamline their data management processes. They needed a system to handle the vast amount of product data and ensure consistency across all channels and markets. The goal was to find a solution that could integrate seamlessly with their existing systems and provide a centralized repository for all product information. 

2. Why inriver?

After evaluating various options, Prysmian chose inriver for its flexible and adaptable PIM solution. The composable inriver PIM platform offers the ability to maintain an international classification standard for products, which was crucial for Prysmian’s diverse business lines. The decision was also influenced by the fully extensible nature of the inriver software, and its capability to integrate seamlessly with existing systems to provide a centralized repository for all product information. This flexibility allowed Prysmian to build a data model that could accommodate different values and business lines. 

3. Getting the implementation right

Prysmian started its digital transformation journey in 2017, anticipating how the evolving demands of digital commerce would impact its teams, partners, and the industry at large. Working closely with inriver’s expert team, Prysmian spent ten months building a new, robust data model to serve the dynamic onboarding needs of different countries and product lines. Scalability was essential for the Prysmian team. Without the flexible inriver data model, future requirements would be difficult to meet and therefore limit growth potential.

4. Seeing the early benefits of PIM

Implementing the inriver PIM platform brought immediate benefits. Prysmian was able to streamline product content across different markets and channels, reducing the time and effort required to manage its extensive portfolio. This centralization of data ensured that all stakeholders had access to accurate and up-to-date product information. The PIM platform also enabled Prysmian to provide a high level of product specification, creating value for its customers. 

“Thanks to the PIM, now we have a single source of truth, a single platform that collects all our product information so now we can talk the same business language. With inriver, we can now apply best practices to our product data to drive our business.”

Stefano Brandinali

Chief Digital and Information Officer at Prysmian

5. Operational efficiencies

With inriver, Prysmian achieved a 75% reduction in catalog production time, allowing them to scale up from 6 versions to 20 without significantly increasing team size. The platform also enabled them to expand their language offerings from 9 to 25, and grow their product assortment from 2,000 to 9,500 SKUs. These efficiencies translated into significant time savings, enabling the team to focus on other strategic initiatives.

6. Enhanced customer experiences

By leveraging the inriver PIM solution, Prysmian can provide high-level product specifications and a user-friendly catalog that meets the needs of its customers. The centralized product content ensures consistency and accuracy, enhancing the overall customer experience. Customers could easily find the information they needed, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty. The PIM platform also allows Prysmian to include sustainability information, aligning with its new strategic goals and meeting customer demands for more detailed product information. 

inriver x Prysmian: The key takeaway

The collaboration between Prysmian and inriver exemplifies how embracing digital tools can transform complex challenges into streamlined processes. By prioritizing flexibility and customer-centric approaches in the choice for a new Product Information Management solution, Prysmian now has a stable and scalable foundation for all digital commerce needs. As a global leader in the cable industry, Prysmian needed this level of flexibility in its PIM software to maintain its position in the market. The inriver team continues to work closely with Prysmian to ensure the manufacturer keeps pushing the boundaries of PIM usage, empowering them to deliver data-driven excellence across every channel.