Warren Rupp, an industrial pump manufacturing company, faced challenges in managing and leveraging its product data. Product information was fragmented across spreadsheets and backend systems, making it difficult to access and requiring extra time and resources to keep the data sources updated.
"Data lived in multiple spreadsheets, and it wasn’t easily findable,” says Warren Rupp’s digital development manager. “We lacked a single, overarching strategy to organize and streamline the processes of creating, maintaining, and utilizing our product information.”
The upstream product data challenges affected some of the organization’s downstream operations. For example, it took customer service employees additional time to find answers to end users' or distributors’ questions, leading to delayed or lost sales.
“Even if the service representative could access some of the information, it still took some time to locate the correct information and respond to the inquiry in a way that met our company standards,” says the vice president of strategic platforms at Warren Rupp’s parent company. “But if the information was not available at all, it could take hours or even days for the rep to find an answer, causing a poor end-user experience. The obvious disadvantages to our employees and to our customers impelled us to seek out a more effective method to harness our product data as a strategic commercial asset.”
“Our buyers are increasingly using digital tools when searching for product solutions and maintenance parts … Having our attributes organized and accurate allows us to be found even in unbranded searches, which facilitates faster and easier direct customer engagement.”
— Vice President, Digital Platforms, Warren Rupp
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