Spirotech used the Media Library in SyncForce for a long time. But it’s only in the last few years that the company has really seen the full benefits of the software: “If you can’t find it here, it doesn’t exist.”
Spirotech started 70 years ago, developing systems to remove air and dirt from cooling and heating systems. Over the years, the Dutch company has grown into an international player in water quality. “We can basically supply everything that helps make a heating or cooling system more efficient,” says Joost van Mameren, Team Lead Marketing Support. “From degassers to expansion vessels, and from water treatment to detailed water testing in systems to find and fix problems.”
Higher standards for product data
A lot has changed at Spirotech in recent years, too: “We sell our solutions through wholesalers to installers and consultants. As a result, these wholesalers started asking for product data to be supplied in a better way. In the past, you could manage with Excel or PDF files, but that has really changed.”
Spirotech has used SyncForce for years. When Digital Marketer Laurens Costa joined, the team realised they could get much more out of the software. “SyncForce was mainly used as a media library,” says Laurens, “so a central place to store documents, brochures, and videos.”
A huge opportunity
When Spirotech needed a new website, the team saw a huge opportunity: making the product data from SyncForce Circular PIM available on the website. They chose the Optimizely Content Management System and delaware as the implementation partner. “delaware and SyncForce had worked together before, which gave us confidence that we could connect the PIM system and the CMS properly.”
To make the launch successful, a lot of work was still needed to enter product data. Laurens: “We have ETIM standards for all our products. That’s a really big advantage for us: standards make it much easier to share data, in our case with wholesalers.” The team worked hard for months to collect all the data and enter it into the PIM system. “But it was definitely worth it. Thanks to this effort, we now have 95% of all ETIM properties filled in.”
A smart move
The combination of the new website, the link with SyncForce, and using ETIM turned out to be a smart move. “On one hand, as a supplier, we are simply expected to provide data,” explains Joost. “If a certain amount of data isn’t filled in, wholesalers won’t sell your products. But we found many more benefits. For example, we discovered it’s very easy to automate price lists using SyncForce. It used to take three months to create a price list; now, it takes less than a week.”
Spirotech also becomes more visible to our end-users, such as consultants and contractors. Joost: “Right now, we have all our products in SyncForce and have linked all available data for each product. We even have CAD drawings available that can be used in system designs. When the design is finished, and the installer requests a quote, SyncForce allows us to add information like user guides for installers, installation videos, and line drawings.”
Improved relationship with wholesalers
This has greatly improved the relationship with wholesalers, says Joost: “We have review meetings with wholesalers every year and always score very high on data. That gives them confidence to do business with us. They can be sure our data is correct, whether it’s about our stock levels, the number of products on a pallet, or the dimensions.”
Automating product data sheets
The next step was automating product data sheets. “Now that we have all the data together, we can serve our customers even better. Product data sheets are an example. They help customers choose between different products based on practical and technical, standardised data. We already offer this data on our website. By automating the product data sheets, we can provide the most current data at any time.”
Single source of truth
The increased use of SyncForce is not just noticeable within the marketing team; the entire Spirotech organisation now uses the software, says Laurens: “At one point, we had so much data in the system that we decided to use SyncForce as the single source of truth for the marketing team.” “That also has many benefits for our sales colleagues,” adds Joost. “They can find everything they need in SyncForce. If you can’t find it here, we don’t have it. More importantly, we now know for sure that everyone is sharing the same information. Previously, we lacked insight into what was shared with customers. Different spreadsheets and PDF files were always going around.”
It has also become much easier for Spirotech to enter new markets. Laurens: “Suppose we wanted to become active in Norway; we could basically launch a website within a week, based on available data. Thanks to AI, we can easily translate the website and product information in SyncForce into Norwegian.”
Future
A future dream is to use this new way of working right from the design phase, says Joost. “Although we’ve made big steps, we still only use about half of what SyncForce offers, namely Product Information Management and Digital Asset Management. It would be great if we could gradually fill in all the ETIM data during the product development process. That would make marketing easier and shorten time-to-market. As soon as a product is ready, so is the data to launch it.”
