TECH & DEVELOPMENT
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STRATEGY, TALENT & MANAGEMENT
BUFAB, a fast growing, global trading company currently with operations in 28 countries, faced significant challenges in managing and governing product data across the growing organization, systems, and extensive supply chains. With over 7,000 suppliers and 18,000 customers across various industries, and hundreds of thousands of articles in their systems, BUFAB needed a scalable, reliable and capable solution.
BUFAB’s business model involves sourcing and supplying a vast array of components to various industries, necessitating robust and accurate product data management. The company faced challenges with data quality, data silos, and a lack of data governance across its legacy systems and numerous international locations. They had too many manual processes that involved too many users working with different standards. Ensuring consistent and compliant product data was critical for maintaining operational efficiency but also to meet regulatory requirements and for sustainable growth.
Additionally, BUFAB has multiple ERP systems across its group of companies and sought a platform that could support this setup while creating a golden record for articles, standardized product descriptions, streamlining processes, enabling seamless workflows, and increasing data transparency getting rid of data silos.
BUFAB also envisioned managing other master data, like supplier and customer as well as products’ environmental data, with master data discipline in the future.
“We decided to take control over our data and wanted a scalable multidomain data platform as well as an experienced partner. Nexer literally showed up for us from our first meeting – introducing the team, listening to our needs and focused on delivering business value.”
BUFAB formed a cross-functional team to identify the business needs and identify the most suitable systems available. They initially used Gartner’s recommendations to find leading data management platforms that matched their internal needs and searched for specific capabilities. They also wanted a robust and stable multi domain platform that could scale.
After a thorough pre-study, BUFAB chose the Stibo Systems STEP platform for its comprehensive MDM capabilities, stability, scalability, and proven industry track record. The platform’s ability to integrate with existing systems and provide a single source of truth for all types master data was crucial factors in the decision.
Nexer was selected as the implementation partner due to their deep expertise in MDM, strong customer references, and a reputation for delivering sustainable solutions on the Stibo Systems STEP platform. They also came with strong recommendations from trusted advisors.
Nexer’s personalized approach, including introducing the project team early on, their commitment to customer success, and their shared dedication to contributing to a more sustainable world, were key factors in this decision.
“We have ambitious goals and are passionate about what we do and we feel that Nexer is the same.”
BUFAB needed the system to become
functional before the old system was shut down and times was running out. The experienced team from Nexer enabled a quick and successful implementation by insisting on a thorough “THINK phase”.
The project was characterised by close collaboration in a project team including project owner and stakeholders from BUFAB and Nexer’s MDM specialists, always focusing on BUFAB’s needs and added business value. Regular communication, joint workshops, and iterative development ensured alignment with BUFAB’s business goals, and facilitated timely decision-making. This partnership approach helped proactively address challenges and fostered a strong working relationship.
The solution focused on increasing data quality by centralizing their master data, removing silos, standardizing and optimizing data management processes and integrate sustainable data governance.
Nexer guided the migration from BUFAB’s legacy PIM system to Stibo Systems STEP and integrated multiple data sources, establishing workflows and governance frameworks to ensure data quality, compliance, and easy user adoption.
The immediate outputs of the project included:
· ONE UNIFIED MASTER DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
· STANDARDIZED DATA FORMATS AND PROCESSES
· SUSTAINABLE DATA GOVERNANCE POLICIES
· TRAINED USERS ACROSS VARIOUS GLOBAL LOCATIONS
· TERMINATION OF OUTDATED, LEGACY SYSTEMS
· INCREASED DATA TRANSPARENCY
· HIGHER MDM MATURITY AND INCREASED DATA LITERACY
The implementation of the Stibo Systems STEP platform resulted in significant improvements in data accuracy, consistency, and accessibility. BUFAB experienced enhanced operational efficiency, reduced manual data handling, and improved data governance as well as increased data transparency.
BUFAB continues to work closely with Nexer today to refine processes and leverage the full capabilities of the STEP platform.
BUFAB sees the value in scaling the use of the STEP platform to manage other data domains, including customer and sustainability data. The company aims to stay ahead of regulatory changes and industry trends by continuously evolving its data management practices.
“Our experience and advice is to have a dedicated data governance and platform owner from the business full time, and not to underestimate the importance of communication when you start larger projects…
Nexer has been great at supporting us in this throughout the entire project.”
The implementation of the STEP platform resulted in significant improvements in data accuracy, consistency, and accessibility.
BUFAB experienced enhanced operational efficiency, reduced manual data handling, and improved data governance as well as increased data transparency. More than just an implementation of a new system this project has been the start of BUFAB going on an MDM journey to become even more data-driven and data literate for continuous sustainable growth.
BUFAB sees the value in scaling the use of the STEP platform to manage other data domains, including customer and sustainability data. The company aims to stay ahead of regulatory changes and industry trends by continuously evolving its data management practices.BUFAB’s experience highlights the importance of a structured, phased approach to MDM implementation, focusing on stakeholder involvement, data governance, and change management.
By selecting a robust platform like Stibo Systems STEP and partnering with Nexer, BUFAB overcame data silos, increased data accuracy, and created a scalable framework.
Key learnings include the value of pre-studies to assess needs, the integration of governance for sustainable data quality, and the critical role of ongoing user training. For companies facing similar challenges, BUFAB’s journey underscores the benefits of combining technical solutions with strong organizational alignment and expert guidance.
BUFAB continues to work closely with Nexer to refine processes and leverage the full capabilities of the STEP platform.
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