HEINE Centralizes Product Data and Accelerates Global Distribution with Centric PXM

“HEINE’s data maintenance is a significant undertaking with 7,000 active articles and around 15,000 in the data pool. Fragmented, inconsistent and incomplete product data and workflows were slowing teams down and impacting growth. Sharing data and marketing materials with our partners manually was time-consuming and error prone.”

Thomas Rieger, Head of Digital Marketing Solutions at HEINE, describes the challenges faced before implementing Centric PXM™. Massive amounts of product information were stored in multiple locations, manual workflows wasted time and resulted in inconsistent data and inefficiency that hindered international growth.

Since implementing Centric PXM™, HEINE has regained control of data, scaled efficiently through automated catalog creation and bolstered international expansion through streamlined workflows. Centric PXM’s powerful, AI-driven Product Information Management (Centric PIM™) and Digital Asset Management (Centric DAM™) capabilities have transformed the company’s marketing processes and set the foundation for future growth.

How did HEINE optimize product information management?

Over 75 Years of modernizing medical diagnostic instruments

Founded in 1946 and headquartered in Gilching, Germany, HEINE is the global manufacturing leader specializing in diagnostic instruments for the medical field. Its commitment to developing 100% Made in Germany instruments of the highest quality, durability, using best-in-class technology, has earned the family-owned and operated company a strong global reputation. HEINE employs over 500 people at its headquarters near Munich, and its products are sold in over 120 countries directly to consumers and through a network of partners made of around 3,000 representatives, importers and specialized dealers.

Digital transformation journey

Operating in a highly regulated industry across 120 countries and 8 languages put pressure on HEINE’s product and marketing teams. Manual product information maintenance and distribution across multiple sales channels was causing bottlenecks, increased risk of errors and slowed time to shelf.

“Regulatory requirements are high in the medical section and HEINE’s massive amount of product information increases complexity,” says Thomas Rieger. “Information was stored in multiple locations, teams were manually updating information and data consistency and distribution were our biggest challenges.”

HEINE was manually updating critical product information across multiple channels, including flyers, partner portals, documents and other online sales channels and lacked a single source of truth. Errors and delays were common and creating its flagship print product catalog in multiple languages was becoming unmanageable and risky.

“Recognizing the need for efficiency we sought a centralized, cloud-based solution to streamline product information management,” explains Thomas Rieger. “We needed to automate information management and save time with modern AI-powered systems and enable global growth. Providing our partners with a user-friendly portal to access accurate data and marketing materials was a huge priority.”

After evaluating several solutions, HEINE chose Centric PIM and DAM, part of the AI-powered Centric PXM, Centric Software’s platform that unifies PIM, Digital Asset Management (DAM), Syndication and Digital Shelf Analytics (DSA). The decision was driven by Centric’s strong reputation, customer references, user-friendly interface, robust AI features, interoperability and scalability.

“We were impressed with Centric Software’s reputation and customer success,” explains Thomas Rieger.

Simplification and growth through automation

“The first step of the implementation was to transfer all data from the existing website and the integrated specialist retailer login from the ERP into the PIM,” says Thomas Rieger. “Clear and efficient workflows will ensure that the website and other channels are populated directly from the centralized PIM database in the future.”

HEINE has gone live with phase one of its Centric PXM project and is currently in the early stages of implementation. All product data is now in one single place and the company expects rapid, secure access to information for its internal teams and partners, as well as to streamline approvals directly in Centric PXM.

“Centric PXM has transformed workflows and saved teams an enormous amount of time already through centralization and automation,” shares Thomas Rieger.

Rapid approvals, transformed marketing and enhanced partner portal

“HEINE’s initial focus has been on ensuring data consistency and distribution improvements, but we are excited to move to phase 2 of the rollout which focuses on marketing automation and partner integration,” says Thomas Rieger.

HEINE will be able to create its advertising materials through Adobe integration and expects to save time. Teams will compile, update and translate catalogs directly in the system, saving time and ensuring accuracy. “We plan to automate the print catalog creation, directly from PXM, which will be so much more efficient,” says Reiger.

It will also focus on enhancing the partner portal to ensure seamless access to tailored, relevant product data. “With the upcoming specialist retailer portal, partners will finally have direct access to data, tailored specifically to their needs. With PXM, they can find and download information quickly including images in the correct formats, resolutions and color specs,” explains Thomas Rieger.

Building the future with AI

HEINE is also exploring Centric PXM’s advanced AI capabilities and expects deeper integration in future, including AI generated text and other applications.

Thomas Rieger also highlight the collaboration with the Centric Software team. “From the onset, we knew we had a solid partner in Centric. The team was responsive during the selection process and has worked in an agile, professional way. We’ve benefitted from Centric’s years of experience and look forward to a long-term, mutually beneficial partnership.”