caatoosee pools data from heterogeneous systems into a single product information system

Leonberg/Villingen, 23rd April, 2002 - Leonberg-based information logistics provider has implemented a product information system at Hess Form + Licht, luminaire and street furniture manufacturer and winner of numerous design awards. Thanks to Prosys, the central product information system, authorised employees have point-and-click access to the very latest information on products, from the initial development stages right through to sales and marketing. A sales representative on a customer visit, for instance, can now call up descriptions of all product variants, including photos and prices, from the Internet.

Before Prosys was implemented, the data was stored locally in separate departmental systems. To improve the efficiency of its processes and reduce costs, Hess Form + Licht wanted to pull all this information together in a single, central system. One of the factors that clinched the decision in favour of caatoosee was the modular construction it proposed, a feature that would allow Hess Form + Licht to quickly adapt the system to meet new requirements. In October 2001, caatoosee presented a prototype.

This prototype was then used as the basis for the development and implementation of the new product information system - an undertaking that was completed with the help of Scopeland Software in just four months. The project involved qualifying the data from each system, adding new data where necessary, and establishing associations between each data record. But it was also vital for the company to have access to the system from other sites as well as its headquarters in Villingen. At the moment, employees in Germany can access the system via intranet, and Hess Form + Licht has now commissioned caatoosee to extend this capability to its subsidiaries by leveraging the Internet.

Christoph Hess, member of the management board at Hess Form + Licht, is delighted with the caatoosee project: " caatoosee managed to create a highly usable product information system - just in time and within budget. This means that we can deliver up-to-date information to our customers much faster than before."

Hess Form + Licht´s history of manufacturing luminaires and street furniture stretches back more than 20 years. Its customers, who include architects and planners, benefit from Hess´ holistic approach to delivering products and services for lighting planning and design. Headquartered in Villingen-Schwenningen with additional production facilities in Löbau, the company has offices in France and the US; its products are exported to 24 European and 15 non-European countries.