Truffaut is a renowned French company with a rich history dating back to 1824. It offers a wide range of products and services that cater to the needs of garden enthusiasts, pet owners and home decorators.
With 62 shops (affiliated stores included) and 2,200 employees across France, Truffaut has expanded its business over the years. It launched its mail order service in 1911 and its website in 1999.
As its company ethos is to connect people to nature, Truffaut supports sustainability initiatives and is committed to ecological preservation.
Challenges
The journey to digital transformation
As part of its digital transformation journey, Truffaut wanted to accelerate time to market for its new and existing products. With over 4,800 product types, business change support was critical, as was simplification.
The company sought to ensure it was working with accurate, structured data. This required a complete integration of supplier catalogs into Truffaut’s systems. Data governance was also essential, as was standardizing data from its suppliers.
The company wanted to move from on-premises implementations to a SaaS-based infrastructure that could integrate its product information management (PIM), digital asset management (DAM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
To summarize, Truffaut was experiencing the following challenges:
- A lack of standardized, transparent and accurate data from suppliers.
- Product classification overload, with legacy ERP and PIM systems that couldn’t integrate all data sources or scale to meet new demands.
- Slow time to market and a lack of data governance capabilities that would allow the company to act in an agile manner.
When evaluating solutions, Truffaut looked for a partner that shared its commitment to eco-friendly practices.
Solution
A cloud-based master data management architecture
Truffaut began its modernization journey by migrating from an in-house IBM master data management (MDM) system to a SaaS-enabled MDM, deploying Stibo Systems Platform in 2021. The company moved to SaaS to facilitate version upgrades and server load management.
“We wanted to work with a PIM system leader with a large international retail client base. This choice was reinforced by experience: ease of use, rapid adoption by our users, and support provided when needed by Stibo Systems. The SaaS solution was crucial for our current and future projects.” Youri Caillard, Project Management Officer - PIM, Truffaut
At the same time, Truffaut standardized its data model to GS1’s GPC model to simplify catalog integration with suppliers, completing the project in 2023.
Integrating Stibo Systems Platform with SAP
Truffaut also integrated its existing SAP ERP system with Stibo Systems Platform. This enabled it to implement a data governance framework, enabling teams to manage a variety of product data types and attributes. Data governance practices were applied across departments, too – from purchasing to regulatory services and communications.
Fewer product categories for better supplier integration
The company then streamlined its product classifications, reducing the number of classifications from 4,800 to 900. This step made it easier for Truffaut to start integrating its data more efficiently.
Enthusiastic user adoption
Next, the business units, data managers and a dedicated change management committee gathered to create a structured workflow for its PIM. The user-friendly nature of Stibo Systems Platform also led to faster adoption and use across departments.
“Stibo Systems Platform is simple and user-friendly. In terms of data flow, it's easy to configure, manage and evolve. Since joining five years ago, I've quickly adopted and evolved it to meet business needs and Truffaut's IS evolution. It's robust yet easy to configure, a great asset for our IT.” Youri Caillard, Project Management Officer - PIM, Truffaut
Future ambitions
With an eye on future innovation, Truffaut has conducted various experiments, including the use of AI to help with data classification and potentially moving product referencing from its SAP ERP platform to Stibo Systems Platform.
In the short or long term, Truffaut plans to integrate customer reviews into its PIM. It is also looking to expand its use of MDM to encompass store, customer and supplier data.
In summary, Truffaut realized the following business benefits:
- Competitive advantage: Truffaut can now bring new products to market quickly. Improved data management also equipped the company to adapt quickly to change.
- Increased operational efficiency: Human errors were reduced by automating data processing tasks that were prone to mis-keyed data. This also reduced operational costs.
- Ready for future growth: The switch to SaaS has given Truffaut the ability to scale and adapt to future needs without requiring major reinvestments or infrastructure changes.
- Better customer experiences and supplier collaboration: Improved product data has enhanced customer satisfaction and engagement. It has also made for better partnerships and eased data exchange with partners and suppliers.
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Outcomes
Better product data management with Stibo Systems
By upgrading its data handling to match its heritage and its ambitions, Truffaut has built a strong data foundation for future success. With the help of Stibo Systems Platform, Truffaut has significantly improved and future proofed its product data management capabilities. Product information is now structured and standardized across its physical and digital stores.
Migrating to SaaS has also lightened the company’s infrastructure burdens. The transition decreased the company’s waste and renewable energy use, further reducing its environmental impact and supporting a key corporate initiative.
The result is a robust, flexible data management platform that unifies its product data, improves data exchange with suppliers and enables Truffaut to adapt to future demands.
