Ctac optimizes product data at Kafkas with integration between inriver PIM and SAP S/4HANA

Kafkas, the market leader in electrical equipment and energy solutions in Greece and Cyprus, was looking for an efficient way to manage its extensive product range. With 84 stores, more than 400,000 products and a growing long-tail range, the company needed a powerful Product Information Management (PIM) system. Ctac offered the right expertise and realized a seamless integration between inriver PIM and SAP S/4HANA with a smart, standardized connector.

Efficient product management and seamless integration

How do you ensure that product information is quickly and easily managed, validated, enriched, and directly shared with both internal and external systems? This was a key challenge for KAFKAS. As a leading Greek company with an extensive product catalog, KAFKAS relied on a heavily customized ERP system and manual processes to handle product data. While functional, these methods were becoming increasingly complex and resource-intensive, highlighting the need for a more streamlined and scalable solution.

KAFKAS replaced their on-prem SAP ERP system with SAP S/4HANA RISE, having IBM to handle the implementation. The next step was to move product data management out of the ERP system. With a ‘keep the core clean’ approach, KAFKAS wanted to prevent the ERP system from being unnecessarily burdened with complex product information. The company therefore opted for a PIM system that follows the ETIM standard, an international classification standard for technical product specifications.

With ETIM, suppliers, wholesalers, and customers speak the same language when it comes to product data.

Expertise in ETIM, PIM and SAP integrations

Through Fegime, an international network of electrical wholesalers, KAFKAS came into contact with Ctac and learned about inriver’s PIM system. With inriver PIM, an organization centrally manages product data and easily shares it with other systems. Moreover, Ctac implemented its ETIM extension for inriver PIM, a key requirement for KAFKAS. Thanks to Ctac Group’s deep expertise in inriver PIM, SAP, and integrations, KAFKAS received the necessary support for a successful implementation.

Automation and flexibility in product management

Inriver PIM turned out to be exactly what KAFKAS needed. Thanks to the solid setup of data structures and processes, data is available to the right person, at the right time, in the right context and format. Ctac utilized its in-house developed standardized inriver PIM – S/4HANA connector, which:

• Automatically synchronizes product data between inriver PIM and SAP S/4HANA;
• Significantly reduces the manual workload of product creation (marketing, logistics, purchasing and sales organization data), minimizing errors;
• Speeds up the quoting processes, with real-time availability of over 900,000 long-tail products.

“With the implementation of inriver PIM, we helped KAFKAS to manage product data in a smarter way,” says Christ. “The data is more reliable and collaboration with suppliers within the Fegime network is more efficient.”

The implementation and integration proceeded smoothly, also due to the smooth cooperation with IBM. ” Because of the broad expertise within Ctac Group, both in SAP implementations and integrations, we were able to think at a high level in every area and quickly make the right connections.”

A partner that looks beyond the implementation

“Ctac looked beyond just the implementation and strategically thought with us about the entire product data chain,” says Nikolaos Platis, IT Manager at KAFKAS. “They helped us not only with the integration of data flows. Additionally, Ctac acted as an intermediary between us and the platform providers, enabling us to make decisions faster and more efficiently. Thanks to Ctac, we had one clear point of contact throughout the entire process.”

Christ reflects positively on the project at KAFKAS and sees plenty of opportunities for organizations facing similar challenges. “The standardized connector between inriver PIM and SAP S/4HANA that we implemented for KAFKAS serves as a solid blueprint. We can use this as a foundation for future projects,” he says.