Category: ADOPT THE SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH

Marcello Lott

Graphic Designer di Fratelli Comunello Spa

We have been working with EKR for almost two years.

This is the moment when we collect the results! The process was a little slow because I mostly followed it myself. It was a nice blender! EKR is a very square system: a good for data management, a bad thing – at the beginning – for someone used to working with InDesign. As we have understood, it is a system that must be shared instead.

We are learning to manage data more quickly, share information, and delegate various parts to different departments.

The first we are involving is the technical office, thanks to a colleague who also works with the PIM. We are starting to manage the technical data part together, to insert and check them with spreadsheets, more quickly.

We were forced to review the organization of the data, and it was a good opportunity! The system imposes its logic, so we were forced to fix aspects that might have remained unmanaged. Surely the speed of data entry and the ease of translation management are also appreciated advantages.

Would you recommend it to another graphic designer? Yes, but only if you have an open mind! In the beginning I too, used to working with InDesign, kept asking myself, but why do I have to wear so many wheels? A little at a time, we realize the convenience of having the data in a single database. For me it is a very positive aspect. The change of mentality for me was not a problem, on the contrary, it was a precious opportunity to be exploited.

Today with EKR we produce documents in 6 different languages. The first time we have composed some product sheets in Italian – after entering the translations – and that we had all the sheets in a day’s language, ready, already in pdf, finish … eh … it was a great experience!

The process of digitization and centralization of data in the company is an essential step: I can say that otherwise, for what has been my experience, the other roads can become dangerous. They only lead to errors and reworking, especially in companies where there are so many products and huge amounts of data to manage.

Paolo Cortesi

Special Products Manager of Camozzi Automation Spa

We chose EKR to create a web portal of our special products.

With 1200 catalog pages and over a hundred series of products, the possible configurations are practically endless. We work a lot personalizing the parameters of the starting product according to the demands of the single customer.

The commercial collects the order with a whole series of modifications. Before EKR, we jumped to the desk neighbor: guys we have never made a cylinder so but shorter, hollow, waterproof, stainless and green ?? It was really impossible to recover that variant. But above all it was difficult to keep salespeople informed!
With EKR we created an online database, used both by the technical office and by the sales force. The great result is being able to share information internally!

The technicians question the system and immediately find what has been achieved with certain characteristics, optimizing the new designs. Salespeople can spend a lot of knowledge from our customers, all our experience in the field!

So far I’ve added about a thousand special products, but the goal between made and projects is around 40,000 … Seen every single product can have up to 80 different information that characterize it … I can say that EKR is one functional tool to manage really huge amounts of data.

Massimiliano Tesser

Chief Information & Logistics Officer di Came Group Spa

I assisted and coordinated the introduction of the EKR ORCHESTRA into the Came Group from day one.

It is not always an easy task. At the Came Group, EKR ORCHESTRA is a cross-departmental project and therefore highlights the organisational complexities of each of the different departments. It could have been drowned at any time? instead we are succeeding!

The key advantages of the system? First of all have a single repository ordered for all the info. Then, clearly define the names and surnames of the managers. Third, the updates: when a datum changes, it varies in any media.

In the initial phase, there was also a review of the data structures, EKR ORCHESTRA eliminated duplication of some categories and led to the redefinition of others: appetite comes with eating and eat to improve our information!

After catalogues and manuals, We have extended EKR ORCHESTRA to the web world.We are taking advantage of the benefits of effective product information management to turn ours into a true product website.

EKR ORCHESTRA takes ownership away from the individual on certain business processes in favour of sharing, and for me that is a big advantage.If the person who holds that piece of information is missing, the others can’t move forward, you have to wait for him to come back from sickness or holiday because the necessary data is in his hand. EKR ORCHESTRA instead leads to working for the company, not the individual.

I recommend EKR ORCHESTRA as a solution for the single source of truth (single source of correct information, ed.) to anyone who is willing and interested in really putting the flow of information in the company in order, dividing it up among the various managers.

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Luca Colesso

Baltur Spa Technical Documentation Manager

A few years ago it was difficult to have a structured congruence of the manuals.

Every manual written in InDesign lived its own life. It was difficult to manage the terminology on the different manuals: many times the same phrase was customized on the various documents by adding or removing, without it being so necessary.

Today when a new text is created there is a more comprehensive analysis, not limited to that moment: there is a structure that needs to be analyzed a little better. The phrase that can go well for a manual, for example, could be good for others, so it should be written in a somewhat more neutral form, trying to optimize information. EKR has certainly brought us a better rating than we write.

And rightly so, the system must lead to more structured terminology management.

We are no longer among the rugged mountains, we must follow flows and processes that must be thought of!

An important step? EKR ORCHESTRA has allowed us to manage the Arabic, both the typesetting and the publication, operations that we previously had to outsource. Today, however, we only outsource the translation, but we are able to typeset and publish in Arabic internally.

Then there are all the other languages: the system has certainly allowed us to improve in their management. It is not only a matter of time and autonomy, but also of savings. Today, translations are made only on sections of text that have not yet been translated, reducing time and costs.

EKR ORCHESTRA has also helped us to improve the quality of translations, because having an internal Baltur memory we have the possibility to do checks and research, working on quality without always relying on external studies.

This management leaves no regrets about what you have abandoned, it is a system that I analysed and chose myself. After careful evaluation, EKR ORCHESTRA seemed to me to be the most suitable system for our company. Their flexibility in handling new issues is certainly a valuable support in the future.

Stefano Molena

Responsible for documentation and manuals of Blue Box Srl

All that lasts over time, should be done with EKR.

First there was an office dedicated to documentation that worked with Word and InDesign. It was updated by hand, and always had to be supported with continuous checks to verify the correctness of the data.

EKR with his flexibility gives you the possibility to modify a transversal element for many products, for us is a fundamental aspect.

An example? In January we had to review the manuals with the new Ecolabel indications. One month to decide what to do, with EKR only 2 hours to do it! It is a very efficient system for continuous updates, as in our sector, we must always keep up with the various regulatory re-issues.

The advantage is to be able to record daily the inputs that emerge from the field experience, even without publishing a specific document. Now when I receive a report I immediately change the data concerned, in a couple of hours I arrange everything and then I can really forget about it!

Not to mention the enormous cost savings for translations: first we sent everything in full to re-translate each time.
We also increased the production of documents and information files: with EKR we produce more material than before!
I am company for 30 years, before I did another job. I started and I chose to learn EKR from beginning to end, and I still think I know 20% of its potential. Because in the end the basic mechanism is simple, but the applications are really very extensive.