We helped Ascona ensure business growth through an updated IT infrastructure

Client

Ascona is a manufacturer and seller of mattresses, furniture and sleep products. The company is investing in R&D, developing a “smart” approach to the selection of sleep products, including analyzing the genetic predisposition to sleep better on firmer mattresses or high pillows. As a result, every second buyer of sleep products chooses Ascona (the brand accounts for 48% of the market).

In 2020 alone, sales across all product groups increased by 10% in retail channels, by 7% in B2B channels, and by 62% through an online store. The production of sofas and beds increased by 55%. 80 new product items have been added, each of which has its own properties and modifications.

Objective: to restructure product processes so that they support the company's development

Ascona is showing good growth dynamics. However, many workflows were developed and implemented when Ascona's range and scale of production were much smaller, and there was only one plant (now there are three in Russia alone). At that time, a large number of “manual” operations were not a restriction.

Along with business development, it was necessary to change both the business processes themselves and their presentation in IT systems.

At the current scale, process modernization has become an urgent necessity. Therefore, in 2020, Ascona decided to automate the planning of work schedules, the processing of documents in the EDM system, warehouse logistics, the work with information about goods, etc. Changes in processes will also be reflected in the updated IT circuit.

For example, to work with product information, Ascona planned to implement a PIM system. To make the IT architecture flexible, easily scalable and upgradable, the company decided to use a message broker.

The company contacted kt. team with these requests: this is how our cooperation began.

What did we do?

• We helped to organize and enrich product cards so that they took less time to fill in, and the card's content was sufficient for both internal business processes and sales through various channels.

• We automated the process of validating product cards at all stages of their “life”. Production, sales, logistics, marketing, order management system, product pricing, and service management services work with the product card.

• They helped to reduce the time for approving non-standard orders and, as a result, the waiting period for the end customer.

• We helped build a flexible, easily upgradable and scalable architecture that will support Ascona's growth.

• They helped to reduce Ascona's IT support costs.

Understand the client's business

At first glance, on a business scale, implementing a PIM system is a local task: Ascona's IT architecture already includes dozens of IT systems.

But this is only at first glance. Ascona is a manufacturing and trading company, so all business processes related to the product life cycle are central to it. As part of these processes, the PIM system is also becoming one of the central elements in the company's IT architecture.

Therefore, implementation began with a long stage of analytics. The kt.team team of project managers and analysts analyzed:

• how the product life cycle is built from idea to delivery;

• how information is managed;

• what information is needed in each sales channel;

• what unusual situations do you have to deal with in online and offline sales;

• which slows down the ordering and production processes in terms of information, etc.

This process took two months. It resulted in a map of processes related to “life” and the content of the product card. In addition, we have recorded processes that can be simplified and automated by enriching the product card with additional information.

Result 1. Sales have become more convenient and understandable for the seller and the buyer

Previously, Ascona's entire product range consisted of material assets. Offline sellers (and the company has more than 850 of these outlets in Russia alone) did not sell, for example, the entire bed, but two separate material assets: “bed frame” and “bed base”: this was convenient for production. Production immediately received orders for the corresponding material assets, divided by factories and delivery times. At the same time, the seller's work became more complicated, and the ordering process was also uncomfortable for the buyer.

Standard case:

A customer comes to the store and says: “I want an X bed with a lifting mechanism.” Previously, a seller should mentally “decompose” the order into a frame and a base with a lifting mechanism, specify which bases are compatible with the selected frame (because there may be nuances), specify production times for each material value, and “fold” the order again. The buyer had to wait for all aspects of his order to be clarified; he didn't understand why they couldn't offer him a “normal bed” right away.

Now the seller is dealing with a whole product. When making an order, he already sees what combinations the X bed is available in, whether there are any combinations with lifting mechanisms. Can tell you how these mechanisms differ. He sees specific production times not for each individual material asset, but for the entire bed.

Result 2. Despite changes in the sales business process, production receives an order in the form of a set of material assets

Combining material assets into goods is convenient for sellers and buyers. But for production, it is still important to know what material assets are needed to complete the order and what spare parts they will consist of.

Therefore, we have kept the look of the business process in terms of production unchanged. The product or goods that are included in the order are automatically “decomposed” into material assets. Only characteristics that are important for production have material value: size, type of material, color from the catalog, etc.

Result 3. The product card contains all the information needed by internal departments and sales channels

The same product “looks” different for different departments. For example, a regular pillow:

• for sales, it looks like this: “pillow, pillow series, 50*70, satin cover, holofiber filler, machine washable, soft, medium in height”;

• for production — like this: “the fabric of such an article is 75* 110 in size, such a tape is 2.5 m, holofiber is 300 g, the lining with diamonds”;

• for logistics — “article such and such, individual packaging polyethylene, group packaging of 20 pieces of polyethylene, the dimensions are such and such; it does not require special transportation conditions, it can be stacked up to so many layers”...

There are attributes that are important for purchasing, for marketing, for individual sales channels, etc.

For each of the 45 product categories from the Ascona catalog, we have compiled a list of attributes that are necessary for the company's divisions to work. As a result, we received expanded cards that contain all information for external and internal users.

Result 4. Only a product with complete and accurate information enters sales channels

The business process of creating and enriching a product card has several stages. For example, “Creating a new card”, “Filling in data”, “Available for sale”, “Withdrawal from stock”, etc.

We have set automatic validation parameters for each status. The system checks whether specific fields have been completed and whether their completion meets the standards. For example, you cannot specify “coconut coir” in the “Mattress height” column, but you also cannot specify “0 mm” or skip this step.

Problem fields are highlighted, and the card is returned for revision. And only if all the required fields are filled in correctly, the card is given the following status.

Now sofas without, for example, a specified seat depth will not go on sale, and an offline seller will easily find the answer to the question: “Can this pillow be washed?”

Result 5. The catalogs offer the entire range, not just basic products

Previously, the process of creating and filling out a product card was completely “manual”. Managers had to enter all parameters — sometimes hundreds of values — manually into the ERP system. For individual sizes of the same product (for example, a mattress 140 and 160 cm wide), it was necessary to create separate cards and duplicate data entry.

• The ERP system was loaded with non-core tasks, but it could not provide all the necessary functionality for managing product information;

• It took a lot of time to add new products to the system;

• due to the human factor, errors and typos occurred;

• goods entered the system late or did not enter the system at all. This made it difficult to sell them.

With the PIM system, the process of adding new products and their variations is automated. Now you don't need to create dozens of cards for all product options: one master card is enough. Directories are connected to the master card, which specify sizes, types of fabrics and other configurable options. Individual cards for each configuration are generated automatically and sent to all sales channels.

Result 6. The deadline for approving non-standard goods has been reduced from two weeks to several minutes

Ascona has a fairly wide range: the main catalog alone contains 81 sofa models and 362 bed models (including “basic” sizes, fabrics and fillers).

The actual production capabilities are much broader. Theoretically, the model can be made in dozens of fabrics and non-standard sizes, with different fillers in the backrests and different armrests. But each material has limitations: for example, fabric cannot be used to make wide armrests, the sofa can only be extended to a certain length, the width of the bed head should be a multiple of a few centimeters...

Custom items account for a significant percentage of sales. How was the process of working with them organized?

A customer came to an offline sales point and said: “I want a sofa like this, but in green matting, 12 cm longer than the basic model and with a softer back.” The seller wrote down the requirements, said goodbye to the customer and sent a production request, because only production specialists could answer that such customization could be performed.

While there were several basic models in stock, and total sales of sofas remained in the range of 100-200 units per month, there were no problems — production could take time to calculate 2-3 individual orders per month.

As of 2021, Ascona produces 15,000 sofas per month, and production had to review up to 20 projects daily. The “queue” to see the technologists lasted for two weeks, and the technologists themselves were loaded with a large amount of unnecessary work!

All this time, the client was waiting for an answer — and he didn't always hear “Yes, we will make your dream sofa”. The restrictions were often explained to him and offered him a different fabric, a different model, or a different length of sofa. But in two weeks, the buyer managed to “cool down”, and a negative answer made him even more opposed to buying.

We proposed an alternative solution: add all possible options and restrictions to directories, and “connect” directories to the product card.

Now the seller shows the customer only those fabrics in which the model they like can be made and checks all the parameters directly at the POS terminal in the presence of the client. If the “ideal option” cannot be completed to within the shade and millimeter, the seller can offer alternatives to the client here and now.

A tangible result as of November 2021: a reduction in the time for approving customized orders. There is reason to believe that the number of successful “non-standard” orders will also increase in the future due to the “processing” of the client during the first visit.

Result 7. The sale of services is transparent for the head office and convenient for sellers

In addition to goods, Ascona sells related services: delivery of furniture and sleeping goods, going up to the floor, assembling, etc. These services were sold separately at the prices of the contractors that provide them and through separate contracts. It was difficult for the head office to monitor service sales statistics and the relevance of service prices at each of the offline locations.

We suggested adding services to PIM as a separate product category. The type of service (for example, delivery in the city) acts as a master model, which, in turn, may consist of several options (delivery in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Khabarovsk...). Each option has its own parameters and its own price.

We linked the services to the goods and to each other so that, when triggered, the seller would be reminded on the POS terminal that it is possible to sell more to the customer right now.

For example, a client orders a bed with a base and a mattress for it. The seller immediately sees that he can sell delivery to such a set of goods before the entrance. Does the buyer live in a high-rise building? This means that he can sell the lift to the right floor more. Did the customer order delivery, but is the item one that needs to be collected? You can also sell the assembly.

Goods and services are grouped into one order. The seller will know exactly what he sold to a particular buyer.

The head office will receive transparent and understandable statistics on the sale of each service in each of the salons, and the cost of each service will be transparent and easy to take into account.

Result 8. It is easy to find the photos, scans, and promotional materials you need in a centralized repository

Each item in Ascona's product range is “surrounded” by numerous digital assets: product photos from different angles, 3D renders, videos, certificates, awards, promotional materials, assembly and care instructions, etc. In addition, there are also arrays of “general” marketing information (for example, on seasonal promotions), production information, information about certificates and licenses from Ascona suppliers... This is millions of files.

Previously, digital assets were distributed to different storage locations: something was in the company's systems, something was on local computers or on a corporate network. The search for the right file could take a while, the files themselves were lost. Limited-term assets had to be tracked “manually” or recorded in Excel files.

We used Pimcore's DAM capabilities. All digital assets have been transferred to this system and streamlined. Each digital asset is linked to relevant directories and products. It is easy to find the file you need, and all the necessary images are automatically “pulled” into the product card.

Assets that have a limited validity period have been marked accordingly: when the target date comes, the responsible employee receives a notification that it is time to renew the certificate, update photos on the site, or turn off ads (for example, if the contract with the “star” expires or a seasonal promotion ends).

Flexible and upgradeable IT architecture

In 2020, Ascona began the process of global IT upgrade. The company has already grown to the extent that it was possible to build a clear and easy-to-manage architecture using point-to-point integrations. The number of systems and integrations has exceeded the “critical level”, and the course towards further IT development made us think about alternative architecture options.

Therefore, Ascona decided to implement an architecture with a message broker in the center.

• lightweight tool;

• easy to deploy;

• easy to administer (preferably with minimal IT involvement);

• scalable;

• with simple integration or replacement of specialized systems.

Based on these requirements, the Kafka message broker was chosen. We've deployed a broker and integrated a standard user interface. But that was only part of the process. In total, we gave three lectures on deploying Kafka and spent more than 100 hours setting up and maintaining a broker.

As a result:

• integrating new systems requires several times less investment in IT: you just need to write the integration of this system with Kafka (working on the side of the system itself);

• any system in the IT circuit can be easily replaced; this will not affect the operation of other systems and integrations in any way. A business can endlessly change, scale, and add new sales channels;

• IT specialists are not needed to find, identify and fix message transmission errors between systems. Managers can track all this through the UI interface.

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