Navis Food Partners set out to elevate its customer experience by simplifying the way customers search for and find the products they need. Following the integration of PrimeSource and City Line Distributors, Navis inherited two separate ERP systems and product catalogs, managing over 13,000 unique products. To enhance search functionality and provide customers with a seamless experience, Navis sought a unified solution to create a single, consistent source of product information.

To achieve this, Navis partnered with iResponsive to implement Akeneo, a Product Information Management (PIM) platform tailored to consolidate and streamline product data. The Akeneo solution enabled Navis to deliver a premium product search experience, eliminate redundancies, and position the company for future growth. This white paper explores how Navis leveraged Akeneo to enhance its operations and deliver on its
customer-focused vision.

Navis’s primary objective was to create a robust product search system that empowers customers to find exactly what they need quickly and efficiently. To realize this vision, Navis needed to overcome the limitations of its fragmented data landscape, which included inconsistent naming conventions, duplicated entries, and diverse data requirements across product categories.

The challenges were not mere obstacles but opportunities for improvement driven by Navis’s commitment to enhancing its customer service. By addressing these issues, Navis could build a platform capable of delivering accurate, reliable, and comprehensive product information to meet customer demands.

iResponsive’s implementation of Akeneo was designed to support Navis’s goal of delivering a seamless and intuitive product search experience for its customers. Akeneo provided the foundation for organizing, consolidating, and standardizing product data, ensuring it was accessible and easy to manage.

Key features of the implementation included:

• Data Consolidation for a Unified Catalog
• Akeneo served as the single source of truth for product data, consolidating entries from multiple ERP systems. This reduced redundancies, ensured data accuracy, and enabled consistent product representation.
• Enhanced Categorization for Customer-Focused Organization
  Using Akeneo’s robust categorization tools, Navis organized products into clear, logical groups, such as fresh foods, frozen items, and chemicals, allowing customers to quickly navigate and filter results.
• Rule-Based Automation for Efficiency
  Automation features in Akeneo streamlined the assignment of product attributes and assets, eliminating manual processes and ensuring accuracy across thousands of products.
• Custom Attributes for Product-Specific Requirements
  Detailed attribute configurations enabled Navis to capture and present all necessary information for its diverse product range, from regulatory documentation for chemicals to detailed descriptions for fresh produce
• Multilingual Support for Global Expansion
  Akeneo’s built-in translation tools allowed Navis to prepare for international growth by offering product information in multiple languages, ensuring accessibility for a broader customer base.
• Scalability for Future Growth
  Akeneo’s flexible platform was designed to accommodate new product lines, categories, and brands, ensuring Navis could continue to meet evolving customer needs without reconfiguring its systems.

The Akeneo implementation empowered Navis to achieve significant improvements in its customer service capabilities and product data management:

• Improved Search Accuracy: Enhanced data consistency and organization ensure customers can find the exact products they need with ease.
• Streamlined Updates: Automation reduces the time required to update product data, allowing Navis to respond quickly to changing customer demands.
• Detailed and Reliable Information: Comprehensive and accurate product profiles inspire customer trust and improve satisfaction.
• Global Accessibility: Multilingual capabilities enable Navis to serve customers in diverse markets with localized product information.

Navis’s decision to implement Akeneo was driven by its desire to enhance the customer experience and streamline its operations. By consolidating fragmented data, automating workflows, and enabling detailed product categorization, Navis has created a powerful foundation for delivering a seamless product search experience. With Akeneo, Navis is well-positioned to continue its growth while providing exceptional service to its customers.

This transformation highlights Navis’s commitment to innovation and its customers, ensuring that they always have access to the precise product information they need, when they need it.