By building on an ongoing SAP NetWeaver Master Data Management (SAP NetWeaver MDM) initiative, American Standard came up with a solution in which accurate product data is fed from a central repository to a new Spanish-language Web site that offers customers a more complete and useful user experience. The solution has also streamlined the process of keeping product information up to date by allowing business users to update the data repository easily.

“Over the last four years we have done a few projects using MDM, and here we had a specific business problem to solve. Using a combination of MDM, portal, and other technologies, we were able to solve the problem,” says Mukunda Krishnaswamy, CTO of American Standard.  

Bringing American Standard to Mexico

Although Mexico is an important manufacturing base for the company,  that nation represents only a fraction of the company’s retail market. Expanding the business in Mexico required replacing the company’s faulty Spanish-language Web site, according to Victor Colon, CIO of American Standard.

In order to update product information — such as adding new products, new images of existing products, or updating descriptions of products — business users had to email the Web site provider and request changes. It was evident, says Colon, that the Web site provider was having difficulty keeping pace with the volume of change requests.

”There were times when some updates would show up on the site while others did not, so the information wasn’t always up to date. That caused a lot of delays,” he says.

“The Mexican business was using a Web site that was hosted on an off-site Web server. It was not dependable, and it was difficult to figure out what went wrong when the site went down,” says Krishnaswamy. “The larger issue was that it was difficult to keep product information on the site updated.”

In 2006, American Standard implemented SAP NetWeaver MDM in order to provide accurate product information to its channel partners. In 2008, the company sought to build on that initiative to increase brand awareness in Mexico.

“Our strategy is to use the technologies we have to drive not only our core ERP processes, but for projects around marketing and customer service and to build awareness of our brand,” says Colon.

To accomplish this, American Standard needed to achieve three goals:

1. Build a central repository for product information

As in many companies, product data at the Mexican division of American Standard was stored in multiple silos, such as spreadsheets, ad-hoc databases, and other forms. To ensure that product data was accurate and consistent across the company, American Standard needed to centralize product data in a single repository and make that data available to the business users and applications that needed it. 

2. Create a new customer-facing Web site

To build brand awareness, American Standard needed a site that would offer customers up-to-date product information and a user friendly experience. The project team identified several key deliverables for a new Web site, including:

• Accurate and timely product information
• Easy navigation via search and categorization
• High uptime and site performance
• Spanish language support
• Platform for e-commerce
• Social networking capabilities

3. Give business users the tools they need to keep product information up to date

Keeping product data up-to-date required creation of an internal portal that allows business users to make changes or add information to the centralized product data repository. The Web site then pulls the information directly from the repository, ensuring that American Standard’s internal and external audiences were seeing the same updated product data (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Up-to-date product data pulled from a central repository to the American Standard Mexico Web site (www.americanstandard.com.mx)

“We wanted to use the product database to connect the maintenance to the publication process, so we have full control over how we maintain product data and how we publish it,” says Krishnaswamy.

Securing executive buy-in for the project was relatively simple, says Colon, because it squared perfectly with the company’s ongoing master data initiatives and aggressive online strategy.

“Our CEO, Don Devine, is very interested in promoting and protecting our brand  using the Internet and social networking. To leverage the opportunity presented by the web, he is managing the web as a distinct channel,” says Colon. “This initiative aligns with our business strategy and creates opportunity to grow our market share.”

Connecting the Parts

Accomplishing the project’s three main objectives required the team to meet several challenges. After careful planning, the team was able to construct a system in which the company’s SAP and other systems feed data to a master repository in SAP NetWeaver MDM. Product data from the master repository is then replicated to a slave repository that feeds information to the Web site.

Business users connect to the master repository to update or add product information via a clustered implementation of NetWeaver Portal. The slave repository is connected to the Internet via NetWeaver Portal also. See Figure 2 for an overview of the solution.

Figure 2

Making product data available to business users and the Web

The reason the project team created separate master and slave repositories was to improve performance, stability and create opportunity to review before publication to the external site. See Figure 3 for a screen shot of the data maintenance portal that allows business users to update the product database.

Figure 3

Business users can update or add product information using a standard template

“In the future we can build several slave repositories that pull data from the same master, for example to support different languages,” says Krishnaswamy.

The team also used a clustered approach in NetWeaver Portal to avoid Web site downtime.

“Technically, we have two different portals. When the active portal goes down, the clustered passive portal comes up to minimize the downtime,” says Krishnaswamy.

The project itself was divided into two phases. The first phase, which began in November 2008, focused on transitioning to the new Web site and tying the product data shown on the site to SAP NetWeaver MDM. During the second phase, the project team added advanced features to the site, such as related product information, and branched out into social networking by building a presence on Facebook.

The Facebook page (Figure 4) offers product updates and information via photos, videos, and status updates. To create interest in the Facebook page, the project team reached out to its own employees first.

Figure 4

The American Standard Mexico Facebook page

“We started off with friends and family, but now people are using it constantly. We also provide people with data on how our products help save water or are otherwise eco-friendly, and using that to draw interest in Facebook,” says Yuviza Guthmiller, senior analyst, American Standard.

Lessons Learned

The project team faced several obstacles to the implementation, including issues with data cleansing and special characters. Among the key lessons learned during the project were the following:

Take a phased approach

While it is tempting to lay out a robust project plan and push the entire initiative forward all at once, you’re better off building incrementally on top of previous projects, says Krishnaswamy. This not only reduces the complexity of the project, but also allows you to track key business deliverables more easily.

“One of the smart things we did was to break up the project into smaller pieces that we could chew on. Taking a phased approach and having clear business deliverables tied to them was very important,” he says.

Don’t underestimate the effort required to clean up data

Because the project team sought to link product data with relationships and categories, it was critical to collect that data as accurately and consistently as possible. Accomplishing this required extensive effort from the project team.

“Gathering the data and cleansing it — and getting the right information, whether it’s software copies or images for the site — takes a significant amount of time. It was challenging to allocate appropriate time for that in the project plan,” says Prasad Chunduri, MDM Team Lead.  

Plan for foreign language support early

One of the more difficult challenges to the project arose near the end, when the team realized that supporting certain Spanish language characters would require changes at the system level.

“We had to go back and convert the database at the server level to UTF-8 in order to take care of special characters issue. That was a challenge because we were far along in the project and had to make these changes at the database level,” says Dinesh Nakka, lead architect.

Budget adequate time for customization

While SAP NetWeaver Portal and MDM both offer tools and capabilities required for the project, there was still a need to customize those technologies to fit American Standard’s needs. “We met our business needs using a combination of Java, NetWeaver Portal, and Web Dynpro tools to forge the connections between the external site and the internal data maintenance portal,” says Natalie Zhang, Senior Analyst.

Build your project team around several skill sets

Because the project was built on an ongoing master data initiative that touches several business functions and technologies, the project team required a diverse skill set to accomplish its goals. Krishnaswamy says it was vital to recruit team members with strong SAP ERP backgrounds as well as ownership over key processes and publications.

Krishnaswamy also urges companies not to overlook skills in front-end Web creation and search engine optimization (SEO) — key skills for building traffic and a pleasant user experience.

“If you’re developing a customer-facing Web site, it’s helpful to have a resource with a Web graphics skill set. That’s not typical in an IT department,” he says. “You may also need help writing marketing copy. You have to put something together that’s consumer or customer friendly.”

Take time to define requirements

Because the project team was based at American Standard’s headquarters in Piscataway, New Jersey, team members would have to communicate with the Mexican division via phone and email to determine the project requirements. The team had difficulty finalizing and enforcing a single set of requirements.

“As the project progressed, they would ask for things or we would discover new things we could provide them. Getting the actual user requests nailed down was a challenge,” says Guthmiller.

Better Uptime, Processes

The project team tracked the solution’s benefits using several metrics. On the Web side, the team tracks site uptime, page and search response time, and how customers are using the site. In all three areas, Krishnaswamy says American Standard is giving its Mexican site visitors a far greater user experience.

The project has also streamlined the process for keeping internal product data updated, according to the project team. Business users at the Mexico division needed only a few phone-based training sessions to learn how to use the product data maintenance portal, and have reported no issues with it since.

“We now have a centralized product database for the Mexican business that allows them to publish product information directly to the Web site. We have also eliminated some of the inefficiencies around how the information was updated and made significant improvements to the completeness and accuracy of the information,” says Colon.

Expanding the Solution

Because the solution was built on a sturdy foundation of SAP NetWeaver MDM, the American Standard team expects to expand it further in the future. The next step is to integrate online sales and give customers the ability to check the status of their orders by linking the online order status to data from the SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) application.

“We’re planning to use a lot of the functionality we have today to implement a quick online sales and CRM solution. The work we’ve done through SAP NetWeaver MDM is the foundation,” says Krishnaswamy.

Davin Wilfrid

Davin Wilfrid was a writer and editor for SAPinsider and SAP Experts. He contributed case studies and research projects aimed at helping the SAP ecosystem get the most out of their existing technology investments.

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