Prysmian unifies and manages 300,000+ SKUs across global markets

Discover how Prysmian creates accurate, reusable product content for use across regions and standards with Inriver, laying out the foundation for a more sustainable future for Prysmian. 

The challenge

Prysmian is a global leader in cable manufacturing, offering an extensive array of products, services, technologies, and expertise that spans many industries, sectors, and regions. The company is a key player in global power transmission, distribution and logistics, construction, and civil infrastructure. Every year, Prysmian manufactures thousands of kilometers of underground and submarine cables and systems, establishing the company as a key global player in connecting, supporting, and advancing societies the world over. With over 300,000 SKUs and counting, Prysmian is one of the world’s largest and most influential manufacturers.

Prysmian, a publicly listed company, prides itself on creating innovative products and delivering groundbreaking projects while demonstrating ethical and transparent governance practices. The company is also implementing strong sustainability policies and is guided by three pillars in all they do:

• Energy transition: to help the world transition to a new source of energy
• Digitalization:  to advance the digitalization of the world
• Sustainability: to consider the environment and society

The strategic importance of the company and its product portfolio comes with its own unique set of challenges, both on a macro and micro level. With complex products supporting a diverse range of commercial applications, Prysmian required a technological solution to its ever-growing data chaos. This chaos was compounded by varying market standards and the need to support multiple languages across multiple regions. The challenges faced by Prysmian included:

• Managing product data across a large number of different databases, spreadsheets, and systems
  Product information was characterized and described in different ways, on different IT systems, and on spreadsheets and data sheets. This dispersed information was difficult to manage efficiently and deliver to all their different sales channels.
• Managing a mix of technical and commercial data
  With millions of different products and hundreds of sales and distribution channels, Prysmian needed a platform that allowed it to manage both technical data and commercial data, such as short descriptions, long descriptions, certifications, videos, pictures, branding, and other information.
• Managing a vast range of products each with distinct operational, logistical, and commercial nuances
  Cables that might share manufacturing processes could vary greatly in terms of their intended commercial purposes, changing their use in different markets. This complexity resulted in a disconnection of product data needs between operational and commercial teams, which hindered the communication of product information across the globe.
• Managing the migration towards digital channels and e-commerce
  With the rapid growth in digital commerce, Prysmian’s B2B customers had new requirements. They were asking for clarity of data, completeness of information, and fresh, usable product information to run their e-commerce sites efficiently. Prysmian
• needed to react to these demands.