With Liferay, Maschio Gaspardo has fully embraced the digital era, regaining control over product data by creating a Universal Catalog and providing quality experiences for stakeholders in the supply chain.
Maschio Gaspardo Chooses Liferay to Redesign Data-Driven Processes
10
languages managed
50%
decrease in layout production time
98%
decrease in printing costs
Outline
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Key Takeaways
- Using Liferay DXP, Maschio Gaspardo now has a unique product data
repository and has taken control of price list creation, which an external agency previously handled. This means that Maschio Gaspardo's product data stays in a secure, protected environment. - With the new Universal Catalog, Maschio Gaspardo can internally generate PDF price lists in 10 languages, making them available online to each stakeholder in the supply chain through restricted access.
- Aligning with their eco-sustainability policy, Maschio Gaspardo has reduced printing and shipping costs by going digital. Printed price lists are now available only at request and for specific business meetings.
- Maschio Gaspardo has implemented a cohesive brand and visual identity across their website, PDFs, and online price lists.
- Digitization enables Maschio Gaspardo to generate analytics on the most-visited pages and determine how to continue adding value for users.
Background
Maschio Gaspardo is an international leader in the production of agricultural equipment for tillage, seeding, fertilization, crop treatment, green maintenance, and haymaking.
Founded in 1964 in the province of Padua originally for the manufacturing of tillage machinery, Maschio Gaspardo is the brainchild of Egidio Maschio and his brothers Giorgio and Antonio. This was a time of great economic development in Italy, and the company encountered success in the domestic market quickly.
Internationalization followed, first in Europe, then in China and India. After a series of major acquisitions, including the 1993 acquisition of the historic Gaspardo Seminatrici company in Morsano al Tagliamento (Pordenone), the official Maschio Gaspardo brand was born. In 2013, the product range expanded further.
Maschio Gaspardo has 8 production plants (5 in Italy and 3 abroad), 13 commercial branches around the world, and 200 models and 2,000 versions of equipment, not to mention optional accessories for every market.
Managing 10 product lines with equipment varying in dimension and construction logic depending on the market, Maschio Gaspardo has to disseminate complex data and information in accessible terms for their sales network, dealers, and customers.
Founded in 1964 in the province of Padua originally for the manufacturing of tillage machinery, Maschio Gaspardo is the brainchild of Egidio Maschio and his brothers Giorgio and Antonio. This was a time of great economic development in Italy, and the company encountered success in the domestic market quickly.
Internationalization followed, first in Europe, then in China and India. After a series of major acquisitions, including the 1993 acquisition of the historic Gaspardo Seminatrici company in Morsano al Tagliamento (Pordenone), the official Maschio Gaspardo brand was born. In 2013, the product range expanded further.
Maschio Gaspardo has 8 production plants (5 in Italy and 3 abroad), 13 commercial branches around the world, and 200 models and 2,000 versions of equipment, not to mention optional accessories for every market.
Managing 10 product lines with equipment varying in dimension and construction logic depending on the market, Maschio Gaspardo has to disseminate complex data and information in accessible terms for their sales network, dealers, and customers.
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Challenges
Before Maschio Gaspardo embarked on their digitization journey, all that complex data was displayed via several channels: the website, the APP, paper price lists, brochures, and user and maintenance manuals. This mix of digital and print formats meant that Maschio Gaspardo was creating 1,500 sets of price lists. With 4 price lists at approximately 300 pages each, this totaled 6,000 price lists per year.
With so much not optimized for the digital age, Maschio Gaspardo wanted to:
With so much not optimized for the digital age, Maschio Gaspardo wanted to:
- Integrate existing systems and manage the flow of product data clearly to make catalogs coherent and easily accessible via all company touchpoints.
- Control the data lifecycle from beginning to end.
- Reduce catalog layout times as well as printing and logistics costs, which were low-value
and extremely time-consuming activities for the dedicated team. - Streamline work processes to remove the need for product updates involving
separate documents and manual corrections. - Realign catalog production with the company's eco-sustainability policy, reinforced by
winning major awards, at both the process and product levels. - Implement a scalable design according to an evolution strategy.
The Liferay platform has given the company back the skills and product information that are
essential assets for us. We now have a single source of updates thanks to a structured process involving all key business stakeholders.
essential assets for us. We now have a single source of updates thanks to a structured process involving all key business stakeholders.
Implementation
Maschio Gaspardo turned to technology partner Adacto | Adiacent for strategic insight into how to conduct a website revamp and improve product data management. As Maschio Gaspardo worked with Adacto | Adiacent, they realized that the experience of various stakeholders along the supply chain could be reimagined as well to ensure that the materials produced were used correctly.
Other areas of improvement included price lists and the effective communication of specific information and services. Price lists are a key sales tool for Maschio Gaspardo, essential for communicating information about product configurations, connected accessories, and possible combinations of accessories and equipment.
Working closely with Maschio Gaspardo, Adacto | Adiacent proposed creating a solution capable of handling existing complexity and solving their challenges: the Universal Catalog. Liferay DXP, as a long-standing partner of Adacto | Adiacent, was chosen as the implementation platform.
The creation of the Universal Catalog involved the introduction of three logic systems, with Liferay DXP as the primary ecosystem, the central data access point through which the experience is presented and content is shown on the properties and on each activated channel for creation, management, and distribution. The second logic system is a PIM (Product Information Management) for managing the product catalogs, and the third is a DAM (Digital Asset Management), both of which integrate with Liferay DXP.
Liferay DXP's strong integration capabilities shine here: the system is not standalone, but fully integrated into enterprise legacy systems (SAP and AS/400.) As a platform designed for B2B, Liferay DXP can handle complexity, responding with flexibility and scalability using out-of-the-box tools and frameworks.
Liferay's multi-port DXP solution is the large container within which the various players in Maschio Gaspardo's supply chain now act, with data organization and enrichment activities serving all company touchpoints.
Other areas of improvement included price lists and the effective communication of specific information and services. Price lists are a key sales tool for Maschio Gaspardo, essential for communicating information about product configurations, connected accessories, and possible combinations of accessories and equipment.
Working closely with Maschio Gaspardo, Adacto | Adiacent proposed creating a solution capable of handling existing complexity and solving their challenges: the Universal Catalog. Liferay DXP, as a long-standing partner of Adacto | Adiacent, was chosen as the implementation platform.
The creation of the Universal Catalog involved the introduction of three logic systems, with Liferay DXP as the primary ecosystem, the central data access point through which the experience is presented and content is shown on the properties and on each activated channel for creation, management, and distribution. The second logic system is a PIM (Product Information Management) for managing the product catalogs, and the third is a DAM (Digital Asset Management), both of which integrate with Liferay DXP.
Liferay DXP's strong integration capabilities shine here: the system is not standalone, but fully integrated into enterprise legacy systems (SAP and AS/400.) As a platform designed for B2B, Liferay DXP can handle complexity, responding with flexibility and scalability using out-of-the-box tools and frameworks.
Liferay's multi-port DXP solution is the large container within which the various players in Maschio Gaspardo's supply chain now act, with data organization and enrichment activities serving all company touchpoints.
Results
The Universal Catalog based on Liferay DXP was a multi-step project that took about two years to complete and finally enabled Maschio Gaspardo to revolutionize their product data management and catalog creation.
Here's an overview of the results:
Here's an overview of the results:
- Uniqueness of data and a single source of truth. The platform has allowed Maschio Gaspardo to take back control of their product data and, through secure, personalized access, to provide catalog users with correct and up-to-date information.
- Modern, scalable architecture and an improved user experience. Thanks to the Enterprise-grade nature of Liferay's platform, the new solution can personalize information according to purpose, audience, and media type.
- Reduction of printing and shipping costs. Because of automation and digitization, Maschio Gaspardo now only prints 100 catalog copies for exclusive use in meetings, compared to 6,000 copies in the past.
- Elimination of costly errors. With Maschio Gaspardo owning all data, the need for manual file corrections has been reduced.
- An increase in the number of languages and a reduction in list layout time. The Universal Catalog offers content in 10 languages, compared to the previous 4, and it now takes only 4 months (instead of 8) to lay out the catalogs.
- Flexible integration. Existing systems can be integrated easily into the new systems, and the team can develop new digital services efficiently. For instance, Maschio Gaspardo was able to integrate the Universal Catalog with SAP and AS/400 systems using Liferay connectors seamlessly and flexibly.
- New digital services available. Maschio Gaspardo can use analytics for better targeting and personalization of services.
- Increased security. With rigorous identity management standards, Liferay DXP protects Maschio Gaspardo's data, as is attested by international certification programs.
Conclusion
Maschio Gaspardo's biggest digital transformation challenge was figuring out how to manage the entire data lifecycle. Many teams came together to solve this challenge, but it's really only the beginning of Maschio Gaspardo's digital journey. "Within the company, the tool is widely appreciated and used, and we are already seeing demand for new features," explains Maschio Gaspardo's Marketing Director.
This opens up possibilities for future digital transformation projects like the creation of a new intranet or HR portal and scaling up a single natively-integrated platform. The flexibility of Liferay DXP allows Maschio Gaspardo to create, launch, and optimize customized solutions—with the additional advantages of SaaS. Ultimately, Liferay DXP is helping Maschio Gaspardo achieve their digital transformation goals both now and in the future.
This opens up possibilities for future digital transformation projects like the creation of a new intranet or HR portal and scaling up a single natively-integrated platform. The flexibility of Liferay DXP allows Maschio Gaspardo to create, launch, and optimize customized solutions—with the additional advantages of SaaS. Ultimately, Liferay DXP is helping Maschio Gaspardo achieve their digital transformation goals both now and in the future.
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