Enhancing Data Management for Rensa with PIM

Rensa Family Company is an Achterhoek- based company that operates as a central service provider for Rensa Family. Originally founded in 1953 as a wholesaler in oil and coal stoves, it is today an international group of technical suppler wholesalers for the installation industry.

As a central service provider in an international group made up of various technical wholesalers for the installation industry, Rensa Family Company is a versatile company with a lot of in-house know-how. The different sales companies that makeup Rensa Family use the services and expertise of Rensa Family Company daily. Between logistics, HR, eCommerce and ICT, technical support, Marketing, and financial administration, Rensa Family Company serves as the central resources for the 15 current companies that make up Rensa Family.

Rensa Family had experienced plenty of success and required change to sustain their expansion. It had grown as far as its infrastructure allowed and needed to improve how it stored and used data. With 15 companies currently under the Rensa Family brand, it had a solution that enabled the companies to retain a certain amount of independence. Each supplier has different ERP systems, so the organization needed to unify the data it received from the complex sources. However, with their current trajectory of growth, leadership knew they would need automated workflows and unified product data with sufficient monitoring and reporting tools. The company also needed a single source of truth to manage its product data and assets.

Rensa Family wants to take a leading position in supplying all their customers' industrial and built-up installation needs. They needed a data management program that would support these goals and provide a more personalized experience, with faster time to market and unique content to present the company as a leader in the industry. Rensa Family also wanted to improve their data quality to feed their channels, including eCommerce.

In short, Rensa Family wanted high-quality, unified data that could help them streamline their processes to help them expand and provide even better service to customers.

Rensa Family leadership started by engaging another solution and implementation partner but found that both companies didn’t meet their expectations. Rensa worked with SQLI with another PIM vendor and was impressed with how they operated in the past, so leadership asked if we would partner with the implementation.

Leadership already knew that SQLI was a cultural fit for them and appreciated their approach, which included an in-depth discovery phase and implementation and scrum team. Plus, SQLI has Dutch-speaking consultants, which made the implementation process much easier for their teams.

They also decided to engage with Stibo Systems for their Enterprise Platform (STEP) as data management solution. Rensa Family reached out to SQLI to lead the project's first phase, including designing the blueprint and implementing it for their first subsidiary, Libra Energy.

In the first phase, SQLI supported onboarding Rensa’ developers in the scrum team. Because the project started shortly before the COVID pandemic, everyone involved had to find new ways of working together than they had in the past. The discovery workshop happened before the pandemic and was on site with SQLI, but the implementation happened online through Microsoft Teams.

All the teams learned how to manage the situation well and still align on both collaboration and expectations. As each company adjusted to a new form of work, SQLI and Rensa Family built a strong partnership.

SQLI kept regular, weekly communication with Stibo Systems so that Rensa Family did not have to go back and forth between two separate teams. Instead, they could keep their contact with SQLI, ensuring a smooth process with fewer meetings and less chance of miscommunication.

With collaboration between leadership in the eCommerce and Data Management departments at Rensa Family and the consultants at SQLI, STEP successfully went live in March 2021. Even with successful implementation, SQLI provides support to ensure that the Rensa Family experiences continued success with its data management. SQLI continues to provide consultancy and three days of developer support to implement STEP at Rensa Netherlands.

The new product information management system provided by Stibo Systems with SQLI as the implementation partner for Libra Energy and the Rensa Family resulted in several different advantages:

• The easy-to-use and intuitive software enables the company to work much faster.

• The workflow built into the system makes the tasks and responsibilities very clear and measurable.

• The user interface also improved.

• STEP links easily with the ERP system. Workers can fill in data once, and it seamlessly transfers to both systems.

All of these improvements resulted not only in greater convenience to the team at Rensa Family Company, but helped them to provide better service to customers. The company can now provide unique videos as content, as well as recommendations for customers. In addition to easy-to-use software, SQLI made the process of implementing it more straightforward for the companies.

With SQLI as the point of contact, Rensa Family leadership did not have to go back and forth with multiple companies. Plus, SQLI’s knowledgeable consultants answered all of the questions and ensured that everything was built to Rensa Family specifications.

SQLI’s support doesn’t end with a successful implementation. Consultation and support ensured that Rensa Family continues to be happy with its data management system.

With their first implementation a success, Rensa Family Company is looking forward to rolling out the STEP data management to all of its subsidiaries. Next, leadership plans on implementing PIM software for their Dutch companies, followed by their German wholesaler, DEWEtech.

With in-person meetings again and the experience with their first wholesaler, future implementations will be even smoother and have an even more significant impact as sharing product information will be even more seamless.

Once the implementation is done, Rensa Family then plans to configure software to further guide onboarding new items and enriching them. Plus, regular STEP updates will ensure that Rensa continues to be cutting edge for their customers on all eCommerce channels.