ERFOLGSGESCHICHTE
WEPA Professional is part of the WEPA Group, one of Europe’s leading hygiene paper manufacturers with approximately 4,600 employees and a strong market presence in both the consumer and professional segments. In the professional division, WEPA develops and distributes hygiene paper products and dispenser systems for a wide range of applications from industrial companies to hospitality and hotels to schools, stadiums and more.
With increasing internationalization, growing e-commerce business, and rising complexity of product portfolios, one topic became increasingly central: the efficient management and provisioning of product data.
WEPA undertook an ambitious initiative to modernize its product data foundations. New processes, technology, and partnerships yielded smarter insights, accelerated data acquisition, and equipped the business up to handle evolving regulatory challenges such as the Digital Product Passport.
Before implementing a central solution, product information management at WEPA was characterized by legacy systems that had evolved over time. Data was maintained in different departments, stored in various locations, and often held redundantly.
This created a situation where a consistent view of product data was impossible. Conflicting or incomplete depictions and specifications across channels and silos was common. For many processes—particularly in sales or ecommerce—information had to be manually compiled and reconciled. “For a single product, there were countless different data points,” said Astrid Hennecke, Director of Master Data Management at WEPA. “You had to pull everything together from various sources before you could even start working.”
This structure not only led to high operational overhead but also directly impacted the speed and quality of processes. Creating data records for new products was particularly very time-intensive and error-prone, causing painful delays in a competitive market where agility and speed to market are critical.
Existing processes increasingly struggled to keep pace with rising expectations from customers, retailers, and regulators. Particularly in data-driven areas such as e-commerce or when connecting customer portals, it became clear that the availability of cleanly structured product data is a critical success factor. “”Preparing article data consumed a tremendous amount of time,” Astrid shared. “Sometimes it wasn’t about days, but weeks.”
Cycle times for creating new products were correspondingly high: On average, it took around 90 days for a product to be fully created and ready for use—in individual cases, significantly longer.
The lack of transparency and consistency caused operational problems throughout the organization. Without a central data foundation, it was difficult to ensure that all departments were working with the most current information.
One-off and ad-hoc fixes to product records were time-consuming and error prone. To sustainably solve these challenges, WEPA decided to implement Syndigo Master Data Management (MDM) and Product Information Management (PIM) systems.
The goal was to build a central and consistent data foundation that captures, validates, and provides all product information in a structured manner for different use cases. MDM assumes the role of central data governance along internal processes, while PIM enables the use and mobilization across various channels. “”We need both—MDM and PIM, Astrid explained. “Only this way can we properly capture the data and later use it meaningfully.”
One key advantage of this approach is that data doesn’t need to be corrected at the end of a process. Instead, it can be captured in a structured and quality-assured manner from the moment of its creation and preserved in the correct format through all downstream uses.
Implementation of PIM and MDM was carried out in phases, initially focusing on core processes such as new product creation and approval and incrementally adding new capabilities in a structured manner that supported speed without disruption.
Today, product data is captured, supplemented, and reviewed along clearly defined workflows. Different departments contribute their information and content in a structured manner, from the initiator through technical and quality teams to marketing and e-commerce. This systematic approach has replaced or significantly reduced many manual activities.
Additionally, a foundation was created to automatically transfer data to downstream systems, such as ERP systems, customer portals, or e-commerce platforms. Integration with data pools like Atrify (now part of Syndigo) also enables standardized provisioning of product information to retail partners and platforms.
“We need to distribute our product data to vastly different systems—from customer portals to platforms like Metro and Kaufland,” said Christoph Shultz, Digital Process Manager. “The goal is to provide this data in a structured and automated manner in the future.”
This combination of process, technology and connections creates the foundation for WEPA to distribute product data consistently, currently, and scalably across all relevant sales channels—while simultaneously significantly reducing manual effort at every stage.
Clear improvements in efficiency and process speed are evident even through ongoing implementation. One example is initial data capture for new products: the required time was reduced from over two hours to approximately 30 to 35 minutes.
“Today, tasks that used to take a very long time now require only a fraction of the time,” Astrid said.
Data quality has also improved. Through clear responsibilities and the mapping of dependencies in the system, errors are detected early or avoided entirely. “Previously, you could simply enter errors without anyone noticing,” Astrid noted. “Today, much of this is controlled by the system.”
Overall, this leads to significantly higher process reliability, less coordination effort, and noticeable relief for the teams involved.
The robust, flexible and scalable technological foundation of Syndigo’s data management solutions played a central role in the vendor selection process. WEPA evaluated various options but quickly recognized that many systems had limitations that would hinder the business’s ambitious long-term goals and needs, even if they could fulfill some immediate requirements.
With these factors in mind, deliberately selected a technologically sustainable platform that can both deliver immediate value and support future growth. “Some of the systems we evaluated are based on older technological structures,” Christoph shared. “It was important to us to choose a solution that is technologically future-proof and can reliably support our growing requirements.”
This creates the foundation for WEPA to reliably support increasing data volumes, new digital sales channels, and future regulatory requirements over the long term.
Beyond technology, choosing the right implementation partner was also critical to the project’s success. valantic, a specialized technology implementation partner, supported WEPA not only with technical implementation but especially with the structured development and optimization of underlying processes. “valantic has so much expertise—they’re simply the right sparring partner for us. The collaboration works professionally and personally,” Christoph recounted. “That makes a huge difference in the project.”
Close collaboration and deep understanding of the WEPA’s unique requirements made it possible to implement solutions pragmatically and set it up for future scale.
For a project of this scale, it became clear how important the combination of technological platform and partnership-based implementation is. The close coordination between WEPA, valantic, and Syndigo forms the basis for sustainable further development of the product data strategy.
One important driver for the transformation is the increasing significance of regulatory requirements in the product data domain. A central concern for many businesses operating in the European Union is the Digital Product Passport, which will become mandatory for many industries in the coming years.
The law required companies like WEPA to provide comprehensive and structured information about their products, including complex provenance data. “We need to be able to provide the data—otherwise we won’t be listed in the future,” explained Christoph.
For WEPA, it’s clear that crystal-clear data management is critical for achieving these requirements. By implementing Syndigo’s platforms, WEPA is already creating the foundation today to efficiently fulfill requirements for the DPP as well as adapt to future regulations that may emerge.
With more than 9,000 active products and approximately 300 attributes per product, the complexity of product data management at WEPA is evident. Syndigo makes it possible to manage this data in a structured manner and distribute it flexibly to different systems and markets.
Building on this, WEPA plans to further expand its relationship with Syndigo, leaning on its expertise and innovation to adopt stronger automation, additional integrations, and expansion to additional markets and languages.
The implementation of Syndigo PIM and MDM at WEPA Professional has not only delivered operational improvements but has initiated a fundamental transformation in how product data is managed.
Structured product data management is now a central prerequisite for efficiency, scalability, and future readiness—especially in an increasingly data-driven market environment.
