Shopware PIM for the digital upgrade in publishing

Heise – successful media house

Heise Medien GmbH & Co. KG, as part of the Heise Group, stands for high-quality content in the field of technology. 

Heise Medien publishes and distributes various trade journals. These include the IT magazines c’t and iX, as well as photography and technology magazines. Individual issues, subscriptions and other products such as books and merchandise are available in the Heise online shop. 

“Thanks to the Akeneo PIM, we can manage our products much more efficiently and are optimally prepared for future changes both in the market and internally!“

Mark Strothoff, Manager E-Commerce & Shop, Heise Medien GmbH & Co. KG

Product data management as a challenge – an Akeneo PIM for Shopware offers the solution

Heise previously used an in-house development for magazine product group data, the Magento 1 online shop for other product data and other historically grown systems for processes such as subscription, webinar and video tutorial sales. Simple maintenance of the product data was not possible in Magento, as the complex business logic also bloated the shop. A lack of functionalities stood in the way of efficient day-to-day business and made it difficult to keep the product data up to date. External databases were storing additional information and the system landscape of Magento 1 no longer met the company’s requirements due to duplicate data storage and limitations in in-house development.

With the relaunch of Shopware 6 and the planned reorientation in digitalisation, the topic of product data maintenance for e-commerce also moved closer into focus. Like many companies, our customer was also struggling with a historically grown IT ecosystem, which repeatedly led to difficulties in productive day-to-day business, especially with product data. Due to the partially digital product range and a wide variety of company processes depending on the product family, Heise urgently needed centralised, structured data storage in a PIM with an interface to Shopware. Integration into the existing infrastructure was desired in order to guarantee important and necessary processes for the user in the future.

Reasons for using Akeneo PIM for Shopware:

A competitive shop through the interaction of Akeneo PIM and Shopware

We used the increasing demands of the market and the future-orientation of the Heise Group as an opportunity to completely rebuild the infrastructure with the relaunch. The Akeneo PIM for Shopware was chosen for the implementation. The interaction of the individual systems was to be planned according to the best-of-breed approach. Each system only takes on the tasks for which it was developed. This minimises individual development, keeps the implemented systems lean and agile and enables upcoming updates for both Akeneo and Shopware to be implemented with minimal risk.

Akeneo Shopware connectors from third-party providers are available for linking the systems, which are intended to accelerate the transfer of data through export. As these interfaces were unable to fulfil Heise’s complex requirements, igniti developed a connector itself that was designed to meet the customer’s needs.

With the Shopware PIM, the new central source for product information, the company is not only future-orientated, but has also completely repositioned itself strategically. This enabled us to react quickly to the new market requirements during the PIM project phase. Shortly after the start of the project, an additional channel was connected to the Shopware PIM and filled with information. New functions, such as a change history, enable more transparency and options for mass processing allow quick changes on a global level. Restrictions are important because they prevent maintenance errors and guide the user towards a standardised scheme.

Central contact persons and a good filter function are available at all times for questions about products and can provide quick solutions. A simple user interface rounds off the system as a whole.