The Art of Science

Problem: Before Ward’s Natural Science could expand its catalog operations to the Internet, it needed to develop a central repository for the accompanying data for its more than 18,000 products.
Solution: Ward’s installed Pindar Systems’ content management system. Data for all products are now stored in one central database.
Results: Ward’s launched an e-commerce site that has resulted in increased overall sales; employees have saved significant time in their data-management processes; and Ward’s was able to reduce two full-time positions.

When executives at Ward’s Natural Science decided to expand the catalog operations to the Internet, they knew they’d need one central product database to ease the job of multichannel marketing. The Rochester, NY-based provider of educational science products, which sells mostly to teachers, previously had been working from assorted smaller databases that contained information on more than 18,000 products.

“We’d create a new database every time we revised a section of the catalog,” explains Bryan Kommeth, e-business marketing manager at Ward’s. “Each revision ended up being a ‘one-time use’ sort of thing.”

With product-data existing in various databases, employees were entering and updating data (e.g., images, copy, pricing) multiple times — an inefficient process that often led to accuracy problems.

Ward’s publishes three annual catalogs: a 1,300-page biology and chemistry catalog; a 500-page geology catalog; and a 500-page middle school science catalog. It also produces flyers and smaller catalogs (16 to 64 pages).

Kommeth says that maintaining data accuracy for all products was virtually unmanageable with the old patchwork system. In addition to database updates, product information also had to be changed on all QuarkXPress documents for each catalog. And since designers didn’t have database access, they were forced to work from hard copies.

Solution Found

While Ward’s executives were researching various solutions, the company was bought by VWR International, which was a client of Pindar Systems, a content management solutions (CMS) provider. Having already been interested in Pindar’s CMS, Ward’s quickly seized the opportunity to implement the Pindar solution.

Pindar’s CMS installation took the complete year of 2001 and was an admittedly arduous process for all employees, says Kommeth. Much of the time was spent tagging each product with more than 600 appropriate attributes, and then figuring out how to structure them in the new system. The only product identifiers common to all departments were the SKUs.

In July 2002 — about six months after installation was complete — Ward’s launched its new Web site. While its previous site was purely informational, Ward’s new site functions as a sales tool, allowing the cataloger to take advantage of the burgeoning online sales channel.

Also as a result of its new e-commerce capabilities, Ward’s has noticed that its client base is expanding. While teachers still comprise the core customer base, random leads from search engines have brought in new groups of customers not involved in education. “Something we previously considered to be ancillary sales became a substantial part of our orders,” explains Kommeth.

Another result: Employees saved a lot of time by not having to continually update multiple databases. “It allowed us to do more work in the same or less time,” says Kommeth. In addition, the system allows designers to concentrate more on creative elements rather than product data. And Ward’s reduced the number of designers working on the catalogs from four to two full-time positions.

Kommeth notes one caveat: the significant time and financial investment Ward’s made on the CMS. But, he notes, “[Installing the system] was ideal and necessary for us in order to move on. It has definitely paid off.”