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Streamlining P4 Markets' integrations in a fast and cost-effective way.

Written by
Carla Hetherington
Published on
March 9, 2023

P4 Markets is a German-based, all-rounded company that combines online marketplace business, distribution, fulfillment services, and e-commerce consulting in one. With over 20 years of experience in e-commerce and distribution in the fashion industry, P4 Markets is a fast-growing company focused on developing lifestyle & fashion brands, B2B & B2C, with extensive knowledge about fairtrade and sustainable markets.

P4 Markets sells their customers' products on online marketplaces such as Zalando. In order to do so, they need to meet several requirements and prepare their articles in the right way so they are visible to buyers in the marketplace. The more information the products have, the higher they rank, and the more visible they are in the marketplace. To ensure the products are correctly prepared, a PIM (Product Information Management) system is needed to enrich the product’s information, and so P4 Markets began their integration journey by introducing Akeneo as their PIM system. Akeneo was working well on its own, but then when they tried to integrate Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central as their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system to help with their logistics, financial matters, and overall functioning, complications arose.

The two systems had to be synchronized since, although all their article information was stored in Akeneo, articles had to be registered in the Microsoft BC system first since the product information resided there as well and it had become their main system. As such, product identifiers such as the type of product, size, brand, and other additional information had to be synced in both the PIM and ERP systems. Having a developer sync these two systems was not an easy task, since a whole new code would have to be created and monitoring features added, resulting in spending vast amount of time and money. While browsing the internet for a solution to their problem, P4 Markets came across Alumio.

The Alumio low-code integration platform helped P4 Markets create a seamless omnichannel experience. By connecting their ERP (Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central) to their PIM system (Akeneo) using the Alumio iPaaS (integration Platform as a Service), they were able to synchronize their product attributes, categories, and much more, which helped streamline and optimize their business processes in a fast and cost-effective manner.

Endpoints

  1. Akeneo
    Akeneo is a PIM (Product Information Management) solution that collects and centralizes product information from virtually anywhere, improves team collaboration and productivity around product information enrichment, and helps deliver the most compelling omnichannel product experiences.
  2. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
    Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly known as Dynamics NAV) is a comprehensive ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution designed to meet the financial and operational needs of small and midsize enterprises. Among other things, Microsoft BC provides enhanced financial and business performance, improved customer service, and a streamlined inventory and supply chain management.

Normally, this entire integration project would have taken a developer a total of ten weeks. With Alumio, our systems were synchronized within two weeks, and the entire implementation took a total of four weeks, saving us large amounts of time and money. The success of this project was in great part due to the Alumio Support Team and their outstanding service during the entire process.

-Patrik Herrscher, head of IT at P4 Markets

Why Alumio?

Cost-optimization, time-efficiency, and monitoring features.

Instead of having to deal with the hassles of integrating systems via custom code with the help of senior developers, P4 Markets was able to carry out their integration project in a short amount of time, at a great price. One of the key points why they chose Alumio was the monitoring features of Alumio, that allowed them to have a comprehensive overview of their integrations, something that they would have had to add to track and review manual code done in-house.

Synchronized systems

With over 20 years of experience and an excellent track record of customer satisfaction, P4 Markets placed great importance on having a solid integration platform that would ensure their business efficiency and automation. Thanks to Alumio, P4 Markets was able to enjoy the seamless synchronization between their ERP and PIM systems and continue to provide top-quality services to their customers with improved digitalization.

Why P4 Markets chose Alumio

✓ Improved automation

✓ 360º monitoring & logging

✓ Cost-optimization

✓ Time-efficiency

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Carla Hetherington
Copywriter at Alumio
Carla Hetherington is a copywriter at Alumio based in the Netherlands. She joined Alumio with the mission to humanize our product and make it more accessible to a broader audience through her creative storytelling abilities. Whenever she is not busy writing, she is immersed in the pages of some obscure medieval manuscript, occasionally taking breaks to daydream about the cats she one day hopes to own.

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