Database-Driven Catalog Production for ERIMA

Background information

386 pages in 8 languages: Once again this year, Kittelberger was part of ERIMA’s catalog production, providing services and systems based on advastamedia®. A central data source enables the publication of product information, media, and marketing content across various channels. For the print edition, a catalog cartridge was used, allowing for data preparation and output in multiple languages. Ready, export, go!

Key data

Customer: ERIMA
Live URL: https://www.erima.de/corporate/download
Section: Database Service and Support, Electronic / Database Publishing
Launch: February 2020

ERIMA GmbH has been using Kittelberger’s catalog system for years to generate print materials automatically, producing multiple print products in various country and language versions. This software solution significantly reduces manual effort related to data refinement and proofreading. The 5-color print layout also helps reduce printing costs.

In 2019, three major projects were successfully implemented together with ERIMA:

Scope: 386-page main catalog, 36-page tennis flyer, and 28-page track & field flyer

Fully 5-color layout for cost-efficient printing with only one color plate change
Creation of a master version, followed by 6 to 8 different language/country versions

Centralized Data Management to Improve Data Quality

Thanks to centralized data management in advastamedia®, the number of correction cycles and potential sources of error can be minimized.

Manual corrections in the table of contents, index, or cross-references are prone to errors. For added peace of mind, these pages and text elements are dynamically generated.

Embedding Hyperlinks for Live Availability Check

Via defined settings in advastamedia®, hyperlinks for live availability checks are passed to the catalog cartridge and transferred into InDesign. This allows users to check the current product status online via a link in the web-optimized PDF catalog.

Reduction of Production Times

Thanks to predefined style templates and page content structures, along with the development of customer-specific layouts and templates for data output, automatic transfer to Adobe InDesign is streamlined. The procedure can be repeated as often as necessary until all data in the system is complete and error-free.

Instead of managing messy local files and versioning, all settings can be defined in the master catalog and are globally valid for all language versions. Once the data is in Adobe InDesign, manual adjustments can still be made if needed.

Jan Seidel, Head of Central Communication, is pleased: “Once again this year, we managed to make our ERIMA main catalog even more efficient and user-friendly with the help of Kittelberger. Thanks to close collaboration and regular coordination, we were able to meet our print deadline nearly a month earlier than usual—on time and with great results. We’re already looking forward to the next round!”