Wijngaarden VeiligGoed, with its 50 years of experience, is a leading supplier of PBM, shoes and workwear to around 3,200 clients in sectors such as maritime and offshore, installation and the metal industry. Corné Hoogeveen, operational manager at Wijngaarde VeiligGoed, tells us about the plans that their company already had some years ago in the area of article information, the webshop and the connection with the OMDS that followed.
The most important reasons for Wijngaarde VeiligGoed to take part in the OMDS (One Maritime Data Standard) are the improvement in the quality of the data, the increase in efficiency and being able to comply directly with regulations.
Wijngaarde VeiligGoed works with ProPlanet's PIM tooling to process, maintain and deliver all article, product and trade data. The company did its first ‘data upload’ to the 2BA data pool three years ago already. According to Corné, the range of products is pretty transparent and for the maritime parties in particular, the international codes are really important.
‘The articles we supply often have to be transported to an international destination. In that case, all the data needed to organise that transport without any problems has to be stated accurately and in full on the invoice. We're seeing that this is going better now than it did in the past, partly also because we are paying more attention to the article information,' says Corné.
Corné adds: 'The OMDS process is definitely running with the larger maritime buyers but slower than we would like. Think of it as a kind of steam train; once it gets up speed, you have a fantastic system. I do understand. Access to, and integrating into the organisation, a huge amount of product and article data is a complex challenge for large parties. On the other hand, we're seeing that the automation of the ordering and invoicing process is running perfectly at client companies that are smaller. They are fully integrated into our system with their tools. Nobody has to manually approve an invoice anymore. Everything is automated, from order to payment.’
Wijngaarden VeiligGoed has already taken a number of important steps. Corné points out that the data itself is not the goal; in the end, it's all about improving product and trade data, accelerating the ordering process and reducing failure costs.
Wijngaarden VeiligGoed is taking the bull by the horns. In order to analyse the challenges mentioned, remove any obstacles and find out whether they can also accelerate the process with larger parties, the company will soon meet some of the initiators of the OMDS for talks.
‘The structure is there, the idea is good, now it just has to be used. I know that some parties are already mentioning the OMDS and publication of product information through the 2BA data pool in purchasing contracts and that's hopeful. It takes quite a bit of time to fill in the data and maintain the quality of the information well. Now it needs to give results. It would be great if we could make a real impact on efficiency together!'
