Not just a product catalog – Cemex case

CEMEX is a global building materials company that provides high quality products and reliable service to customers and communities throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. They produce, distribute, and sell cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates, and related building materials in more than 50 countries, and CEMEX maintains trade relationships in approximately 102 nations. CEMEX asked Base22 to design and build an Advanced Product Catalog to replace their current system.

CEMEX outlined several key requirements for the new catalog solution:

• Make the product catalog available through the global employee portal.
• Deliver product information in context including use cases for how to apply each product.
• Show related products within the same product family.
• Provide detailed technical information for each product.
• Give product managers around the world the ability to update the content.
• Provide multiple ways to find products using advanced search criteria.

Base22 developed the solution using IBM Web Content Manager plus the Base22 xWidget web component library. Each product was identified within a CEMEX product family. The Advanced Product Catalog highlights at least one application for each product. Not all CEMEX products are available in all countries so the solution had to present products within the context of where they are available for purchase.

Base22 worked with CEMEX to develop a set of taxonomies to aid in the tagging and delivery of the right content to the right locations. We designed a user interface that lets users browse a variety of products by multiple criteria while also providing an easily maintainable system for the content authors. We simplified the authors’ work by taking advantage of portal remote actions which allow authors to edit content and create new content directly from within the live product catalog while browsing (inline authoring).

Base22 has been developing product catalogs for companies like CEMEX for 12 years. We follow best practices and procedures to ensure that your product catalog performs it’s best. Contact us today for a free consultation.