thyssenkrupp Materials Services has purchased the data model for materials and anonymised product data from Mapudo GmbH to enhance its e-commerce activities, Kallanish notes.
Mapudo is a former online marketplace for steel products which was founded in 2014 and had partnered up for example with steel companies Dillinger Hütte and Saarstahl. The Düsseldorf-based company announced its closure in early summer of 2019 (see Kallanish 8 July 2019).
According to tk Materials, the data it has acquired contains product descriptions, such as quality characteristics and specifics, which allow the materials to be better identified and mapped in its online shops and portals. They facilitate a better search and selection of individual products, it says. “Mapudo has laid an important foundation in recent years,” says Volker Hewing, head of the IT Foundation responsible for master data management at tk Materials.
“There are no standards for metallic materials, such as EAN codes, which are not specific to any particular trader or producer,” Niklas Friederichsen, the co-founder of Mapudo explains. “Accordingly, materials must be identified by their properties. At Mapudo, we have created a multi-layered product typology that enables efficient and consistent comparison of materials and at the same time enrichment of product data.”
