Industry: Lighting & Electronics | Headquarters: Garching, Germany | PIM: Pimcore | Languages: EN, DE, IT, ES, FR
Challenge: Produce catalogs for more than eight product families, each with its own layout logic, in five languages and inside an existing Pimcore ecosystem.
Solution: Pagination connected to Pimcore via API together with digital agency Asioso: product data goes in, print-ready PDF and InDesign files go back into Pimcore.
The Challenge: One Catalog Process for Very Different Product Families
LEDVANCE, the lighting company formerly part of OSRAM, manages thousands of products across luminaires, LED lamps, LED strips, smart-home systems and accessories, sold in markets around the world. Creating product catalogs by hand was slow and hard to scale.
The difficulty is that lighting products do not fit one generic grid. A luminaire page needs an icon-driven spec sheet, an LED strip page needs driver compatibility tables, and a smart-home component needs connectivity diagrams. Every family has its own layout rules, and every catalog has to exist in several languages.
Working with Asioso, LEDVANCE had already built a centralized content hub on Pimcore. The next step was to make catalog production part of the same environment, not a separate tool chain. The solution had to:
- use the product data, attributes and media already managed in Pimcore
- reproduce LEDVANCE’s InDesign layouts, including tables, feature and certification icons, footnotes and accessory pairings
- let central and local teams configure catalogs through a guided interface instead of working in InDesign
- keep a review step before any catalog is distributed
The Solution: Pagination API Inside the Pimcore Workflow
In the selection interface that Asioso maintains in Pimcore, LEDVANCE teams configure their catalog — choosing the product range, the language and market, and the static pages to include. The product data is then sent to the Pagination API as Excel exchange files carrying ZPIM numbers, technical icons, footnotes and accessory references, and each column is mapped to a layout element.
One Template per Product Family
Each product family has a dedicated template with its own layout logic:
- Luminaires: icon-driven spec sheets built from ZPIM-encoded attributes
- LED strips: technical cross-sections alongside driver compatibility tables
- VIVARES: connectivity diagrams for smart-home components
- Drivers: a technical layout with electrical specifications
- Accessories: fitting products cross-referenced to their parent families
Adding a new product family means building one template. From then on, every catalog for that family is a data push, not a design task.
Draft and Approved Versions, Delivered Back to Pimcore
Pagination first generates a PDF draft laid out according to LEDVANCE’s design rules. The team reviews it, adds or adjusts static pages and requests a new version with one click. Once approved, Pagination delivers the final PDF files for print and digital, together with the InDesign source files for any manual adjustment. Both drafts and approved versions arrive automatically via SFTP in LEDVANCE’s Pimcore environment, so catalogs are reviewed and distributed from the same platform where the product data lives.
| Component | Detail |
|---|---|
| PIM | Pimcore, with the selection interface maintained by Asioso |
| Data format | Excel exchange files (ZPIM numbers, icons, footnotes, accessories) |
| Automation | Pagination API, with SFTP delivery back to Pimcore |
| Templates | 8+ product-family layouts |
| Output | PDF drafts, approved PDF for print and digital, InDesign files |
| Languages | English, German, Italian, Spanish, Belgian French |
New Languages Without New Templates
LEDVANCE started with English and German, then added Italian, Spanish and Belgian French. When it expanded into Spanish outdoor lighting brochures and Belgian French catalogs in 2026, the only change was supplying translated content in the exchange file: same templates, same pipeline, same review process. With catalog automation, the investment is in the templates and the integration; each new market is additional data, not a new project.
Results
- Faster catalog production from Pimcore to InDesign, with no manual layout between data export and finished pages.
- Self-service for markets and teams, who configure their own catalogs without opening InDesign.
- Consistent design across product lines and countries, with 8+ family templates in active production.
- Automated runs: catalog-merge cycles complete on their own and notify the team when the files are ready.
- Clear ownership: LEDVANCE owns the product data, Asioso the selection interface, Pagination the layout and delivery. Each layer is documented, so the process does not depend on any single person’s knowledge.
Key Takeaways: Catalog Automation for Complex Assortments
LEDVANCE’s setup works for any manufacturer with a structured PIM and an assortment that does not fit one layout. It is a good fit if your product data lives in a PIM, you publish catalogs for several product families with different layout needs, you work in more than one language or market, and your team still lays out pages that could be generated from data.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Pagination connect to Pimcore?
Yes. In LEDVANCE’s case, product data exported from Pimcore as Excel exchange files is processed through the Pagination API, and the PDF and InDesign output is delivered back to Pimcore via SFTP. See how Pimcore connects to InDesign with Pagination.
How many languages can the system handle?
There is no fixed limit. Each language is an additional data input that uses the same templates.
Does every product family need its own template?
Only when families follow different layout logic, such as spec sheets, diagrams or compatibility tables. The template captures those rules once, and every following catalog run is generated automatically.
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