DON’T YOU JUST LOVE IT WHEN YOU’RE ONE STEP AHEAD?

… EVEN BETTER, WHEN YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE RIGHT THERE WITH YOU! WE OFFER AN IT SOLUTION THAT SUPPORTS, THAT’S ADAPTABLE, THAT STREAMLINES AND PROPELS YOU TOWARDS AN EXCITING TOMORROW.

2

CONTENTS

LOBSTER AT A GLANCE ______________________________________ 4WHAT WE’RE ALL ABOUT ____________________________________ 5CASE STUDIES _____________________________________________ 6Eberspächer _______________________________________ 6Konica Minolta _____________________________________ 7PUMA ___________________________________________ 8Logwin __________________________________________ 9DATA CONVERSION MADE EASY ______________________________ 10

3

Progress is everywhere. Technology is advancing in leaps and bounds. Nowhere more so than in the world of IT. We humans need to, have to, come together. Work together. All systems go. Hardware. Software. EDI. EAI. And at the centre of it all: Data and system integration. Digitalisation and business integration. And seamless product communication. It’s time to tackle the future. It’s time for a change …

As the IT decision maker for your company, you know that errors in data management can have an immediate impact on business. As a result, company-wide accountability is key to reliable data management.

Nothing drives digitalisation more than a straightforward solution – and this is where we come in. Lobster_data is the solution you have been waiting for to address your data integration needs. It is fast. Flexible. Reliable. It gives you the time to focus on your core business. Not only will your data be in safe hands, Lobster_data will also show you how to harness its full potential. The solution you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived.

To help you with your decision, we’d like to introduce you to a number of real-life examples from select customers. This will give you a taste for the endless possibilities and incredible efficiency Lobster_data has to offer when it comes to data integration.

Connect your company to all your partners, customers and service providers and make the right choice for tomorrow’s IT department, today! Cut costs and save time, and resources. Let us show you a whole new world of possibilities.

Best,

Dr. Martin Fischer Managing Director

LET’S TALK ABOUT THE DATA INTEGRATION AND DATA MANAGEMENT OF TOMORROW.

WOULDN’T IT BE GREAT IF A SOLUTION WAS SIMPLE FOR A CHANGE?

4

FOUNDED 2002

Privately held.All shareholders work at Lobster.

TEAM 150

Passionate. Dynamic. Unconvential.Great teamspirit.

CLIENTS 1,500

Across all industries. 200 new clients per year. High client retention rate: 99.5%.

PRODUCTS

Data and systems integration at it’s best.

Digitalisation & operational process integration sorted.

Your product information in safe hands.

The vertical cloud solutionfor logistics.

GERMANY | AUSTRIA | SWITZERLAND | UNITED KINGDOM | FRANCE | NORDICS | BENELUX

LOBSTER AT A GLANCE.COMPLEX CHALLENGES?NOT A PROBLEM!

5

At the heart of everything we do: Lobster_data, integration technology for all areas. Data exchange both within a company and between companies, and even between different types of system.

WHAT WE’RE ALL ABOUT

DB ERP

MESCRM

etc.

API CRM

TMSBI

etc.

EAI/ETL – INTERNAL SYSTEMS

CLOUD – HYBRID INTEGRATION

Suppliers/Customers/Partners

Portals

Government GS1

EDI – EXTERNAL SYSTEMS

IOT/INDUSTRY 4.0 & SENSORS

LogisticsCOMMUNICATION CHANNELS

FORMATS

XMLCSV

Excel

E-lnvoicing/Peppol

Fix Record/VDA

IDOC

Edifact/Tradacoms

X.12

BWA

PDFAMQP/JMSLDAP

JDBCSalesforce

SAPFax

AS/400 DataQueueX.400

POP3/IMAPSMTPOFTP

SFTP/SSHFTP(S)Peppol

AS2

KafkaMQTT

OPC/UAHTTP(S)

JSON

Edifact/Tradacoms

Cloud Storage

Sensors Machines

6

_data ERP

Messaging

Clients and Suppliers

Internal Applications

Relevant data

approx. 200,000 messages each month:

assignments, delivery schedules, ASNs, bills

via OFTP2via SFTP

via E-Mail

via PortalVDA, EDIFACT, ANSI X12

CSV, Excel, XML

The Eberspächer Group ranks amongst the world’s leading system developers and suppliers for the automotive industry and is known for its innovative solutions in exhaust technology, vehicle electronics and climate control for a wide variety of vehicle types.

At the end of 2017, Eberspächer made the decision to go with Lobster_data as its central EDI and EAI tool. When it comes to conventional EDI processes, Lobster_data takes care of commu-nication with customers and suppliers and is responsible for the conversion of ERP data formats to and from industry standards such as VDA, EDIFACT and ANSI X12. Now that all partners and mappings have moved over from the previous EDI system, Lobster_data processes and transfers approx. 200,000 messages every month.

In EAI, Lobster_data transmits relevant ERP data to internal applications such as a learning management system and the CRM system.

Ready-made function blocks and a multitude of industry standards, already available within the software, allow highly complex business processes to be developed quickly and without any specialist programming knowledge, whilst Lobster_data’s intuitive interface and sophisticated support mode help keep things efficient.

EFFICIENTEFFICIENCY. LOBSTER_DATA AT EBERSPÄCHER

7

Webservices

Message

Master Data Management

(MDM)

Portals,CRM, E-Shop

Clients, Partner

FTP SFTP

AS2

E-Mail

EnterpriseService Bus

Message

Messaging AMQP

DB Query

ERP DomainNavisionSAP

IDoc / RFC

DB

_data

THIS SYSTEM DOESN’T MAKE MISTAKES.LOBSTER_DATA AT KONICA MINOLTA

Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe supplies services throughout Europe, linking together internal and external systems and automating processes.

The business uses Lobster_data as a central platform to supply data to various parties including logistics providers, national subsidiaries and subsystems such as CRMs, eShops and service portals. In doing so, the software interacts with a whole spectrum of technologies. Lobster_data processes approx. 8–10 million transactions every month.

Examples of the 800+ active Lobster profiles include the distribution of master data via enterprise service bus messag-ing, mass data uploads to databases, web services for status queries and conventional transfer of EDI messages using various protocols.

8

PRODUCT INFORMATION AT THE TOUCH OF A BUTTON.LOBSTER_DATA AT PUMA

In 2010, sportswear manufacturer PUMA set up a B2B platform to simplify online ordering for its retail partners in central Europe. PUMA chose Lobster_data to act as the interface be-tween its online platform and its ERP system.

Since then, Lobster_data has handled availability requests for approximately 100,000 items every season. Using the item’s product code (EAN), the software locates the necessary information within the ERP system and then makes it available to retail partners in real time.

Lobster_data also handles delivery status checks and regu-larly mirrors all master data from the ERP system to the B2B system.

In Lobster_data, PUMA has found a software tool which can synchronise different systems with little programming effort and show the availability of its stock inventory in real time.

_data iSeries

Availability check

PUMA Retailer

Master data transfer

B2B database

B2B-platform

9

_data>1,100

conversion rules

In-houseSystem

>100,000 documents/day

converted information

Clients, Partners, Service

Providers

CONNECT EVERYTHING TO YOUR OWN IT SYSTEM.LOBSTER_DATA AT LOGWIN

Lobster_data acts as the central data communication hub for international logistics company Logwin. All data shared be-tween Logwin and its customers, partners and service providers is converted into readable data formats using Lobster_data.

This connection to in-house systems requires 1,100 data rule sets – some 3,000 sets fewer than needed by a competitor’s previous solution. Additional programming is also now a thing of the past, as Lobster_data has all necessary conversions covered.

10

DATA CONVERSION MADE EASY.LOBSTER_DATA CAN DO SO MUCH MORE:

USER FRIENDLINESSA survey showed that 90% of Lobster_data customers rate its installation and usability as “very easy”. This is because Lobster_data needs no prior knowledge of programming, thanks to its clearly structured GUI.

A wizard (similar to Microsoft’s assistant tool) guides you through the easily understandable, completely intuitive appli- cation. Data is manipulated using a filter system – comparable to that used within MS Excel. Instead of using programming, functions are based on respective fields or nodes. In this way, Lobster_data can easily incorporate company specific functions, which are compatible with future releases.

DOCUMENTATIONLobster_data automatically documents the creation of each interface or profile. This documentation can then be expanded by adding specific comments. Even without this automatic documentation feature, it would still be very easy to “get to grips” with interfaces which are set up using standard functions (filters). The system is similar to MS Excel, another application which makes it very easy to see which functions are stored within a spreadsheet.

Of course, it is also possible to use specialised, company specific, functions within Lobster_data. These are described accordingly using the automatic documentation extension.

11

MAPPINGUnlike other systems, Lobster_data helps you to save time – particularly when it comes to mapping. This is achieved, for example, by relying on pre-defined filters, automatically importing tree structures, enabling direct access to databases, using backup and third-party systems (ERP, CRM, storage solutions, etc.) and so much more.

The relationship between data source and data target is created using a drag and drop feature, where a user “drags” values from source data into the desired data target structure.

To write data directly into a database or to read data from a database for conversion purposes, Lobster_data integrates fields from any kind of database (e.g. MS SQL Server, Sybase, Oracle, Informix, MAX DB, DB2, Postgres, etc.) directly into the target or source structure. Lobster_data thus directly imports the corresponding table structures from databases and depicts these as “tree structures” in Lobster_data, along with all relevant attributes.

All data structures within the Mapping Designer (standard structures like EDIFACT, VDA, Fortras and SAP iDoc as well as custom structures in XML, MS Excel, CSV, etc.) can be modified as you see fit, for example by changing the structure, field definition, etc.

During mapping (and even once mapping is completed), Lobster_data enables users to split, convert and export large volumes of data based on user-defined criteria, making for an elegant and straightforward process.

Lobster_data also makes it possible to test mappings step-by-step during the development phase, and allows users to preview the contents of variables and mapping results. Users can also load test data into the source structure (this often makes it easier to identify source fields) and visualise the actual flow of data from source to target.

Should different mapping versions be necessary for different EDI partners, you can simply copy an existing processing profile, including mapping. If necessary, partner information (input/output) can be changed in the new profiles and the relevant mapping parameters revised – again saving so much time.

Unlike other software solutions, Lobster_data maps data based on the target, not the source structure. This does away with the arduous creation of countless variables, as source data is accessed directly from the target field.

12

MULTI-FUNCTIONALITYAs a central data communication hub, Lobster_data offers a one-stop solution for all your needs:

Connections, remote data transfers and data communication between ERP and CMS systems, databases, web platforms, customers and suppliers.

We believe Lobster_data is not simply a conventional converter, but rather the “middleware” between IT systems (ERP, PPS, PIM, FiBu, CRM, WebShop, etc.) and parties such as customers, suppliers, government authorities, banks, etc. Ultimately, the software doesn’t care what type of data it exchanges and which systems it is connected with.

MESSAGE STRUCTURESLobster_data provides for automatic pre-processing of complex message structures. Messages can be grouped, for example, based on their header and item records, and source data can be read starting from a specific line or column.

PLATFORM NEUTRALITYAs an open platform-independent system, Lobster_data’s graphical frontend runs under Windows, Mac OSX and Linux operating systems.

Lobster_data offers server-side support for all common plat-forms based on Java 5 and above (AIX and IBM in addition to Windows and Linux, etc.). It can also be installed within virtual server environments and connected to common databases ( JDBC).

PERFORMANCELobster_data is highly performant, even when multiple processing operations are running in tandem or when the software is processing extremely large volumes of data.

13

SCHEDULES (CRONS)Lobster_data offers a high level of flexibility when configuring jobs with crontab syntax (e.g. “Every last day of the month”, “Every Friday”, etc.).

SERVICELobster’s customers don’t just think of us as an outstanding data conversion and data integration software supplier.

They also praise our highly personalised approach to support:

Fast. Reliable. Technology at the highest level. Lobster_data also comes with an extensive online support function as well as a “TeamViewer” feature.

STANDARD SETTINGSLobster_data’s standard package includes approx. 13,000 templates for interfaces to ERP systems as well as all essential industry standards (EDIFACT, SAP IDOC, VDA, Fortras, ANSI X.12, etc.).

Lobster_data also supports all common data exchange protocols such as (S)FTP(S), OFTP2, SMTP, HTTP(S), SMS, SAP-ALE, IBM DataQueue, AS2, X.400, WebDAV, SCP, SSH, Fax, Web Services (SOAP), OPC UA, etc.

VERSION MANAGEMENTLobster_data’s approach to version numbers for mapping has significant advantages, as it means that mapping changes won’t necessarily affect all your EDI partners. Different process versions are also available as backups, so activating previous versions of a mapping or process is quick and easy.

MORE FROM THE WORLD OF LOBSTER

Lobster_data: Just do what you want.

Lobster_pro: It’s just a question of the right tech.

Lobster_pim: Hit the bull’s eye. Every time. From anywhere.

JUST DO WHAT YOU WANT.

INSPIRING GREATER ENTREPRENEURIAL FREEDOM THROUGH DATA INTEGRATION WITH LOBSTER_DATA.

IT’S JUST A QUESTION OF THE RIGHT TECH.DIGITALISE AND AUTOMATE BUSINESS PROCESSES THE EASY WAY. WITH LOBSTER_PRO.

HIT THE BULL’S EYE. EVERY TIME. FROM ANYWHERE.A GUIDE FOR MANAGING SIMULTANEOUS DATA STREAMS WITH LOBSTER_PIM’S INTEGRATED DATA MANAGEMENT.

14

Lobster DATA GmbHHindenburgstraße 15 D-82343 Pöcking T: +49 8157 590 99 0F: +49 8157 590 99 99hello@lobster-world.comlobster-world.com ©

Lob

ster

DAT

A Gm

bH 2

020_

12