L'Oréal is a global leader in beauty products with brands in 130 countries. It wanted to improve the quality and consistency of product information managed across different systems and regions to increase efficiency. L'Oréal worked with IBM to implement a master data management system using IBM InfoSphere and Watson Explorer. This has provided a single source of trusted product information, driving significant improvements in data quality and enabling new strategic initiatives.

1. Case Study
IBM Global Business Services Consumer Products
The L’Oréal Group is a global leader in beauty products. Present
in 130 countries across 28 international brands, including L’Oréal
Paris, Garnier, Lancôme, Maybelline and Giorgio Armani, the Group
achieved EUR 23 billion of sales in 2013. L’Oréal Group employs
77,500 people and registered 624 patents in 2013.
Global business, local footprint
Perceptions of beauty are different the world over, so L’Oréal offers
tailored products for each market. Meeting local consumer expectations
in this way creates a major internal challenge around managing product
information. L’Oréal’s portfolio contains several thousand international
products, each described using more than 400 attributes, from general
features and dimensions to packaging, ingredients and environmental
data, adhering to regulatory and legal requirements.
With product information managed differently in multiple systems,
and with varying standards and approaches across four Divisions
and three geographic zones, L’Oréal lacked a single source of truth.
This hindered internal reporting and planning, and made it harder to
prepare statutory reports. Most importantly, it also had a direct impact
on L’Oréal’s effectiveness.
Xavier Rodriguez, IS Project Director at L’Oréal, explains: “Inaccurate
product information means higher costs for our distribution partners,
which impacts L’Oréal in many ways. Another example is our difficulty
in accurately reporting on packaging, which means that we are paying
additional eco taxes.”
L’Oréal
“Our customers expect the highest quality from our
products; they should expect exactly the same when
it comes to master data”
Overview
The need
L’Oréal wanted to drive business value
from consistent and readily accessible
product information, to enable new cross-
functional strategic initiatives, and to
support global optimisation.
The solution
Worked with IBM® Global Business
Services® to deploy IBM InfoSphere
Master Data Management and IBM
Watson Explorer, and to design, build, roll
out and support a federated repository of
master data on product information.
The benefit
Significant improvements in the quality
of product information, driving greater
efficiency. A key enabler for strategic
initiatives that will deliver significant
benefits.
A major challenge was to ensure flexibility. “A central reference
implies standardisation, but our global business needs are very
diverse. With IBM, we created a master data repository that
provides data consistency while facilitating local interpretation.
Essentially, it provides the most appropriate information to each
specific audience,” says Xavier Rodriguez, IS Project Director,
L’Oréal.

2. Case Study
IBM Global Business Services Consumer Products
2
Business transformation
L’Oréal needed to improve data quality and to align product
information across all parties, from suppliers through to manufacturing,
distribution and retail. Doing so ultimately assists the Group to get the
right product to the right place at the right time, which in turn drives
revenues and profitability.
“As part of our broader program to drive value from product
information, we initiated a Master Data Management (MDM) project
to provide a single, consistent repository for trusted product reference
data,” says Xavier Rodriguez. “This strategic business transformation
project is a key enabler for many cross-functional initiatives. It has
obvious transformational value for the whole business, and is sponsored
by our General Management.”
Credible global partner
As previously stated, the strategic goal of this program is to drive
value from product information. As an enabler, it aims to provide a
single source of truth and a consistent point of reference for product
information—both upstream to suppliers, and downstream to
customers and consumers.
“MDM can be a complex subject, so we needed both expertise and
a complementary IT structure in order to deliver the solution,” says
Xavier Rodriguez.
Having helped L’Oréal to frame the entire program, IBM Global
Business Services was identified as a truly credible consulting and
implementation partner. “We needed a partner with global capabilities
and deep MDM expertise, and IBM was the natural choice,” says
Xavier Rodriguez. “Being able to get everything—business consulting
services, MDM software and infrastructure (IBM Power Systems™,
IBM AIX®, IBM DB2®)—from a single partner was a major factor in
selecting IBM.”
Tackling enormous complexity
The technical enabler is IBM InfoSphere Master Data Management
(MDM) software and IBM Watson Explorer. “The technical
integration was the easy part; the challenge for IBM was to understand
our organisational structure and how it relates to our business
processes,” says Xavier Rodriguez. “Product information impacts
practically everything we do across Manufacturing, Production, Supply
Chain, and ultimately our customer base.”
As the scale of the challenge became apparent—creating a consistent
yet flexible reference repository for complex information on thousands
of products—IBM drew on its considerable resources to bolster the
project team. “IBM brought in very senior MDM experts to deliver the
expected value,” comments Xavier Rodriguez.
Solution components
Services
• IBM® Global Business Services®
Software
• IBM AIX®
• IBM DB2®
• IBM InfoSphere® Master Data
Management
• IBM Watson™ Explorer
Hardware
• IBM Power Systems™

3. Case Study
IBM Global Business Services Consumer Products
3
“The solution needed to reflect the richness of our entire global
organisation, which has different ways of working depending on
our customers, geographical location, business unit, and so on. The
solution is a complex federation of MDM repositories, on a scale that is
unprecedented, as far as we know.”
Huge gains in information quality
Today, L’Oréal is continuing to refine the central solution and
beginning its rollout across its consumer and luxury divisions in
selected European and Asia Pacific countries, with the full global
rollout on the horizon.
“The quality of product information is much greater,” says Xavier
Rodriguez. “Stakeholders spend much less time resolving missing
or incorrect data, and operational interruptions caused by poor
information are disappearing.”
He adds, “Synchronisation is much better today, so we can work
together more efficiently and effectively. Previously, finding product
information meant searching multiple systems, each with their own
business rules. Now everything is in one place, and the rules are clear.
The benefit is a huge gain in the quality of data, which is a key enabler
for strategic cross-functional initiatives in packaging, business controls,
and soon in Digital Marketing.”
Unlocking new strategic benefits
By enabling L’Oréal’s strategic initiatives, this solution will help deliver
significant annual benefits. With a clearer understanding of products,
L’Oréal will have much greater insight into downstream activities,
enabling it to capitalise on a 360° vision of product information for all
L’Oréal teams.
“These kinds of strategic initiatives are simply not possible unless the
whole organisation speaks a common language,” comments Xavier
Rodriguez. “One of the major strengths of IBM has been its flexibility
to step outside of the original plan and help us tackle unexpected
challenges. That willingness to take risks is a major competitive
differentiator, as is the in-house expertise across all the major facets
of the project: Architecture, Master Data Management and Change
Management. IBM has consistently provided real experts at our
expected level: we are satisfied.”
For more information
To learn more about IBM InfoSphere Master Data Management
software, please contact your IBM representative or visit:
ibm.com/software/data/master-data-management
“We needed a partner
with global capabilities
and deep Master Data
Management [MDM]
expertise, and IBM was
the natural choice.”
— Xavier Rodriguez, IS Project Director, L’Oréal

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January 2015
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