SODALIS, optimizing Product Development Through Collaboration in Material Master Data Management Processes

Sodalis is an international company specializing in the development of products for wellness, personal care, and home care. Thanks to sustained organic growth, with 2,056 employees operating across seven countries, and a carefully planned acquisition strategy (28 acquisitions over 34 years), the Group can now rely on around twenty power brands distributed through a diversified channel mix: 60% in the mass market, 19% in the Beauty channel, 15% in Pharma, and the remaining share through e-commerce.
For 2026, the company forecasts revenues of €1 billion, more than tripling the €300 million recorded in 2018.

Lisa Guerreschi, R&D Technical Director e Daniele Nathansohn, Project Director

During the YUBIQ Insights26 event

The challenge

The commercial strategy based on expanding into new markets through targeted acquisitions has proven highly successful. At the same time, however, it requires the ability to manage the complexity of an increasingly extensive and diversified ecosystem, with product lines that must comply with different regulatory requirements and with quality and control processes that need to be progressively integrated and standardized.
For Sodalis, it became necessary to create a model that would enable effective and cross-functional collaboration across all Group companies, standardizing procedures and providing tools that would allow different business areas to access data through a shared and secure framework.
This need went hand in hand with the requirement to migrate from a legacy management system to a more advanced platform, specifically SAP S/4HANA, capable of ensuring data integrity through structured master data records that are correctly completed from the very first entry. The previous system allowed records to be modified after their creation, leading to inconsistencies as well as potential errors caused by manual data entry. In many cases, item codes were imported from Excel files shared via email, and each company acquired by Sodalis had its own methodology. Therefore, redesigning the process, standardizing it, and making it more efficient became the essential foundation for enabling a true step change in master data management activities.
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The Approach

The project developed jointly with YUBIQ was designed to achieve six key objectives: simplify master data management, integrate documents and information, ensure data quality and consistency, achieve full process control, enable structured collaboration, and ultimately improve efficiency and governance, providing production teams with complete and error-free product records.
To achieve these goals, the workflow was completely redesigned, eliminating email as a communication channel altogether. The new system provides an interface that enables users, based on their specific department and responsibilities, to complete only the sections of the product record that fall within their area of expertise.
The process begins with the entry of the essential information required to create a new product record. Once processed, these inputs trigger an initial call to SAP using the material code being created. At that point, the actual collaborative workflow starts, structured into a series of defined steps. The relevant files are routed to the desks of the resources involved in the process, with each user presented only with the sections they are responsible for completing. Once this stage has been completed, the system sends the document back to the ERP platform for a further data update. The process is then finalized, and the completed file is delivered to the production department.

The Impact

The project, which was launched about a year ago, has now entered its second phase. This stage includes synchronizing data between two systems through an integrated interface. Pending the complete transition to SAP ERP, the legacy platform continues to receive data, making alignment between the two systems essential. The second phase also involves extending the methodologies developed with YUBIQ to the other companies and international subsidiaries within the Sodalis Group.
The primary objective is to improve the management of multi-product development programs. In the cosmetics sector, for example, consider the advantages such a system can bring to the creation of a lipstick range available in multiple colors, all sharing approximately 80% of their base ingredients. Thanks to the new platform, the methodology can be easily applied to create multiple product records simultaneously, maintaining the common attributes while modifying only the data related to the specific color variant.
Regardless of future developments, Sodalis is already experiencing the benefits generated by the platform. In addition to standardizing information and restricting access to sensitive data based on user roles, the system has also eliminated errors resulting from manual data entry. Continuous process monitoring is ensured through the introduction of consistency checks across the information entered. Process quality has further improved thanks to greater user accountability: by tracking every task performed, the system has significantly increased user attention and accuracy when completing datasets.
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