Case Study: How Legrand Made Product Data a Competitive Advantage with IDEA Pro Data Services
Building the Right Data Foundation for Measurable Results
KEY TAKEAWAY
IDEA and Legrand’s strategic collaboration transformed product data quality into a competitive advantage for Legrand’s North & Central America region. By investing in the right people, systems, and governance, Legrand significantly increased the number of data fields syndicated through IDEA Connector, accelerated its MDM implementation, and significantly reduced channel friction, strengthening partner trust and elevating the customer experience.
Legrand’s Commitment to Data Excellence
Three years ago, Legrand made a strategic decision to elevate product data quality from an operational task to a competitive advantage. Championed by Brian DiBella, who serves as President & CEO of Legrand, North & Central America, and as an IDEA Board member, the company launched a comprehensive Product Data Quality (PDQ) program.
Partnering with IDEA’s Pro Data Services has been a game-changer for our business. By streamlining how we deliver clean, standardized product data to our distributors, we’ve dramatically improved visibility and trust across our network.”
Karmen Muller
Senior Program Manager, Product Data
Legrand, North and Central America
The Challenge
As a complex, multi-brand organization, Legrand faced several data management obstacles:
LEGRAND’S STRATEGIC APPROACH
Under the guidance of Jaclyn Aulich (Senior Program Director – Product Data) and Karmen Muller (Senior Program Manager – Product Data), Legrand’s PDQ team took a methodical, partnership-driven approach to transforming their product data management.
Foundation Building
Rather than layering improvements onto legacy systems, Legrand chose to rebuild its product
data foundation the right way. The team implemented a modern Master Data Management
(MDM) platform with an integrated Product Information Management (PIM) module designed
to unify product data across brands, business units, and ERPs. From the outset, data quality was treated as a design principle, not a downstream clean-up effort. Governance rules, ownership structures, and validation workflows were embedded directly into the MDM implementation. This ensured that as product data entered the system, it met defined standards for completeness, accuracy, and consistency. By integrating data quality controls into the architecture itself, Legrand built a scalable infrastructure capable of supporting future growth, acquisitions, and digital commerce requirements.
Strategic Attribution Acceleration
With the technical foundation in place, Legrand turned its attention to what truly drives product discoverability and sales: the right attributes. The PDQ team conducted intensive, in-person working sessions with business units, structured as collaborative “war room” environments, to identify and prioritize the attributes most critical to distributors, customers, and prospects. These sessions brought together key stakeholders to answer a fundamental question: “What information actually helps customers select and buy our products?”
The outcome was more than just a longer list of fields. It was cross-functional
alignment around:
This phase accelerated attribute enrichment while building internal consensus, which is a critical success factor in a multi-brand organization.
Partnership with IDEA Pro Data Services
Recognizing that objectivity and industry expertise would further strengthen their efforts,
Legrand partnered with IDEA Pro Data Services to validate and optimize their approach.
IDEA provided an external lens to:
This collaboration not only streamlined data within IDEA Connector but also reinforced long-term scalability. By cleaning up historical inconsistencies and aligning with industry standards, Legrand positioned itself to syndicate high-quality data efficiently and consistently across the channel.
The partnership accelerated execution while minimizing risk, allowing Legrand’s internal team to focus on strategic governance rather than reactive data correction.
Measurement and Continuous Improvement
Legrand understood that data excellence is not a one-time initiative but an operational discipline.
To sustain momentum, the team implemented structured measurement tools, including data quality scorecards and executive dashboards, many of which came from the IDEA Pro Data Services team. These provided ongoing real-time visibility into completeness, accuracy, and syndication performance across business units and brands.
By elevating reporting to the executive level, Legrand ensured:
Continuous monitoring created a feedback loop that drives incremental improvement over
time. Rather than treating data quality as a project milestone, Legrand institutionalized it as a
core capability.
RESULTS AND BUSINESS IMPACT
Quantifiable Outcomes
The collaboration between Legrand and IDEA Pro Data Services produced measurable improvements with direct channel impact:
Doubled the data fields shared through IDEA Connector, increasing product completeness and discoverability
Reduced outdated and redundant product records in the channel
108% increase YoY IDEA Health Score
Accelerated MDM implementation by embedding data quality into the foundation
Enhanced transparency and confidence for distribution partners
Rank in top 5% of IDEA manufacturers (+51 rank improvement in the past three years)
Improved syndication consistency across brands and business units
490% increase in data fields sent to IDEA (from 20 to 118 fields), growing product discoverability
Up to 80% decrease in IDEA severe errors in product lines, which prevent distributor access to SKUs
Leadership Impact
Beyond the operational improvements, Legrand’s commitment has sent a clear signal to the electrical industry: the company is raising the bar for product data quality. This leadership position strengthens Legrand’s relationships with distribution partners and positions the company as a forward-thinking manufacturer committed to making it easier for customers and channel partners to discover, specify, and purchase their products.
WHY THIS STORY MATTERS
Legrand’s journey demonstrates several critical lessons for the electrical manufacturing industry:
Product Data Excellence Requires Leadership
CEO-level championship and cross-functional commitment are essential. Data quality initiatives succeed when they’re viewed as strategic priorities rather than IT projects.
The Right Partners Accelerate Progress
Engaging IDEA Pro Data Services provided Legrand with expert validation and streamlined execution, demonstrating that strategic partnerships can dramatically accelerate data transformation initiatives
Data Quality is a Continuous Journey
Legrand’s investment in measurement systems, scorecards, and ongoing stewardship shows that data quality isn’t a one-time project but an ongoing commitment to excellence that pays dividends in partner satisfaction and operational efficiency.
LOOKING FORWARD
As the electrical industry continues its digital transformation, the collaboration with IDEA demonstrates what’s possible when manufacturers commit to data excellence and leverage industry expertise. By doubling their data fields in the IDEA Connector, eliminating legacy inconsistencies, and establishing robust governance, Legrand has created a sustainable competitive advantage that benefits the entire electrical supply chain.
ABOUT IDEA
PRO DATA SERVICES
IDEA Pro Data Services helps manufacturers and distributors transform product data into a strategic asset. Combining deep industry expertise with hands-on execution, the team supports organizations at every stage of their data maturity journey. From foundational cleanup to advanced optimization and ongoing governance, IDEA Pro Data Services delivers value across three core areas:
ABOUT LEGRAND
Legrand is the global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures. Its comprehensive offering of solutions for residential, commercial, and datacenter markets makes it a benchmark for customers worldwide. The Group harnesses technological and societal trends with lasting impacts on buildings with the purpose of improving life by transforming the spaces where people live, work and meet with electrical, digital infrastructures and connected solutions that are simple, innovative and sustainable. Drawing on an approach that involves all teams and stakeholders, Legrand is pursuing a strategy of profitable and responsible growth driven by acquisitions and innovation, with a steady flow of new offerings that include products with enhanced value in use.