Solutions for the Management
Thomas Miller is the managing director of Miller Ltd.. They operate some ERP that keeps their master data and prices.
Sample solution: Production of paper catalogs
Starting position
Miller Ltd. produces a paper catalog of 400 pages once a year. The products are shown on approx. 370 pages, the remaining pages consist of the cover, table of contents and index as well as chapter introductions.
At the beginning, an external graphic designer receives a list of all products that are in the current edition of the catalog are to be included. The clerks provide the product information and photos to the graphic designer on request. There are a up to four correction runs to check the layout, product placements and technical data. Changes are drawn on a paper printout and checked/corrected manually by the graphic designer. The clerks finally transfer all changes to the ERP.
In total, a publication process like this takes almost 6 months. The managing director wonders how catalog creation should work in the future, because many customers also want a category catalog with individual prices. This would have to be done at the same time as the main catalog, however the budget is not big enough for a second graphic designer...
Solution
All data that is to appear in the catalog later is held in a product information management system centrally. The clerks continuously enter changes there - this ensures that only up-to-date data appears in the catalog.
The product pages are then published automatically at the push of a button using one or more previously designed templates. Customer-specific prices can also be adopted.
And the graphic designer? He can concentrate on the design of the cover and intermediate pages and edit the output manually after publication. The print template can then be sent to the printer as a PDF as usual.
Products used
- Product Information Management System: MeDaPro
- link to the ERP system (optional): MeDaPro ERP connector
- Create a paper catalog: MeDaPro Publish
Sample solution: Configure products online
Starting position
There are pneumatic cylinders in the assortment of Miller Ltd. that are delivered in many different versions. All combinations technically possible should be taken into the internet shop: the customer should himself put his desired product together partly.
Solution
TradePro OpenConnect allows to determine certain attributes of an item as late as in the internet store. The article number is generated on the basis of customer input dynamically and is added to the shopping cart. OpenConnect restricts the portion of almost identical products within the shop and thus significantly increases the clarity for the customer. Data maintenance is required for the basic types only.
Products used
- Product-Information-Management-System: MeDaPro
- link to the ERP system (optional): MeDaPro ERP-Connector
- generate Paper Catalogs: MeDaPro Publish
Sample solution: Adding items to the Internet shop
Starting position
In addition to their paper catalogs, Miller Ltd. also want to put a shop on the Internet where all customers can conveniently order their products using individually negotiated prices. It is important that same product descriptions and photos are used throughout the whole shop.
To save money and time, the clerks should be able to maintain the editorial content for themselves. Some major customers may want to issue orders using their own desktop purchasing system or ensure their warehouses stay filled by scanning incoming and outgoing goods. Finally, all orders incoming for Miller should be forwarded to sales and shipping depts.
Solution
Miller chose TradePro as their shops software, then Millers product information management system can provide the data to TradePro directly, so all publications will be origined from a single source. Customer prices and editorial content can be conveniently edited using the management console on the internet, and the TradePro CMS will help persons without programming knowledge to create valuable content.
The OCI interface allows for direct access from SAP to the TradePro. With USB scanners, the warehouse clerks can indeed record all goods movements, so all incoming materials will be transferred into the shop as being "now available" immediately. Orders, no matter how they were received, can be forwarded by means of either standard emails or the connector software, which will transfer them to sales and shipping depts automatically.
Products used
- Product Information Management System: MeDaPro
- link to the ERP system: MeDaPro ERP connector
- internet shop: TradePro
- Content Management System for Care Editorial Content: TradePro CMS
- Scanner solution for the easy reordering of stocks: TradePro Scan
- Product Configurator for Configurable Items: TradePro OpenConnect
- Connection to SAP Systems of Your Customers: TradePro OCI Connector
- Eprocurement functionality for your customers: TradePro Eprocurement
- customer documents as pdf in the shop: TradePro customer account
Sample solution: Enable spontaneous purchases
Starting position
Managing Director Thomas Miller wants to expand the online strategy of the webshop. In the future not only regular customers, but also arbitrary visitors to the website can buy the products of Miller Ltd.. Nevertheless, he wants to be sure to only sell to solvent customers.
Solution
With TradePro Payment, Mr. Miller can be reassured. All customers who use the offered payment routes such as credit cards or PayPal will surely provide valid payment data and will be charged directly in case they buy something. So there is no risk for Miller Ltd. to attract customers not willing to pay.
Products used
- internet shop: TradePro
- Payment settlement: TradePro Payment
