Details on 10 Cool Search, Catalog, and Analysis Tools in ECinteractive 11.1

ECi will load the maintenance release Version 11.1 live on ECinteractive® and is.D-Force® 2 Web servers this weekend.

This software update is scheduled between 9 PM CST Saturday, Nov. 12, and 6 AM CST Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011.

Since this falls within ECi's Standard Weekly Data Center Maintenance timeframe, no changes are required to Site Maintenance schedules.

1. UPDATED! Let Web Shoppers Sort By Price! (6432)

With DDMS 10.0 and ECinteractive 11.1, your shoppers will be able to sort and limit ECinteractive search results by price. Now you can allow a shopper to select from the following list:

Sort by Relevance — how the search results are sorted today, according to key words and selected attributes.

Sort by Price Low to High — ascending order, with the lowest priced items at the beginning of the list.

Sort by Price High to Low — descending order, with the highest priced items at the beginning of the list.

To allow your ECinteractive® or is.D-Force® 2 Web storefront Search Results page to sort by price, it required significant enhancements to the way your back-end DDMS server communicates with various Web services.

Previously, this information was transferred via eGate packets. Now, we've implemented a new SQL pipeline.

Behind the scenes on DDMS, the SQL data pipeline must cross-reference item pricing for the shopper's Customer account with other details including alternates, substitutes, aliases, and various parameters. It's especially important to resolve item results when your DDMS Item database incorporates item alternate codes you've set up in the (LE) Inventory Parameters screen, such as Normal Alternates, Discontinued Item, Reference item, Preferred Alternate, Like Item Alternate, Out of Stock Item, Generic Alternate, and Customer Specific Substitute. (Note: the fewer alternates and substitutes used in your database, the faster your site will be able to display search results.)

Meanwhile, ECinteractive developers have been working closely with wholesalers to implement their requirements for the Web search engines to be able to sort the catalog data by price based on the DDMS server's pipeline results.

Sort by Price is being released first for standard content and S. P. Richards Enhanced Content. The wholesalers' enhanced content attribute panel will further allow shoppers to limit the list to several default or user-specified pricing ranges, dynamically available depending if the list includes products on that level, as shown below:

To take advantage of Sort by Price on your site, you must have DDMS 10.0 or higher:

Log in to https://support.ecisolutions.com,

click Software Downloads, and follow the on-screen steps to download and install DDMS 10.0 or higher.

Fully synchronize your SQL EBS data.

UPDATED! On your DDMS server, have your network administrator open firewall ports 9966 and 9965 for the ECi SQL Pipeline, in addition to the existing firewall port 8765 for your site.

Then, log in to your ECinteractive or is.D-Force 2 Admin Control Panel, and activate Sort by Price site-wide in Site Preferences (or control release using Feature Settings for Price group settings).For details, see ECinteractive & is.D-Force 2 Administrative Site: Software Version 11.1.0 (pdf)

2. Bulk Add Custom Catalog Items in New eContent Import (12463)

The new eContent Tools menu on your Admin Control Panel opens up the new dashboard, where you have the option for Quick Import, create a new catalog, or replace your catalog. The new eContent Import Dashboard lets you:

Add spreadsheets of thousands of catalog items into an eContent Workspace in your Admin Control Panel. (For comparison, the existing Custom Product Management Dashboard lets you add or edit only one item at a time.)

Validate that the items exist in your ERP business system's Item database.

Export your previously imported custom catalog to a file that you can update in a friendly spreadsheet.

Synchronize with your site’s catalog content.

We’ve provided an XML Import Helper to assist you in formatting the data to minimize problems in validation. For detailed instructions, see ECinteractive & is.D-Force 2 Administrative Site: Software Version 11.1.0 (pdf).

By default, the Workspace accommodates custom catalogs up to 10 MB, approximately 5000 items. If your custom catalog exceeds this space, contact ECi Sales (eciamsales@ecisolutions.com or 866-374-3221) for the eContent Import Upgrade.

3. Provide Interactive Dashboards & Reports with CXintelligence from Acsellerate® (13673)

The most successful dealers use Acsellerate sales intelligence — to benchmark customer buying behavior and improve their bottom line. ECi Acsellerate recently announced a new product, CXintelligence, which allows dealers to provide specific shoppers Web access to their purchase information using interactive dashboards and detailed reports. The interactive dashboards and on-demand reports provide a level of analysis that sophisticated end-users require from their business partners.

ECinteractive and is.D-Force 2 are now designed to automatically launch CXintelligence from the MyAccount menu and log designated shoppers into their personalized CXintelligence dashboard. This provides shoppers with seamless access to all of their historical purchase information!

The dashboard and all purchase details are limited to the user’s assigned account(s) or department(s). It includes not only the Web transactions but more importantly any invoiced orders in your business system’s sales history.

Colorful summary charts and detailed purchase analysis are customizable by a variety of time periods. Users can click on key statistics such as Purchases, Internet Sales, Returns & Credits. They can quickly view their top departments or items, if they are reviewing a specific department.

Rest assured, your dealer cost or margin is not accessible anywhere in CXintelligence.

Note: Please stay tuned to your inbox. ECi Acsellerate will announce more details soon.

To Get Started:

Contact Acsellerate at 571-266-6420 to learn how CXintelligence can help your business.

Before allowing specific users to access CXintelligence within ECinteractive and is.D-Force2, you must first be established as an Acsellerate customer and have signed up to add the CXintelligence product. The setup and administration of CXintelligence users and/or accounts is managed within the CXi administration section of the Acsellerate application. Acsellerate offers free training classes to help you quickly and easily manage your customers’ access to their CXi application. If you have any questions related to your CXintelligence setup or how to use CXi, please email support@acsellerate.net.

Once you have created your accounts and associated users in Acsellerate (where the CXI Master Account # matches your business system Customer Acct #), you can enable access in ECinteractive and is.D-Force 2 . For details, see ECinteractive & is.D-Force2: Setting Up CXintelligence from ECi Acsellerate (pdf).

4. AutoComplete Suggests Keyword Pick List for Friendlier Search (13210)

Now QuickSearch and EnhancedSearch are easier than ever for your shoppers to use on your shopping site, because they auto-complete the keywords entered. As you begin to enter the first few characters of your search keywords, the system presents a drop-down pick list of matching keywords.

This feature is available on sites where S.P. Richards Enhanced Search is enabled.

5. Trodat and Other Microsite Items Facilitate Custom Orders Sitewide (13552, 13546)

Some products like stamps must be customized in a microsite (like Trodat's Utypia). But these items may also show up in search results, order history, Favorites lists, or be entered into QuickOrder, or be viewed in Product Detail.

Whenever such custom items appear on these pages, an alert icon will indicate that customization must be completed before adding to the shopping cart, as shown below. In Search Results and QuickOrder, for example as shown below, hovering over the icon will display the warning, "This item must be customized before adding to cart." QuickOrder will also prompt the shopper with a message that notes what lines require attention, and gives the shopper the option to click a link to adjust the affected item, or click another link to add the unaffected items to the cart and display the Custom icon that will launch the microsite for customization.

Once the shopper brings up the product detail as shown below, the custom icon is now clickable and launches the appropriate microsite. A dealer can specify a different icon as needed in the External Parter Settings admin page.

In general, the system blocks the shopper from adding the item to the cart from the main shopping site; instead, the customization process must be completed at the Microsite so the item will be added from there.

Note: In order for this customization alerting to occur, the dealer must enable access to the microsite in Feature Settings. If a user does not have access to the microsite due to varying feature settings, the "un-orderable" icon will be shown instead of the customization icon.

In a related development, shoppers who order custom products from the Trodat Utypia site now have the ability to easily re-order those items thanks to new options on the microsite. In addition, dealers can use the Trodat dealer functionality, which now lets them also order predefined custom products.

6. S.P. Richards Streamlines MyMachines Search (13185)

For sites using S.P. Richards catalogs, the newly streamlined MyMachines shopping tool allows you to search by printer or cartridge number in one text entry field, or by selecting your manufacturer from a drop-down list. The search results are in two columns:

Matching Models: copiers, printers, and similar office equipment.

Matching Supplies: ink and toner cartridges and related kits and supplies.

S.P. Richards has contracted with TriResources to provide the updated MyMachine catalog data. This enhancement is active by default for S.P. Richards catalog users; no action is required on your part.

7. United Smart Search Content Flags Non-Returnable Items (13554)

Certain items from United Stationers are non-returnable: dated goods such as some calendars, food and medicine, Azerty items, and items involving factory-authorized installation and maintenance.

Now for sites where United Smart Search is enabled, item lists and product detail displays a non-returnable icon as shown below. On mouseover, a popup message will show the shopper why they won't be able to return it.

This enhancement is active by default for United Smart Search users; no action is required on your part.

8. Shoppers can Edit Preferences for Sorting and Displaying Budgets (13606)

On your shopping site, users who have access to account budgets can now set preferences for how the Budget data will be displayed. They can now select all, some, or one account/department and display all budgets continuously on a single page.

For detailed instructions, see ECinteractive & is.D-Force 2 Administrative Site: Software Version 11.1.0 (pdf).

9. Checkout Enforces More Granular Order Dollar Limits (13692)

In your customers' efforts to control purchasing expenditures, they may require a minimum and/or maximum dollar amount range that must be met in order for certain shoppers to submit each order. This limit can be set at the shopper level using the Checkout Settings group of your Admin Control Panel. If a shopper attempts to submit the order prior to attaining the set dollar threshold, the site displays a warning message and offers to place the order on hold.

For detailed instructions, see ECinteractive & is.D-Force 2 Administrative Site: Software Version 11.1.0 (pdf).

10. Guest User Checkout Gathers More Useful Contact Information (13600)

When your Guest users shop and then access the Checkout page, they must enter a more complete set of contact information before the order can be completed.

Previously, only their email address was required. Now, they are required to enter their first name, last name, and phone number. Their responses will print on their order confirmation emails and in Order Management on the Admin Control Panel.

Other Software Changes in this Release

This release includes additional improvements to your site's usability and flow:

1. 13608 — Enhanced web services are now available with Etilize that will allow the use of SPR Enhanced content to display in both the Shopping Cart and other list pages, including Favorites, Contracts, Laundry Lists, Web Specials, and so on. This enhancements supports additional content such as ProductPro and FurnitureAdvantage which is not included in the standard eContent files.
2. 13546 — Enhanced the Trodat Utypia Custom Stamp microsite so end consumers who order products now have the ability to easily re-order customized products that they have ordered before. This enhancement also allows dealers to utilize the Trodat dealer functionality which now lets them also order predefined custom products.
3. 14123 — Enhanced Quick Order by adding the item count information to the left navation menu on the end user's front end site.
4. 12416 — Corrected an issue with QuickView in Advanced Search where items on restrictive contracts no longer show a price or allow the user to add the item to cart or favorites, and no longer generate an error loading unit of measure when no item was returned from the business system. Now in Quick View when an item is not orderable, the system disables comment and quantity, the ‘Add To Cart’ and ‘Add To Favorites’ buttons, and instead of displaying the price we display 'Not Orderable'.
5. 12767 — Corrected date and time issues when using the Approval Forwarding feature. Previously if a user set up approval forwarding for a future date and then logged into the front end site, the system determined the approval forwarding had expired and automatically turned off the approval forwarding feature
6. 13616 — Corrected the logic behind transmitting Who Called to the ERP business system. Previously, the system would populate the Who Called field in the ERP system with the guest account's name
7. 13666 — Corrected an issue on the Rewards page that previously generated an error when the shopper redeemed points.
8. 13831 — Corrected the Enhanced Product Detail page such that it now redirects to the standard Product Detail page if both ECinteractive and the ERP business system have the item but the Enhanced Content Provider does not.
9. 11830, 11831 — Corrected an issue with Coupons and Promotions; where percentage and dollar off coupons are used, those discounts are now properly displayed on order printouts and order confirmation emails.

For More Info

• ECinteractive FAQs
  (www.ddms.com/support/doc/ecinteractive.htm)

Need Help? (800) 366-4778 • https://support.ecisolutions.com • ddmssupport@ecisolutions.com