B2B e-commerce PLAYBooK And reSource guideB - Hybris · PDF fileB2B e-commerce PLAYBooK And...

BBest practices and resources for

companies researching, justifying, developing, launching, and maintaining

successful B2B e-commerce operations

B2B e-commercePLAYBooK And

reSource guideB2

hybris case studies / reference customers

hybris white Papers and solutions Briefs

hybris B2B accelerator

Vendor comparison tool

guidance from forrester

commerce Platform decision resources

stage 5: ongoing maintenance, support and operations / Phase 2Decision Point: Internal or External Support? 45

Comparing Phase 1 to Phase 2 46

stage 4: Build out and launchDesign, Wireframe, and Coding 34

stage 3: selecting a Platform Vendor

stage 2: gathering requirementsWho Should You Include in the Requirements Gathering Process? 22

What Requirements Should be Examined? 23

Benefi ts of Agile Methodology: Test Early and Often 24

stage 1: research and Justifi cationOnline Selling Can Improve Gross Revenues 14

Order Values Can Be Increased 16

Operational Effi ciencies Can Reduce Expenses 18

Loyalty Is Easier to Build 21

Before starting

B2B e-commerce roadmap

commerce Platform implementation Best Practices

contentSsection 1 section 2

04 48

4905

0822

34

40

10 50

62

64

28 68

about hybrisMilestones 72

Distinctions 74

70

6

section oneCommerce Platform Implementation Best Practices

When doing business with you in their pro-fessional lives, they also expect and demand similar, convenient, effi cient shopping and purchasing experiences. hybris delivers comprehensive B2B commerce solutions that assure your business customers’ multi-chan-nel shopping experiences are as advanced as the Web’s best consumer sites – highly pro-ductive, state-of-the-art business customer

experiences that maximize your conversion rates and gross revenues.

As your company progresses down the path of research, justifi cation, platform selection, implementation, and ongoing maintenance of your B2B e-commerce infrastructure, there will be a number of critical steps along the way.

B2B e-commerce roadmaPThe needs of B2B buyers are changing rapidly. As consumers, they expect a highly personalized and responsive shopping experience when they engage with retailers on the Web, via mobile browsers, or offl ine, in physical stores.

3. Vendor selection

Vendor research / scorecard

1. research and Justification

Business Case/ROI basics

Increase in sales, operational efficiencies, and loyalty

2. requirements gathering/rfP

Don’t automate a bad process

Involve stakeholders and customers

Data and integrations

5. ongoing suPPort Phase 2

Choose a support model

In-house or outsourced support

Phasing out remaining requirements

4. Build and launch

Project scope for initial launch

Continued involvement of stakeholders

Timeline and tradeoffs

B2B e-commerce roadmaP

109

Before StartingThe complexity involved with implementing a commerce platform should never be underestimated!

A surprising number of e-commerce implementations begin without a clear view of the organization’s vision for a successful outcome, who is going to be involved, and when. These organizations may lose weeks or months resetting expectations, redefining their projects, and resolving the frustrations of their stakeholders. Sometimes they run out of time and resources, and ultimately wind up going live with fewer commerce functions than they had hoped.

This can be easily avoided if the planning is completed properly before the implementation is scheduled to begin. Start your project with the best possible foundation of vision and resources, and make sure that the three following key components are in place.

What is your long-term vision for commerce?

Who are your key stakeholders in the commerce platform?

What are your short-term project goals and objectives?

What will define the success of your commerce initiative?

What are your current commerce pain points?

Do you have any target metrics or KPIs?

What is your change management strategy?

Does your organization have the required skills to implement?

Have all of your requirements been adequately documented?

Below is a short list of suggested questions for your organization to answer Before emBarking on a new e-commerce ProJect.

oVerall commerce strategy

Identify what the organization needs to achieve, then define spe-cific expectations around how the hybris implementation will impact and benefit these strategic objec-tives.

cross-functional team

Identify responsibilities for techni-cal and business stakeholders during the implementation, and consider changes to roles, skills, responsibilities, and organizational structure that will be necessary after implementation.

Partnering strategy

Even the best partners and the greatest companies can be mis-matched. Define what is important to your organization and be ready to share it with your existing or po-tential partners. By ensuring these criteria have been defined and understood by everyone involved, you can frequently prevent many of the common problems associated with launching a new or enhanced e-commerce platform.

11

This stage often includes a business case and ROI analysis to determine the core reasons why you are investing in a B2B e-commerce platform. This consists of presenting the evidence to management that the upside for building an online B2B business adequately justifies the expense.

stage 1: reSearch / JuStification

ROI is commonly broken down into two com-ponents: revenue upside and cost reduction (operational efficiencies). At hybris, we believe that both parts of the equation are equally important, although your specific business dynamics will determine which has the larger effect on your business outcomes.

The third component is customer satisfaction and retention. While this may not show up on a P&L each quarter, the positive effects will be seen by the company.

*Forrester, excluding EDISource: The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Suites, Q4 2013,Forrester Research, Inc., October 7, 2013

fact 1: gloBal B2B e-commerce is twice the size of B2c

fact 2: gloBal B2B e-commerce is growing faster than B2c

B2B:

$559BB2B e-commerce growth rate:

34%B2c:

$252BB2c e-commerce

growth rate:

13%

14

insight from the front lines:

the JuStification ProceSSYour initial market research will quickly determine that building out an e-commerce platform is essential to keep up with your competitors and satisfy the demands of your customers. Top management will invest a lot of time rationalizing the expenditures, conside-ring all the options, and creating a cost analy-sis and projected ROI. Your CEO will want this, and your CFO will insist on it. Every company goes through this stage, and four to six months will fl y by very quickly. Be patient and let this process run its course – it’s a necessary part of corporate life. The Catch-22 is that justifi -cations and ROI projections at the beginning of the project can seem like lost time.

That said, the ROI exercise highlights whe-re your particular business might benefi t most from e-commerce.

However, whatever ROI you do up front is strictly a theoretical model. You will be able to calculate ROI on the back-end much more easily, and with much greater accuracy. You won’t have the real numbers until you get to Stage 4 of the project, and your fi rst B2B site is up and running. That’s when you’ll prove its worth and, based on real world analytics, you can fi ne tune your marketing strategies, scope out new features and functionality, and move on to Phase 2, where you will add the additional elements you didn’t have time for in Phase 1.

One of your fi rst challenges will be customer adoption – persuading them to use the new site. That’s when you will have real numbers to measure ROI and justify future enhancements.

1615

online Selling can imProVe groSS reVenueSBefore a company selects and implements a new commerce platform, business sta-keholders and the technology implementa-tion team should establish a consensus on all strategic objectives.

During this process, it’s a good idea to develop a business case for a modern e-commerce platform that highlights the investment that will be required compared to the cost savings and revenue improvements. Then input the expected benefi ts into your annual budget process to ensure a full business commitment to the new commerce model enabled by the platform.

Two major categories feed into this business case and budgeting process:

hard cost saVings…

…such as reduced order processing costs, lo-wer cost of goods and supplies, and increased effi ciencies in sales and marketing expenses.

reVenue gains…

…that can be expected from increased agili-ty, real-time updates (products, pricing) for customers, and improvements in the customer ordering experience, including self-service.

according to a 2013 study By forrester consulting

online cuStomerS are more likelY to…

…order outside of core categories.

…add items to an order.

…order in bulk.

…buy standard repeat orders.

…order at a higher frequency.

…make repeat purchases.

…switch from one brand to another due to promotional offers.

17

By migrating customers to your e-commerce Portal to Purchase your Products, the aVerage order Value (aoV) you’Ve seen on those Purchases has2…

InCreASed

44%

STAYed THe SAMe

24%

don‘T KnoW

20%

deCreASed

11%Among companies with online sales greater than a million dol-lars, 54% fi nd it easier to cross sell and upsell online,

compared with 22% who thought it was easier offl ine.

This results in AOV for most com-panies who see a difference among those selling online longer, 46% see larger AOV.

order ValueS can Be increaSed “is it easier to cross sell and uPsell online or offline? is there a difference in aVerage order Value (aoV)?1“

1 Base: 353 online B2B companies around the world (147 B2B companies with greater than 25% of sales online, 156 B2B companies that have been selling online for fi ve years or more). Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of hybris, September 20132 Base: 45 B2B e-commerce professionals (percentages do not total 100 because of rounding). Source: The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Suites, Q4 2013, Forrester Research, Inc., October 7, 2013

“relatiVe to your offline-only customers, is the aVerage order Value (aoV) higher or lower for your online-only customers?1“

> 25% of B2B sales online52%: Higher19%: Lower

Total37%: Higher31%: Lower

Selling online 5 years or more46%: Higher25%: Lower

19

oPerational efficiencieS can reduce exPenSeSB2B e-commerce can help companies reduce costs, and can take various forms, depending on the nature of the business.

The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Suites, Q4 2013, Forrester Research, Inc., October 7, 2013

information for customers and internal constituents: Reduced customer service time spent on pro-viding product information, prices, confi gura-tions and availability to both customers.

ordering: Reduced time and effi ciency in ordering.

reduced errors: Order accuracy is often greater for online or-ders than those entered manually by traditional means.

customer serVice/rePorting: An online B2B site gives customers a self-ser-vice portal to request quotes, ask questions, enable maintenance, and access reports.

Base: 45 B2B e-commerce ProfessionalsSource: The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Suites, Q4 2013,Forrester Research, Inc., October 7, 2013

By migrating customers to and e-commerce Portal to Purchase their Products, our customer suPPort costs haVe…

InCreASed

9%

STAYed THe SAMe

30%

don‘T KnoW

9%

deCreASed

52%

22

how much do you agree or disagree with the following statement*:

“We can build loyalty with customers more effectively in an online-only environment than we can with those same B2B customers in an offl ine-only environment.“

44% AGREE

28% DISAGREE

total

total

65% AGREE

>25% of B2Bsales online

10% DISAGREE

>25% of B2Bsales online

51% AGREE

SELLING ONLINE 5 YEARS OR MORE

24% DISAGREE

SELLING ONLINE 5 YEARS OR MORE

More satisfi ed customers stay with you longer – increasing orders, referrals, and lifetime value. hybris customers commonly report that online B2B customers are of higher value than offl ine customers. A recent Forrester study found that B2B businesses fi nd it easier to build loyalty with online customers.

B2B companies fi nd it easier to build loyalty with online-only customers than with offl ine-only customers.

loYaltY iS eaSier to Build

Among the best justifi cations (aside from dollars and cents) are the facts that:

Your customers are online, and they expect you to be online with a Mobile and B2C-like experience

Your competitors are online and, if you aren’t, it can become a potentially fatal disadvantage

Business Buyers exPect a moBile / B2c exPerience:

For example Amazon Supply is now investing aggressively in the B2B world, and is becoming a strong force in B2B markets.

data PointS

*Base: 353 online B2B companies around the world (147 B2B companies with greater than 25% sales online, 156 B2B companies that have been selling online for fi ve years or more)Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of hybris, September 2013

a)

b)

2423

Analysts at Virtusa Corporation estimate that as many as 60% to 70% of all IT pro-jects fail to fulfill planned requirements while adhering to the mandated schedule and budget. One of the key reasons for project failure is a sub-standard require-ment analysis – i.e., not knowing “what” you’re delivering.

who should you include in the re-quirements gathering Process?

Be sure to involve all necessary stakeholders. If you need approval from someone before your commerce site can go live, it’s a good idea to have them participate in defining the requirements.

stage 2: gathering requirementS

Customers are a critical component. It cannot be overstated that customers need to be at the center of every requirements gathering exercise.

You’ll also need an inclusive group of subject matter experts, or SMEs. Make sure that mem-bers of this cross-functional team represent finance, HR, operations, customer service, inside sales, field sales, etc.

Next to strategy, your internal team struc-ture is the next most important factor when undertaking a new commerce initiative. It’s a common mistake to begin a new implementati-on before adequately evaluating new roles and organizational changes needed for launch and ongoing maintenance. This can be avoided by predicting future business and technical skill requirements before you start your implemen-tation, and reorganizing your business and technical teams accordingly.

what requirements should Be examined?

Forget about implementation details and technical issues. When gathering require-ments, do just that – collect ONLY the initial requirements. There will be many people along the way who want to show you how to imple-ment the solution. But refrain from taking their advice, at least at the beginning. There will be adequate time for that later.

Anticipate the end results, or “skate to where the puck will be”. That popular sports quote applies here. Don’t worry about documenting the current way things and processes work, but be adamant about how they should work. What is the desired outcome and how will the customer be best served in a perfect world?

Be clear and concise. Requirements should be

written with the assumption that you will not be there to inform the person reading them – they should stand on their own and be clear to an outsider or newcomer.

insight from the front lines: don’t automate a Bad Process.

One of the biggest mistakes we made up front was not spending time figu-ring out how a B2B commerce site would change how we currently do business – and then building the functionality to meet the future needs of customers”

25

…I need the ability to roam warehouse and enter orders.

…I need approval from my supervisor before placing an order.

…I need to be able to place bulk orders.

…I need videos and technical specs of the products I am purchasing.

When possible, leave room for building an MVP (minimal viable product) to put in front of customers early. What you think will be the “killer” app on your commerce site may be a yawn for customers (and vice versa). While it’s not right for every project, Agile Methodology reserves time in the development cycle, allo-wing for greater fl exibility in both your timeline and your fi nal product.

Benefits of agile methodology:

teSt earlY and oftenUsing cases during requirements gathering can help identify how a customer might accom-plish a particular task from their vantage point.

hybris suggests creating a number of use cases only as a starting point for team discussion and collaboration – not to be the complete collection of needs.

“as a corporate manager…“

Not doing suffi cient due diligence

Wording queStionS in a WaY that enaBleS the Vendor to “SPin“ or oBfuScate the truth

TRYING TO BETOO IMPARTIAL

not inVolVing all of the stakeholders

Not having a budget before issuing an RFP

leaVing the rfP ProceSS to the Procurement dePartment

ignoring the PeoPle asPects////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Inviting too many vendors to bid

TEN RFP

e-commerce platform MOST COMMON

NOT ASKINGQUESTIONSTHAT CAN BE EASILY

comPared

one

six

THREE

TEN

FIVE

four

eight

Taking the short view

3029

stage 3: Selecting a Platform VendorIn the previous stages, you crea-ted the cross-functional team and orchestrated many of the prepara-tory elements of your e-commerce initiative, such as presentations to management and RFP requirement gathering.

In this next, critical stage of vendor analysis, qualification, and selecti-on, the cross-functional team will assume the crucial role of choosing and bringing on board one or more organizations that will become your development partner, platform sup-plier, and integration team.

For the person or team in char-ge of e-commerce within your company, developing an RFP will require between three and six months.

The next step will be to choose seven to ten vendors and solicit their responses. Even though you may have worked many months to develop your RFP, you’ll probably want your vendors to respond wi-thin a few weeks or a month. Then review their responses and reduce the number of candidates to three or four, to participate in deeper reviews, demonstrations, and pilot projects. You might make your selections based on pricing, time frames, feature sets, references, and track record.

If you’ve completed Stages 1 and 2 correctly, and if you’ve crea-ted the right team to manage Stage 3, you will make the right decision that will work for the company.

Your internal team may include people from IT, finance, marketing, operations, and logistics – these are the people who will assure that your total solution works – and this solution is much more than just the commerce platform. It will include integrations with financial systems, marketing systems, change ma-nagement, operations, warehouse management, supply chain ma-nagement, inventory, fulfillment, hiring decisions, and personnel assignments. The entire project

At the very end, you’ll want to find the best fit for your company, and determine whether the vendor with the right price and set of features matches your company‘s size and culture. No matter how you manage the vendor selection process, there will always be unexpected challen-ges, and it can be difficult to make decisions. You might find that you want to second-guess yourself, and this is natural, because you really want to maximize your money, and maximize what you’re doing for your company. After you make the final vendor selection, you’ll have to cre-ate a plan for how you’re going to get everything done in the time and money allotted, and move forward,

team, or at least a core group, will remain involved in vetting and choo-sing all of the components along the way. The commerce platform itself is just one piece of a larger organizational structure.The indi-vidual or sub-team responsible for the commerce system won’t have expertise in everything. The supply chain team will make critical decisi-ons, and the finance group will be best equipped to make budget and capital decisions. Your IT team will determine how to manage all of the integrations. By bringing the right people to the table to make sure all stakeholders have given their input, everyone will feel that their needs were considered and that their voices were heard along the way.

working within the constraints. No matter which platform you choose, you’re going to have some cons-traints. You must be able to fully trust your platform vendor, system integrator, and your internal IT team. Always believe that you’ve made the right decision.

Ultimately, Stage 3 is about making sure that Stage 4 is fully enabled and has everything needed to be implemented successfully.

3231

As previously stated in this do-cument, the collection, cleansing and maintenance of your data is the foundation of a successful B2B e-commerce website, so it follows that your PIM must be powerful and easy to use. Tip: skimp in other pla-ces and get the best PIM available to you.

Back-end reporting are often table stakes in the e-commerce game and that‘s because they‘re often ta-ken for granted. A robust reporting system will ultimately make your life easier, so make sure to have your vendor walk you through all the bells and whistles.

The consumerization of B2B e-commerce is an overused term at this point, but that doesn‘t make it any less important. Our e-com-merce clients often tell of the lift in AOV once they implement B2C features such as cross sell / upsell and ratings and reviews.

B2B sites often use only purchase orders and invoices, but the ability to obtain faster fund collection is driving the payment gateways for B2B sites. Tip: Why not give B2B customers the ability to pay online and see what the uptake is?

The ability to create and approve orders based on role is truly a unique B2B feature and is often overlooked, primarily because most small to medium sized firms don‘t require it, but once you start selling to the Fortune 1,000, you‘ll quickly realize that you‘ll want to have this in place.

The ability to quickly find items is always a top user experience necessity and is usually driven by how well you‘ve attributed your products and created the taxonomy through which your customer will navigate. Make sure your e-com-merce platform can handle not just the attributes and navigation system, but enable you to easily change it based on users‘ needs.

Vendor Scoring tiPS

information PROduCT

PIMmanagement

80

45

100 68

90

24

36

r e P o r t i n g

croSS Selling workflow

collaBoration SearchnaVigation

3433

An order management system (OMS) is often a separate utility that may only be needed by the most sophisticated sites - basically enabling orders to be routed to the most effi cient shipping location - but this capability will be crucial as you grow your fulfi llment and drop ship network.

The ability to target customers ba-sed on past purchases or behaviors is key when trying to segment your user base and use A/B tests to fi nd out how customers respond to dif-ferent offers. If you‘re not doing this at launch, you‘ll be looking for this capability shortly thereafter.

The ability to give your merchan-dising team access to easy-to-use back-end tools to change the pro-ducts on your site is one of the most basic features - make sure your merchandising team is in the room when the vendor demos this.

If you‘re planning on being in the B2B e-commerce business for the long-haul, then you better make sure your partner is as well - not only looking at how long they have been in business is important, but also if their revenues are growing and they are making money (or bringing in investment dollars).

Personal references are invaluab-le during the evaluation phase - of course vendors will give you references they feel will give a positive review, but asking pointed questions about your concerns will either allay your concerns or make it apparent where to dig more.

order management

TOOLSproven

track RECORDPERSO-

NALI-ZATION

Noun; pluralLine breaks: ref¦er|enceLine breaks: ref¦er|encePronunciation:

Ref·er·ences

35

The key to this stage is the skill level and experience of the internal IT organizati-on, design firm, and/or system integra-tion partner. It’s common at this point to complete a scoping exercise to determine the features and functionality that can go live in Phase 1. While the RFP contains all the features that are ultimately wanted, a subset may need to be prioritized and im-plemented first, to meet time and budget constraints.

stage 4: Build out and launch

suPPort &oPerations

feasiBility foundation exPloration engineering dePloyment

design, wireframe, and coding

Website design includes creating the wirefra-me, data elements, and user experience desi-red from the commerce platform, balanced against your company’s culture, brand and logo standards, and other internal requirements.One of the more critical steps in the definition a website is for marketing and business users to collaborate on the visual design of the site and its branding. Optionally, a UI/design agency can assist with this part of the project.

this Process often includes the following stePs:

Site Map: Overall page structure of the website

Wireframes: Structure and templates of all pages

Navigation: The flow of the website and how customers access your

products

Visual elements, including colors, fonts,

logos, images, etc. (and CSS)

Personalization: How the website changes

based on profile attributes of the user

It is critically important for the developers to have a solid understanding of the website‘s inputs and outputs in order for them to fulfill all specifications.

N

3837

Generally consists of the following steps:

Website wireframe HTML Prototype Visual elements JavaServer Pages Development

The website wireframe, page schematic, or screen blueprint is a visual guide that repre-sents the skeletal framework of a website. Wireframes are created for the purpose of arranging elements to best accomplish a parti-cular purpose. The wireframe depicts the page layout or arrangement of the website’s content, including interface elements and navigational systems, and how they work together. The wire-frame usually lacks typographic style, color, or graphics, since the main focus lies in functiona-lity, behavior, and priority of content. It focuses on what a Web page does, not what it looks like. Wireframes can be pencil drawings or sketches on a whiteboard, or they can be produced by means of a broad array of free or commercial software applications.

Wireframes are generally created by business analysts, user experience designers, develo-pers, visual designers, and other roles with expertise in interaction design, information architecture and user research.

wireframes focus on:

...the rules for displaying certain kinds of information

...the relative priorities of the information and functions

...the effect of different scenarios on the display

...the kinds of information displayed

...the range of functions available

weBsite wireframeThe Wireframe also connects the underlying conceptual structure, or information architec-ture, to the visual design of the website. Wire-frames establish functionality, and the relati-onships between different screen templates. Creating wireframes is an iterative process, and an effective way to make rapid prototypes of pages, while measuring the practicality of a design concept.

Visual elementsVisual design takes the complete wireframes to the next step by adding elements of color, font, style, and icons to provide the visual ela-boration of what the website will look like. This typically includes the use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) which are essentially a repository of standards (fonts, colors, etc.) that are used across the website.

html PrototyPeThe HTML Prototype takes this as input and creates a “clickable UI” that can be displayed/demoed to the business users and provide a close representation of what the website will look like. Since the website has not been built yet (just the front end UI), customer, product, and other integration data is not yet available, but the HTML prototype does give the business a good representation of what the website will look like and how the functionality will be displayed.

JsP deVeloPmentWeb developers commonly use HTML to build a website. Once this is complete, it is no longer a simple task to make changes to the look and feel of the page originally provided in the HTML file. That is because these elements are now intertwined with the logic necessary to render the pages dynamically. This is important to understand, because making changes at this point can extend the duration and cost of the project.

Following the guidelines above can help minimize changes later in the project, and help keep the project on time and within budget.

1 2 3 4

creating a comPleted uSer interface

39

Before you write even one line of code, you have to make sure your data is 100% correct. You must know how your integrations are going to work, because if you magnify a few small


an e-commerce Site iS a giant magnifYing glaSSfocuSed on Your data

problems in a data set across a million pro-ducts or SKUs, you may fi nd yourself in trouble.If your integrations aren’t 100% correct, you’ll be setting yourself up to fail.

98% correct can result in 100% failure...

Errors tend to hide other errors

“Quick and dirty” fi xes are essential to drive velocity

Simple errors can block multi-day test scenarios for a project, or disrupt a business process within operations

4241

This stage follows the deployment of the application and the handover from the project team to the support and operations teams.

stage 5: ongoing maintenance, SuPPort & oPerationS / PhaSe 2

the suPPort team will need to manage a wide range of requirements:

While your hosting company may provide fi rst level support if a server goes down, it’s wise to assemble a team dedicated to ongoing support and development of the site (including Phase 2 and beyond requirements).

Changes in fulfi llment or 3PL partners

Mobile application development

International expansion: multi-currency, multi-lingual

Payment processing

Integrating new touch points/omni-channel management

Page speed and load time optimization

Application and server monitoring

Feature/functionality enhancements

Ongoing bug fi xes

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Data and partner integrations

Web analytics integration

4443

Monitoring user satisfaction, traffi c, data volumes, and system performance to assure fast, proactive resolution of unexpected issues

Ensuring the availability of the application as agreed upon in the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between the end customer and application support team / operations and hosting team

Establishing proper levels of user and system support to resolve any issues related to the commerce platformReporting on encountered

malfunctions and their resolutions

Maintaining all parts of the platform, including applying patches, verifying optimal confi gurations, and making sure that the system can handle steep traffi c increases following planned campaigns

the main oBJectiVes of the suPPort & oPerations Phase are:

the actiVities that take Place during Phase 2 include:

Making continuous impro-vements, new features, and new releases. Assuring that there is

a clear process for implemen-ting change requests, installing

new releases, and resizing the solution to accommodate

predictable traffi c spikes

Patching and maintaining the system

Maintaining system confi guration and

maintenance documents

Maintain communication with hosting team

Updating system documentati-on functionality, confi guration, use cases, and environmental

factors change.

Communicating all new policies and job descriptions

as they evolve.

46

One of the steps often missed in planning an e-commerce strategy is how to support it after it’s live.

Don’t wait until the site is in development or has

gone live before making this critical decision.

MAKE A DECISION

HOW TO SUPPORT

SUPPORT TEAMIdeally, you should identify your ongoing support team, whether internal or external - and have them working with you during the development stages.

deciSion Point: internal or external SuPPort?There are a number of considerations and tradeoffs involved in the decision to support your e-commerce site in-house or through an outsourced partner. These include:

cost/exPertise: The cost of an outsourced firm is likely to be higher than in-house, but an external firm will likely have more resources available when you need to scale up development, or have a tricky coding problem to solve.

dedicated resources: Will your in-house team be dedicated to your e-commerce business, or are they shared across the business?

control: How much control do you have over an outsourced team – are they in your time zone and do they have a full-time, expert project manager on their side?

Plan Stage 5 long before you begin Stage 5


47

to have to launch

have for launch

must

nice

Think about scope early in the process. It’s easy to try to document every piece of functionality you want from your new B2B website – and invest many weeks documenting them. Then, when the scoping and budgeting discussion comes, spend more time prioritizing them.

We suggest prioritizing up front. This saves time and avoids management confusion at inopportune times. Create buckets that work for your business, and fully document those that will go live at launch time.


ScoPing out Your commerce Solution

rank them as follows:

but can wait forPhase 2

important

launch

50

section twoCommerce Platform Decision Resources

the forrester waVe B2B commerce suites In this report, available through hybris, Forrester Research looks at how manufac-turers, distributors and other B2B fi rms are working to better serve their sales channels through digital experiences and by developing new business models to support complex selling relationships with distributors, resellers,partner networks, employees, retail stores, and end consumers. eBusiness professionals are making signifi cant investments in next-gene-ration B2B commerce technologies to enable these transformations, and unraveling the vendor landscape remains a challenge.

online and moBile are transfor-ming B2B commerce This useful document includes the fi ndings of a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on B2B Commerce. Over 700 B2B companies were surveyed, of which 353 companies sell direct to businesses online. Key fi ndings were that online and mobile are transforming B2B commerce and that businesses have to act fast to not fall behind.

guidance from forreSter According to a report from Forrester Research, Inc., B2B eBusiness professionals are looking at alternatives to point solutions and niche vendors. Players today offer “integrated technology stacks, feature-rich APIs, and end-to-end e-commerce capabilities aimed at serving diverse customer segments both browsing and buying across multiple touchpoints,” Forrester wrote.

B2B platforms are being increasingly used to manage strategic challenges, Forrester says, and managers are relying more on commerce platform vendors as strategic partners to be more invol-ved with managing their B2B relationships with both online and offl ine customers. A solution from hybris is evaluated in the report, with hybris positioned as a leader.

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hyBris

A seamless cross-channel experi-ence is impossible without the right master data management (MDM). It is only logical that a consistent experience across channels re-quires a single centralized view of product and customer data. hybris Product Content Management (PCM) delivers consolidation and centralized management of product information and attributes across all channels. See more info at www.hybris.com/pcm

Vendor 2 Vendor 3

Vendor comParison tool

Pim (Product information management)

Unimportant Moderately important Important Very importantOf little importance

hyBris

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. The sheer mass of availa-ble data makes it time-consuming and cumbersome to filter out the “noise” and focus on the relevant information. Even with the right data – which can be different for different roles – it can be difficult to analyze and draw the right conclu-sions. The hybris Reporting Module enables you to create sophisticated reports and deliver results to the right people in the right formats to track key technical and business metrics. See more details at www.hybris.com/modules/reporting


rePortingVendor 2 Vendor 3


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hyBris

Highly profitable commerce sites don’t just help customers find what they are looking for. They help them find what they aren’t looking for – but still want and will buy. The hybris Cross-Selling Module enables you to manually define cross-selling or up-selling rules to deliver product recommendations to boost sales. See more info at www.hybris.com/modules/cross-selling

Vendor 2 Vendor 3


croSS Selling


hyBris

When customers are ready to pay, the sale is all but made. Except you still need to process their payment, and if you don’t make it easy to pay with the method of their choice, they won’t come back – and you might even lose the sale you were about to close. The hybris Payment Module provides a standard inter-face for easily integrating external payment service providers (PSPs) into the hybris system. More info at www.hybris.com/modules/payment


PaYmentVendor 2 Vendor 3


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Vendor 3hyBris

Processes aren’t inherently efficient. Confusing tasks and unproductive teamwork lead to longer execution times and lower consistency and quality. The hybris Workflow and Collaboration Module enables you to easily define, monitor, and manage workflows and tasks – even complex and parallel workflows. Find more details at www.hybris.com/modules/workflow-and-collaboration

Vendor 2


WorkfloW collaBoration


Vendor 3hyBris

The hybris Search and Navigation Module delivers the capabilities that convert browsers into buyers. This includes faceted navigation, free-text search as well as many other featu-res that optimize the end-user se-arch experience - leading to increa-sed sales. You can find more details here: www.hybris.com/downloads/productcollateral/search-and-navi-gation-module/227


Search and naVigationVendor 2


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Vendor 3hyBris

hybris Order Management helps you increase profitability through centralized order orchestration. Your customers interact with your brand on numerous touch points, be it their PC, their mobile or the point of sale in your store. They expect a seam-less and highly interactive shopping experience. More details are avai-lable at www.hybris.com/products/order-orchestration

Vendor 2


order management toolS


Vendor 3hyBris

Personalization enables you to target content to customers based on who they are. Advanced personalization enables you to target them based on what they do. This behavior-based approach provides you with a whole new level of personalization that can dramatically boost sales and customer loyalty. See more info at this link: www.hybris.com/modules/advanced-personalization


adVanced PerSonalizationVendor 2


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Vendor 3hyBris

The hybris B2B commerce platform includes state-of-the-art merchan-dising functionality. It also allows companies to monitor buyer beha-vior, personalize product offerings, and optimize the entire B2B shop-ping experience. Successful manu-facturers, distributors and leading brands worldwide use the hybris commerce platform to increase conversion rates and drive revenue, for an unparalleled return on their commerce investments.

Vendor 2


Back-end merchandiSing


hyBris

hybris solutions are often designed, planned, implemented, and sup-ported by an elite group of partners worldwide, each with considerable experience on the hybris platform, through their own proven track record of hybris projects and by gaining the appropriate knowledge and earning hybris certifications. Every certified hybris partner has a significant number of certified re-sources to support a wide range of industries and diverse B2B custo-mers around the globe.

Vendor 2 Vendor 3


PartnerShiPS/ ProVen trackrecord


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Vendor 3hyBris Vendor 2


referenceS


Vendor 3hyBris


concluSionVendor 2

hybris offers a state-of-the-art deployment accelerator – essentially a pre-built B2B e-commerce store ready to activate the functionality you need, and rapidly input your product content and information. Get online faster with the hybris B2B Commerce Accelerator – a production-ready, customizable, multi-channel frame-work designed for business-to-business trading.

Support complex product catalogs, pricing logic, and user/role management.

Rapidly deploy and manage multiple B2B sites on a single platform.

Use existing catalogs, content, and infrastructure to create

custom sites and catalogs.Easily manage sites with multiple languages, currencies, brands, taxes, and other regional requirements.

Develop and manage content with a built-in, intuitive Web-based product content management system

that includes effective workflow management.

Centralize order management capabilities to enable efficient omni-channel fulfillment.

Deploy hybris B2B commerce in the way that best fits your needs – either on-premise, hosted by hybris, or on-demand in the cloud.

Enrich your product descriptions with high-resolution images and videos, managed

by built-in digital asset management (DAM).Consolidate and manage all product content and attributes across all channels via native integration with hybris’ award-winning master data manage-ment and product content management solution (hybris PCM).

Maximize SEO rankings with out-of-the box tooling.

Support all channels – Web, mobile, and offline vehicles,

such as print catalogs.

hYBriS B2B accelerator

6665

hYBriS White PaPerS and SolutionS BriefS Building an roi to

eValuate your B2B e-com-merce initiatiVe

This white paper provides a frame-work for building an ROI model that can be used to demonstrate the advantages of a new e-commerce implementation to senior executives and board members.

hyBris B2B commerce

This document describes how hybris B2B Commerce tames complexity by consolidating management of multiple business models, channels, and markets. It shows how B2B organizations can accommodate a variety of suppliers, distributors, and stores on a single platform, while automating sales administration, and maintaining the operational efficiency required to drive customer satisfaction and, ultimately, profits.

imPlement faster. sell more. grow.

In this solutions guide, you’ll read why the days of bulky spreadsheets and rigid enterprise systems for pricing, quoting, and selling products are passé, and that none of those systems provide intuitive online selling tools or support for complex B2B Multichannel Commerce. It also discusses how B2B customers are increasingly demanding that their vendors deliver a B2C-class user experience across channels, and why modern B2B Multichannel Com-merce solutions are essential.

state of B2B e-commerce

This thought leadership guide offers insights into the preferences of today’s procurement professionals or business professionals who buy products on behalf of their compa-ny. It offers strategic guidance on the required commerce technology capabilities and potential operations improvements that emerge from these insights.

e-commerce challenges facing the wholesale industry

This paper discusses the most common challenges that wholesa-lers face when leveraging modern e-commerce technologies to acce-lerate sales growth. It also provides suggestions to help make the tran-sition to an effective business model that adequately supports traditional, online, and mobile commerce ope-rations.

the consumerization of the B2B channel

Driven by a range of customer, cost, and market factors, the „Consu-merization Effect“ is already taking place in B2B channels. This paper evaluates the opportunities that this evolution offers to all B2B organiza-tions, including the following:

Reducing costs by stream- lining business operations

Increasing customer satisfac-tion by delivering omni-chan-nel convenience

Managing the complexity of B2B transactions

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key questions to include in an e-commerce Plat-form rfP

This paper describes how a compre-hensive RFP that thoroughly covers all the critical points can assist com-panies in reducing costs and pro-ducing better ROI, faster. If an RFP helps a management team reach a final decision in 12 weeks rather than 16 weeks, an additional month of revenue may be added to the bottom line from the e-commerce channel. This could translate into hundreds of thousands of additional revenue dollars. And a well-crafted RFP can ensure that a company doesn’t pay a premium for features it won’t need in the foreseeable future.

hyBris ProJect Best Practices guide

This extensive document provides hybris customers with a summary of e-commerce project best practices collected by the hybris team respon-sible for project delivery. It presents a set of activities that an implemen-tation team should consider during a hybris commerce project imple-mentation. This includes discussions of development methodology, team structures, and communication sty-le; guidelines for building a project approach, staffing model and time-line to match specific requirements; plus answers to many architectural, design and technical questions.

to download these white PaPers and solution Briefs Please Visit www.hyBris.com/downloads

hYBriS SerVeS oVer 500 customers, in-cluding Some of the moSt recognized comPanieS in the World (gloBal B2B BrandS aS Well aS conSumer BrandS).

We are BY far the faSteSt-groWing maJor commerce Platform comPanY – our comPound annual growth rate Sin-ce 2009 iS 83%.

83%

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B2B case study

rexel

Rexel, a global leader in the dis-tribution of electrical supplies and services, serves three main end markets: industrial, commercial, and residential. Newey and Eyre is the UK’s leading distributor of qua-lity electrical and safety products, operating under Rexel UK Limited. The company is renowned for its highly personalized counter service.

Newey and Eyre recognized a need to offer an effective alternative to traditional, in-branch trading. A multi-channel B2B e-commerce platform would allow customers to order supplies from its massive pro-duct range outside normal working hours, meaning they could spend less time traveling to their local branch, and more time on the job.

The company chose to develop a groundbreaking, functionally-rich ‘one stop shop’ that that would pro-vide the electrical wholesale mar-ket with a Web channel that offered best-of-breed search and navigati-on, with the same Web capabilities offered to general consumers in the retail sector.

Flexibility, scalability, and easy integration with existing workflows and systems were the key crite-ria behind the selection of hybris Commerce as the platform at the heart of Newey and Eyre’s new ‘one stop shop.’ It offered out-of-the-box functionality that met the needs of the business, including the ability to support searchandising, SEO visibility and usability.

hybris’ B2B case study on Rexel illustrates how they were able to increase average order value and help customers via a self-service portal.

The fact that hybris could offer a combined e-commerce and product content management (PCM) plat-form was considered vital for the long-term management of product data. Newey and Eyre worked with a hybris partner that specialized in e-commerce consultancy and systems integration for the imple-mentation. After four months, the new platform launched, offering customers the first truly mul-ti-channel B2B experience in the electrical wholesale market.

read more details at: www.hyBris.com/downloads/ case-study/rexel/009

reference customers

1 million products; 3,000 sup-pliers; 2 million customers; 500,000 orders / day; $2B online sales

200 private label e-Shops Mul-ti-catalog, complex pricing. Major version upgrade: 15 Days.

World’s largest tire company uses hybris to support 2,000 dealers for commerce & MDM, B2B & B2B2C

World s # 3 food service provider, # 2 uniform supplier with $13B in worldwide sales. Uses hybris to enable 100k customers,

System of record for product content 20,000 daily users and 300 editors

5 languages, 4 currencies, 30M price rows

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aBout hYBriS

hybris software, an SAP Company, helps businesses around the globe sell more goods, services and digital content through every touchpoint, channel and device. hybris delivers OmniCommerce™: state-of-the-art master data management for commerce and unified commerce processes that give a business a single view of its customers, products and or-ders, and its customers a single view of the bu-siness. hybris‘ omni-channel software is built on a single platform, based on open standards, that is agile to support limitless innovation, ef-ficient to drive the best TCO, and scalable and extensible to be the last commerce platform companies will ever need. The top industry

research firm evaluating B2B commerce plat-forms lists hybris as “leader”. The same soft-ware is available on-premise, on-demand, and managed hosted, giving merchants of all sizes maximum flexibility. Over 700 companies have chosen hybris, including global B2B leaders W.W.Grainger, Rexel, General Electric, Thom-son Reuters, Dupont, Stanley Black & Decker, Airgas, Aramark, Doosan/Bobcat and 3M.

hybris is the future of commerce™.

hybris is the fastest-growing major commerce platform company with a compound annual growth rate since 2009 of ~83%.

for more information, Visit www.hyBris.com

Founded in 1997 with a simple mis-sion of creating superbly engineered commerce solutions. Over the years, what that means has evolved – mul-tichannel, open standards, high per-formance, data centricity, customer centricity – and our company and products have adapted. But our mis-sion has remained the same. We are, above all, a great commerce techno-logy company.

19972013

TODAY

Since 1997, hybris Professional Services has been working with customers and partners to design and implement solutions based on hybris technology.

SAP acquired hybris in August, 2013 as an investment in the fu-ture of commerce and customer engagement, to enable busines-ses to deliver relevant, contex-tual, and consistent experiences for customers across all their digitally-enabled interactions.

hybris now serves over 500 customers, including some of the most recognized companies in the world (global B2B brands as well as consumer brands).

As much as we are a company built on better technology, we are also a company built on a philosophy of partners and a culture of innovation.

From the beginning, we have relied on solutions partners with a deep knowledge of their industry specialties and who are very close to our customers to lead most implementations. We can now count among our 200+ partners some of the most widely respected names in the industry, around the globe.

hyBris software milestones

75

hybris encourages competitive research – in fact, when possible, we’ll provide you with third party research reports (Forrester, Gartner, etc.), our customer references, and a score card to help make a final, objective decision on who will be your trusted partner and e-commerce platform supplier.

Some distinctions that hybris is most proud of:

rated as a leader… …in major analysts’ e-commerce platform reports.

saP acquired hyBris…… in 2013, making it an even stron-ger competitor in the marketplace.

the hyBris success story:hybris has implemented scores of B2B e-commerce sites in the US and across the globe, and has one of the industry’s largest lists of suc-cessful enterprise B2B customers.

hYBriS SoftWare diStinctionS

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notes notes

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notes

The content of this hybris customer resource guide is highly confiden-tial, and the conditions of the confidentiality agreement strictly apply. This guide is for informational purposes only and must not be disclosed to anyone and/or forwarded or copied in any way or form. This document and the information contained in this guide may be subject to change, updates, revisions, verifications, and further amendments by hybris at any time, without notice. While the information contained in this guide has been prepared in good faith, neither hybris nor its shareholders, di-rectors, officers, agents, employees, or advisers give, has given, or has authority to give, any representations or warranties (express or implied) as to, or in relation to, the accuracy, reliability or completeness of the information in this paper, or any revisions thereof, (all such information being referred to as “information”) and liability therefore is expressly

disclaimed. Accordingly, neither hybris nor any of its shareholders, directors, officers, agents, employees, or advisers take any responsibili-ty for, or will accept any liability whether direct, express or implied, cont-ractual, tortious, statutory or otherwise, in respect of the accuracy or completeness of the information or for any of the opinions contained in it, or for any errors, omissions or misstatements or for any loss, hows-oever arising from the use of this guide. In furnishing this guide, each of hybris and its advisers does not undertake or agree to any obligation to provide the recipient with access to any additional information or to update this guide or to correct any inaccuracies in it, or omissions from, this guide which may become apparent.

contact hybris: www.hybris.com | [email protected]

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