Commerce Server 2009 Management
Microsoft’s Commerce Server 2009 eCommerce foundation includes a bevy of Smart Client administration tools to manage customers & orders, catalog & product, and marketing & discounting functions. The Smart Tools, while technically functional, are often times not well received by non-technical end-users (Marketing, Product Management, Customer Service staff). The Smart Tools also open up more access to the Commerce Server application than is typically desirable for non-technical end-users.
MethodFactory introduces its Commerce Server 2009 (CS09) Admin Extender
The CS09 Admin Extender is a flexible, easy to use web-based management tool for Commerce Server 2009 eCommerce administration functions. Common management functions include:
- Product Management - marketing copy, product images, categorization, related products, product ratings, product variants, spec sheets, product video, etc.
- Customer Management - customer search (email, phone, etc.), profile update, password reset, etc.
- Order Management - order search (order #, date, etc.), view order status, shipment tracking, etc.
- Shopping Cart Management - cart search (by customer or based on users web session), cart view, cart management (take over user’s cart to complete order)
- Promotion Management - create discount offers (% off, $ off, buy xx get yy free, etc.), create coupons, manage promotions to customer segments and campaigns
- System Settings Management - system email copy management; 3rd party service access management (analytics, shipping, fraud management, etc.), user & role management, system messaging & alerting management.
- Integration Manager - view status of online orders and whether they have been received by CRM/ERP system, integration error alerting & handling
The CS09 Admin Extender is used by Marketing, Product Management and Customer Service staff to perform daily functions, in an environment that is conducive to how the business functions.
A better user experience
The CS09 Admin Extender was designed to be personalized to match an organization’s business processes – configure the software to match the business; not the other way around.
Configuration profile based personalization includes management of the workspaces (tabs), user roles (access to workspaces), fields within workspaces and the graphical presentation of the application.
Custom business workflows can be inserted into the CS09 Admin Extender within any workspace. Custom workflows can be orchestrated as a Windows Workflow Foundation event and then inserted where appropriate.
Active Directory based (single sign-on) authentication ensures that the logged-in user can see only what they’re supposed to see. Roles and rights trimming are managed within the application.
Technical considerations
The CS09 Admin Extender was developed to leverage the functionality strengths of Commerce Server. The application uses the published Commerce Server APIs to ensure that the Commerce Server product upgrade path is not compromised. The open architecture of the Admin Extender supports the integration of other eCommerce system functions within one central application. Other business system integration consideration points could include:
- ERP system workspace
- CRM system workspace
- Digital asset management system workspace
- Enterprise search management workspace
- Affiliate management
- Analytics reporting