 ECi Begins ECinteractive®
Release and
Training Drive
Dealers are roaring past the first two milestones in the release of ECinteractive®, ECi's new Internet service solution formerly known as Project Cozumel.
These first two milestones are critical:
- Two phases of beta test dealers approved ECinteractive and D-Force® 2 (for is.group members), and are running their sites live on ECi production servers.
- Live customers are accessing the sites and placing real orders.
The first dealership to get a live customer order on ECinteractive was Keeton's Office Supply Co., Inc., of Bradenton, Fla.
"We really didn't have to train the customer," said Keeton's systems administrator, Ed Copeland. "I just gave them the user name and password. It was a new account, where our sales rep had entered an order as a quote in DDMS. The customer found the order on hold in ECinteractive, and added it right to their cart. When I followed up, they said it was very user-friendly. That first live order was almost $1,200."
Since moving from beta to his ECinteractive production site, Ed has added five customer accounts. "One of our Dealer Station customers called with difficulty searching," Ed said. "We couldn't find the item in our old site, but with ECinteractive's new search engine, it came right up. So I said, 'OK, we're switching you.' "
One challenge in converting to the ECinteractive site, Ed said, was learning how to use Customer Groups. This administrative control panel feature is designed to give you unmatched flexibility in saving parameter settings for various ways of doing business, and assigning saved settings to customer groups or individual users.
"I can certainly see how it will be a plus where one account has 120 users," he said. "I can set up a customer group just for that account, and not have to remember individual settings when I add all the new users. But the new process of using customer groups to set up accounts can take some getting used to."
The Road Ahead
ECi and is.group firmly believe that a controlled general release schedule leads to the most successful implementation for each customer. It allows our training and support teams to provide the requisite attention to all dealers in a fair manner, and to properly assess server performance as consumer usage increases.
For the road ahead, look for the following milestones:
- The first wave of dealers will convert more and more of their customers and individual users. As this occurs, we will closely monitor server and support loads and allocate resources accordingly.
- Dealers will use new tools to convert customers, including:
- New applications in Dealer Station® and is.D-Force® help you analyze and migrate customer settings and approval trees to ECinteractive® and is.D-Force® 2, respectively.
- An information kit you can use to communicate to your customers. It highlights the features that your consumers care about, with full-page screen shots, and charts for side-by-side comparison to Dealer Station/D-Force.
- Over the next several weeks, ECi Product Manager Lewis Bass will invite additional groups of dealers to attend Web based training, set up their sites, and migrate their customer accounts. Selected dealers will include investors and other dealers with consideration made for historical online order volume.
Today's Payload
This first release, Version 6.6.5, made huge strides in the core functions:
- User-centered navigation. Frequently used tools are grouped in the left-hand column. Each page has a hierarchical drop-down menu at the top. Forms automatically suggest entries, and drop-down fields respond to typed initial characters. Each page and function has context-sensitive help. Users can scroll through the rotating Today's Specials banner ad.
- Catalog search. Limit by item attributes such as new, popular, recycled, minority, and JWOD. ECi servers cache search data for faster display of results for all users. Top sellers and top manufacturers are suggested based on keywords.
- Checkout. QuickOrder interactively substitutes contract items, and displays descriptions, units, pricing, subtotals, and a new row. Item Confirmation suggests companion items, similar items, or accessories. Checkout lets you change the account, bill-to or recipient attention.
- Favorites lists. Add items to various MyFavorites Lists from MyOrders history, QuickOrder, product information, cart confirmation, and Other Products of Interest pages, as well as from other MyFavorites Lists. You can even add descriptive comments to each list.
- Departmental approvals. Customers can assign multiple approvers for each user. Approvers can append reasons and comments to denied orders, and route them back to the originator for correction. Users can check status of orders awaiting approval from MyOrders.
- Order history. Search order history by date range, P/O number, item number, and prefix. Dynamically sort the display by columns, and expand or collapse line items by groups. Drill down to historical details and add items from previous orders to the cart or a MyFavorites list.
"Designing, funding, producing, and beta testing our new technology has been a real journey, and we're thrilled to let the rubber hit the road," said Lewis Bass, ECi Product Manager. "Core ordering functionality and flow is as sound and stable as possible. But this release is only the beginning."
The Journey Continues
Lewis' upcoming projects for ECinteractive and is.D-Force 2 will integrate more tightly with DDMS® business system software and supply-chain communications via the ECi Private Supply Network.
ECi's development staff is poised to make rapid advancements over the next three months:
- item comparisons
- stock availability
- quantity break pricing
- third-party shipping
- account invoices
- and more!
The aim for these Internet service solutions is to drive more customer service online.
"In response to dealer feedback, we have added six new developers for the remainder of the year to further enhance the product," said ECi chief operating officer Ron Books. "Our dealers have been very clear about their priorities. Moving forward, ECinteractive remains our top focus at ECi, and we are continuing to invest our resources in it." |
