PRODUCT PROFILE
WebSphere Commerce 5.4 Integrates Inventory and Order Management

The Lillian Vernon store, for example, decided it needed to concentrate on the order management piece of its online operations to increase profits. "Previously, customers would see something online and then call in to purchase it. By putting most of its catalog online and automating order management, the company was able to decrease administration costs by 30 percent," Lautenbach said.

Integrating into the Back End

To meet its self-imposed order and inventory management challenge, Lillian Vernon deployed WebSphere Commerce, an e-commerce platform designed for small and mid-size retailers.

The main focus of WebSphere Commerce 5.4 -- the latest version was released in March -- is to help retailers become more profitable by better integrating inventory and order management for both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) operations.

It does this through real-time inventory features that allow B2B and B2C Web sites to represent in-stock items in new visual ways -- specifically, letting shoppers see online merchandise availability as they would on a store rack, Lautenbach said. Also, WebSphere Commerce's advanced order management automates the order process, allowing customers to track expected ship dates easily and process back orders automatically.

Perhaps just as important, WebSphere Commerce provides new links to retailers' back-end systems, allowing for a more seamless view into related databases and legacy systems. In June, IBM (NYSE: IBM) introduced IBM CrossWorlds Extender for WebSphere Commerce, a product that focuses on process-to-process communication for the mid-size companies that already use WebSphere Commerce, but have not yet hooked up their back-end systems to their e-commerce software.

Basically, it allows a user to communicate between industry or best-of-breed processes in WebSphere Commerce, mapping them to processes in back-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

"Such a level of integration has become the defining competitive advantage for this next generation of online retailers, such as Lillian Vernon," Lautenbach said.

The Future of E-Tail

The integration of back-end systems will be a key goal for online retailers over the next few years, agrees AMR Research director Kimberly Nickle.

In the early days of the Web, e-tailers neglected to focus on profits, and online retail sites were mostly duds, Nickle told CRM Buyer. However, because online shopping was a novelty, consumers accepted its limitations.

These days the novelty of shopping online has worn thin, and consumers are quick to abandon Web sites where they have to wade through page after page looking for a particular item, only to find it out of stock near the end of the purchase transaction.

"It is no longer acceptable for a consumer to go to a Web site and not be able to see if inventory is available in real-time or not be able to purchase and pay for a product in one transaction," Nickle said.

Volume Details

According to Lautenbach, WebSphere is able to handle the volume of SKUs (unique product numbers for stock-keeping units) Lillian Vernon has placed online -- some 6,000 compared with the Web site's original 1,500 -- because of the relational database that underpins the platform.

Also, the CrossWorlds acquisition and subsequent product release was key to this operation, Lautenbach said. "Its prebuilt adapters for ERP systems bring inventory and customer data into the Web-based, customer-facing processes.

"Because Web commerce sites are becoming more integrated into their overall IT strategies, there is a real need for multipurpose platforms."