Webtelligence

Webtelligence is a full featured web store that enables two-way integration between Sage Accpac ERP Order Entry, Accounts Receivable, Inventory Control and the World Wide Web.  Businesses that implement a Webtelligence web store can achieve significant cost savings through the elimination of many of the manual steps required to process customer orders and to answer customer account queries.  Data entry and customer account queries can effectively be outsourced to the customer.  In addition, the cost of managing a web store is significantly lowered due to the fact that data is managed in one place.

A wide variety of features are available, and custom function can be enabled, so that businesses can implement a web store that addresses their unique requirements.  In addition, businesses can take advantage of a complimentary product, InteliCat™, to create flyers and catalogues using the extended product information and images used by a web store.

Sage ERP Accpac Integration

Two-way integration between Webtelligence and Sage Accpac ERP all but eliminates the need to manage data in both a back office system and a web store.  Webtelligence uses data from the Accpac Order Entry, Inventory Control and Accounts Receivable modules, combined with web store software logic that mimics functions found in Accpac to maintain consistency between the two environments. With Webtelligence, businesses can determine the frequency that inventory information is automatically updated in a web store.  This may be once every 24 hours, or several times during the day, depending on the needs and preferences of the vendor. 

Inventory information includes items to be displayed in the web store, along with item description and SKU number, base price, quantity on hand, quantity on order, units of measure, Kitting/Sets (if any), alternate items, as well as optional fields.

Webtelligence uses Accpac Accounts Receivable data so a web store can correctly display customer specific pricing, taxes and payment terms matching that set up in Accpac based on a user’s web store log in credentials.  This includes the ability to accurately display customer discounts, quantity price breaks, contract pricing in the correct currency. In addition, customer email, location addresses, ship-to locations and shipping methods are also automatically synchronized between Accpac and a web store.

Web store orders can processed either as on account orders or customers can pay by credit card, with full integration to Paytelligence ERP Payment Processing solution for Accpac.  Orders that have been accepted in a Webtelligence web store are automatically read in to Accpac Order Entry, in near real-time if required and in a manner that adheres to Accpac logic so that database integrity is always maintained.  There is no requirement with Webtelligence to write directly to the Accpac database.   This automatic process entirely eliminates the need to re-key orders in to Order Entry, while maintaining full Accpac order processing management.   Businesses have the option of having web orders placed on hold once they are read in to Accpac, or to automatically post.

Web Store Set Up Administration

Easy to use Administration tools are included with Webtelligence to enable businesses to manage web store content on their own.  During implementation web store content can be created off line and then bulk loaded in to the web store product item page layouts, including product images and extended product information. 

Within Webtelligence items can be assigned to an unlimited number of categories and/or sub-categories, as well as, in to manufacturer or brand categories if that is a requirement.  For businesses that sell items with variations such as clothing, the web store can display drop down lists where customers can choose attributes such as size and color.

Once a web store is live, an administrator can view and edit web store images and HTML and can easily add new files, pages, images and directories.  In addition, a web store administrator can add key words to facilitate indexing and key word searching.

Web Store Design

Webtelligence features an open presentation layer enabling the ability to implement a unique web store interface.  This includes the ability to implement a wide variety of product category menu navigation options, graphics, colors, layouts, banner ads, and integration with functions such as Live Chat, RSS News Feeds and Blogs.  

North49 can provide web site design and implementation services or a business can choose to do this work themselves or to hire a web designer to do so.  Businesses are therefore not limited to a pre-set web store design or layout, along with the option of being self sufficient and unique in managing the look.

Web designers are provided web access to a rich set up documentation on Webtelligence to support them in their design development efforts.

Shopping Experience

Webtelligence provides a rich and flexible shopping experience.   Web store products can be categorized in a variety of ways providing a number of easy to use navigation options for customers.  Product categories can be tiered so a customer can drill down to a sub set of items they may be interested in, they can be laid out in a grid or matrix and they can be grouped by Brand or Manufacturer. 

Powerful search tools are provided enabling a customer to search by item number, item name, key word, by manufacturer, and within current search results.  A customer can also select product criteria prior to initiating a search.  Search results can be sorted by price, item number and product name.

On a product page a customer can be provided product images in a variety of properly scaled sizes, as well as, detailed extended product information.  Related or complimentary items can be displayed on a product page as well, along with items that are dynamically suggested by software if the “People who bought this…” feature is enabled.  A customer can also be provided with the ability to “e-mail this product to a friend” with a link to the current product and additional text if required.

When a customer selects items to purchase they are put in to the Webtelligence shopping cart.  For customers with a pre-existing account in Accpac bill-to and ship-to addresses can be pre-populated.  For anonymous customers they will be presented with a page to fill in these details.

Shipping charges can be calculated and displayed either by referencing shipping rate tables or by passing order details to shipping carriers like FedEx, UPS and Canada Post for online, real-time rate calculations.  Shipping charges actually displayed to a customer can include an uplift to cover handling charges and/or fuel charges that a carrier may add on at time of billing.

Webtelligence supports the ability to process orders to be paid on account or by credit card with real-time authorizations.  Order notifications are provided to both the customer and the merchant at time of order.

All of these features combine to create the ultimate and easiest shopping experience which will increase customer satisfaction and retention.

Feature Summary

The following features/capabilities are included with each license of Webtelligence.

      Integration

• Read from OE/AR/IC tables through Views
• Write to Accpac through Views (no direct writing to the Accpac database)
• Customer specific price, tax, and currency
• Customer specific terms codes
• Discount by customer type
• Discount by volume
• Contract and sale prices
• Allow on web flag can be used to filter web store items
• Multiple units of measure can be displayed
• Inactive customers automatically disabled in web store
• Inactive items automatically disabled in web store
• Auto creation of AR account customer log ins

      Administration

• Secure browser log in
• Easy to use administration menus
• View and Edit site administration users
• Manage customer log ins
• Create web store product categories (multi-tier)
• Upload item content and images via zip files
• Add extended item content/images using administration tools
• Find items missing extended information and images
• SMTP email order confirmation templates
• Integration to Google Analytics for reporting
• Shipping URL tracking

      Web Store Shopping/Ordering Features

• Business to Business (B2B) – Accpac AR customers
• Multi buyers per AR account
• Business to Consumer (B2C) – Accpac anonymous (cash account) customers
• Flexible customer registration options
• Multiple dynamic category menu styles
• One item can be displayed in multiple (or all) categories
• Support for Brand/Manufacturer categories
• Banner Ads with click through tracking
• Customer loyalty points program
• Product wish list for web users
• Shopping cart, with summary on each page if required
• Buy button and pricing can be hidden prior to log in (usually for B2B sites)
• Search by item number, description, extended information
• Items can be ranked so certain items appear at top of search/category lists
• Show manufacture specific items filtered in a category
• Sort search results by item number, description, price
• Promotions

      Item Content Pages

• Item number pulled from Accpac
• Item description pulled from Accpac
• Pricing (customer specific) based on Accpac set up
• Four image sizes (scaled correctly from source image)
• Ability to display item variations via drop down lists or a grid
• Related or complimentary items
• People who bought this item also purchased feature
• Search engine friendly URLs, page names

      Check out features

• Bill-to and Ship-to data pulled from Accpac for AR customers
• Web customers can register (if this is enabled) to add Bill- to and Ship-to
• Four shipping calculation methods included
• Integration to UPS, FedEx and Canada Post (Business Edition – additional fee)
• Checkout payment by credit card
• Checkout payment – On Account for Accpac AR customers with terms

      Deployment/Upgrades

• Low cost per store license fee
• Discounts for additional store instances/child sites
• Low monthly hosting/managed services fees

      Application Hosting Environment

• Common code base for all customers
• Linux/MySQL
• Open HTML presentation layer
• Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) support
• JavaScript support
• Flash support

Customizations/Enhancements

Webtelligence function can be enhanced to support customer unique logic requirements, layout, site theme and flow.  Common enhancements include: custom shipping calculation logic, custom category/item menu controls, interaction with Accpac optional fields and integration with third party functionality. 

Webtelligence InteliCat™

InteliCat™ is an optional module that complements the capabilities of a Webtelligence web store by enabling businesses to re-purpose web store content to create flyers and catalogs in either electronic or hard copy format.  InteliCat™ automatically lays out the product information in industry standard QuarkXPress™ and integrates with all versions of Adobe Photoshop and Freehand.

InteliCat™ complements the design process by removing the main roadblocks in catalog and flyer creation. By storing, retrieving, formatting and placing product data into QuarkXPress™, InteliCat™ removes a majority of the tedious work in print production, leaving designers free to maximize their creativity.

Multiple graphic designers can work on a common project simultaneously with a built in check-in/check out process. Designers can check out a page to work with in QuarkXPress™ tailoring the look and feel with unlimited freedom. Once they’ve completed the changes, the document is checked back into InteliCat™ with the data maintaining a live link to the database enabling any price, text or image changes to be updated in the document. When the document design is complete, the final document can be sent electronically to a printer for final print production.  Because building a catalog is such a sizeable and expensive procedure, companies will capture their return on investment very quickly once utilizing InteliCat™.