B
2
B
B2B e-commerce
PLAYBooK And
reSource guide
Best practices and resources for
companies researching, justifying,
developing, launching, and maintaining
successful B2B e-commerce operations
contentS
section 1
04
commerce Platform
implementation Best
Practices
05
B2B e-commerce
roadmap
08
Before starting
section 2
10
28
48
Online Selling Can Improve
Gross Revenues 14
34
49
stage 1: research and
Justification
Order Values Can Be Increased 16
Operational Efficiencies Can
Reduce Expenses 18
Loyalty Is Easier to Build 21
22
stage 2: gathering
requirements
Who Should You Include in
the Requirements Gathering
Process? 22
What Requirements Should
be Examined? 23
Benefits of Agile Methodology:
Test Early and Often 24
stage 3: selecting a
Platform Vendor
stage 4: Build out and launch
Design, Wireframe, and Coding 34
40
stage 5: ongoing
maintenance, support and
operations / Phase 2
Decision Point: Internal or External
Support? 45
Comparing Phase 1 to Phase 2 46
commerce Platform
decision resources
guidance from
forrester
50
Vendor comparison
tool
62
hybris B2B accelerator
64
hybris white Papers and
solutions Briefs
68
hybris case studies /
reference customers
70
about hybris
Milestones 72
Distinctions 74
section one
Commerce
Platform
Implementation
Best Practices
B2B e-commerce
roadmaP
The 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 offline, in physical stores.
When doing business with you in their professional lives, they also expect and demand
similar, convenient, efficient shopping and
purchasing experiences. hybris delivers
comprehensive B2B commerce solutions that
assure your business customers’ multi-channel shopping experiences are as advanced as
the Web’s best consumer sites – highly productive, state-of-the-art business customer
experiences that maximize your conversion
rates and gross revenues.
As your company progresses down the path
of research, justification, platform selection,
implementation, and ongoing maintenance of
your B2B e-commerce infrastructure, there
will be a number of critical steps along the way.
6
B2B E-Commerce
3. Vendor selection
5. Ongoing Support
Phase 2
Vendor research / scorecard
Roadmap
Choose a support model
In-house or outsourced
support
Phasing out remaining
requirements
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
4. Build and Launch
Project scope for initial launch
Continued involvement of
stakeholders
Timeline and tradeoffs
Before Starting
Below is a short list of suggested questions for your organization to
answer before embarking on a new e-commerce project.
The complexity involved with implementing a commerce platform should never be underestimated!
What is your long-term vision for
commerce?
What will define the success of
your commerce initiative?
What is your change management
strategy?
Who are your key stakeholders in
the commerce platform?
What are your current commerce
pain points?
Does your organization have the
required skills to implement?
What are your short-term project
goals and objectives?
Do you have any target metrics
or KPIs?
Have all of your requirements been
adequately documented?
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.
Overall Commerce
Strategy
Identify what the organization
needs to achieve, then define specific expectations around how the
hybris implementation will impact
and benefit these strategic objectives.
9
Cross-Functional Team
Partnering Strategy
Identify responsibilities for technical and business stakeholders
during the implementation, and
consider changes to roles, skills,
responsibilities, and organizational
structure that will be necessary
after implementation.
Even the best partners and the
greatest companies can be mismatched. Define what is important
to your organization and be ready
to share it with your existing or potential 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.
10
Stage 1:
Research / Justification
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.
ROI is commonly broken down into two components: 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.
B2B:
$559B
Fact 1:
Global B2B E-commerce is
Twice the Size of B2C
Fact 2:
Global B2B E-commerce is
GROWING FASTER THAN B2C
B2B E-Commerce
Growth Rate:
34%
B2C:
$252B
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.
B2C E-Commerce
Growth Rate:
11
*Forrester, excluding EDI
Source: The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Suites, Q4 2013,
Forrester Research, Inc., October 7, 2013
13%
insight from the front lines:
the JuStification
ProceSS
Your 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, considering all the options, and creating a cost analysis 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 fly 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 justifications and ROI projections at the beginning of
the project can seem like lost time.
That said, the ROI exercise highlights where your particular business might benefit
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 first B2B site
is up and running. That’s when you’ll prove its
worth and, based on real world analytics, you
can fine 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 first 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.
14
online Selling can
imProVe groSS reVenueS
Before a company selects and implements
a new commerce platform, business stakeholders and the technology implementation 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 benefits into your annual budget
process to ensure a full business commitment
to the new commerce model enabled by the
platform.
according to a 2013 study By forrester consulting
online cuStomerS are
more likelY to…
Two major categories feed into this business
case and budgeting process:
…order outside of core categories.
hard cost saVings…
…such as reduced order processing costs, lower cost of goods and supplies, and increased
efficiencies in sales and marketing expenses.
reVenue gains…
…that can be expected from increased agility, real-time updates (products, pricing) for
customers, and improvements in the customer
ordering experience, including self-service.
…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.
15
16
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“
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
deCreASed
Among companies with online
sales greater than a million dollars, 54% find it easier to cross
sell and upsell online,
compared with 22% who thought it
was easier offline.
This results in AOV for most companies who see a difference among
those selling online longer, 46%
see larger AOV.
44%
11%
“relatiVe to your offline-only customers, is the aVerage order Value (aoV) higher
or lower for your online-only customers?1“
Total
> 25% of B2B sales online
Selling online 5 years or more
37%: Higher
31%: Lower
52%: Higher
19%: Lower
46%: Higher
25%: Lower
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 five years or more). Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of hybris, September 2013
1
17
2
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
don‘T KnoW
20%
STAYed THe SAMe
24%
oPerational efficiencieS
can reduce exPenSeS
B2B e-commerce can help companies
reduce costs, and can take various forms,
depending on the nature of the business.
By migrating customers to and e-commerce
Portal to Purchase their Products, our
customer suPPort costs haVe…
information for customers and
internal constituents:
STAYed THe SAMe
Reduced customer service time spent on providing product information, prices, configurations and availability to both customers.
ordering:
Reduced time and efficiency in ordering.
30%
InCreASed
9%
reduced errors:
Order accuracy is often greater for online orders than those entered manually by traditional
means.
don‘T KnoW
9%
customer serVice/rePorting:
An online B2B site gives customers a self-service portal to request quotes, ask questions,
enable maintenance, and access reports.
deCreASed
52%
19
The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Suites, Q4 2013, Forrester Research, Inc., October 7, 2013
Base: 45 B2B e-commerce Professionals
Source: The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Suites, Q4 2013,
Forrester Research, Inc., October 7, 2013
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 offline-only environment.“
>25% of B2B
sales online
65%
AGREE
SELLING ONLINE 5
YEARS OR MORE
51%
AGREE
loYaltY iS eaSier to Build
More satisfied customers stay with you longer – increasing orders, referrals, and lifetime value.
hybris customers commonly report that online B2B customers are of higher value than offline
customers. A recent Forrester study found that B2B businesses find it easier to build loyalty with
online customers.
B2B companies find it easier to build loyalty with online-only customers than with
offline-only customers.
total
44%
AGREE
data PointS
Among the best justifications (aside from
dollars and cents) are the facts that:
total
28%
DISAGREE
SELLING ONLINE 5
YEARS OR MORE
24%
DISAGREE
>25% of B2B
sales online
a)
Your customers are online, and they
expect you to be online with a Mobile
and B2C-like experience
b)
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.
10%
DISAGREE
*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 five years or more)
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of hybris, September 2013
22
Stage 2:
Gathering Requirements
Analysts at Virtusa Corporation estimate
that as many as 60% to 70% of all IT projects 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 requirement analysis – i.e., not knowing “what”
you’re delivering.
Who Should You Include in the Requirements 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.
23
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 members of this cross-functional team represent
finance, HR, operations, customer service,
inside sales, field sales, etc.
Next to strategy, your internal team structure is the next most important factor when
undertaking a new commerce initiative. It’s a
common mistake to begin a new implementation 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 implementation, and reorganizing your business and
technical teams accordingly.
What Requirements Should be
Examined?
Forget about implementation details and
technical issues. When gathering requirements, do just that – collect ONLY the initial
requirements. There will be many people along
the way who want to show you how to implement 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?
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 figuring 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”
Be clear and concise. Requirements should be
24
“as a corporate
manager…“
Benefits of agile methodology:
teSt earlY and often
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, allowing for greater flexibility in both your timeline
and your final product.
Using cases during requirements gathering
can help identify how a customer might accomplish 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.
…I need approval from my supervisor
before placing an order.
…I need the ability to roam
warehouse and enter orders.
…I need videos and technical specs
of the products I am purchasing.
…I need to be able to place
bulk orders.
25
one
NOT ASKING
QUESTIONS
THAT CAN BE EASILY
comPared
e-commerce platform
RFP
TEN
MOST COMMON
leaVing the rfP ProceSS to the
Procurement dePartment
THREE
Inviting too many vendors
to bid
ignoring the PeoPle asPects
four
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
FIVE
Not having a budget before
issuing an RFP
six
not inVolVing
TRYING TO BE
TOO IMPARTIAL
Taking the short view
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
eight
all of the
stakeholders
Wording queStionS in a WaY that enaBleS the
Vendor to “SPin“ or oBfuScate the truth
TEN
Not doing sufficient due diligence
Stage 3:
Selecting a Platform Vendor
In the previous stages, you created the cross-functional team and
orchestrated many of the preparatory 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 selection, 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 supplier, and integration team.
29
If you’ve completed Stages 1 and
2 correctly, and if you’ve created 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 management, operations, warehouse
management, supply chain management, inventory, fulfillment,
hiring decisions, and personnel
assignments. The entire project
team, or at least a core group, will
remain involved in vetting and choosing all of the components along
the way. The commerce platform
itself is just one piece of a larger
organizational structure.The individual or sub-team responsible for
the commerce system won’t have
expertise in everything. The supply
chain team will make critical decisions, 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.
For the person or team in charge 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 within 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.
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 challenges, 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 create a plan for how you’re going to
get everything done in the time and
money allotted, and move forward,
working within the constraints. No
matter which platform you choose,
you’re going to have some constraints.
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.
30
Vendor
Scoring Tips
45
100
Product
Information
management
PIM
As previously stated in this document, 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 places and get the best PIM available
to you.
31
68
80
90
36
SS
cro
ng
i
l
l
Se
r
wo
co
Reporting
24
Back-end reporting are often table
stakes in the e-commerce game
and that‘s because they‘re often taken 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-commerce 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?
a
ll
k
flo
bo
w
t io
ra
n
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.
Search
navigation
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-commerce platform can handle not
just the attributes and navigation
system, but enable you to easily
change it based on users‘ needs.
32
order
management
TOOLS
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 efficient shipping location but this capability will be crucial as
you grow your fulfillment and drop
ship network.
33
proven
track
PERSONALIZATION
The ability to target customers based on past purchases or behaviors
is key when trying to segment your
user base and use A/B tests to find
out how customers respond to different offers. If you‘re not doing this
at launch, you‘ll be looking for this
capability shortly thereafter.
RECORD
The ability to give your merchandising team access to easy-to-use
back-end tools to change the products 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).
Ref·er·ences
Noun; plural
Line breaks: ref¦er|ence
Pronunciation:
Personal references are invaluable 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.
34
Stage 4:
Build Out and Launch
The key to this stage is the skill level and
experience of the internal IT organization, design firm, and/or system integration 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 implemented first, to meet time and budget
constraints.
Design, Wireframe, and Coding
Website design includes creating the wireframe, data elements, and user experience desired 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
Personalization: How
the website changes
based on profile attributes of the user
Navigation: The flow
of the website and how
customers access your
products
Visual elements,
including colors, fonts,
logos, images, etc.
(and CSS)
N
FEASIBILITY
35
FOUNDATION
EXPLORATION
ENGINEERING
DEPLOYMENT
SUPPORT &
OPERATIONS
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.
creating a completed
user interface
Generally consists of the following steps:
1
2
Website wireframe
HTML Prototype
3
Visual elements
The website wireframe, page schematic, or
screen blueprint is a visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of a website.
Wireframes are created for the purpose of
arranging elements to best accomplish a particular 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 wireframe usually lacks typographic style, color, or
graphics, since the main focus lies in functionality, 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.
37
4
JavaServer Pages
Development
Wireframes are generally created by business
analysts, user experience designers, developers, 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
WEBSITE wireframe
Visual elements
The Wireframe also connects the underlying
conceptual structure, or information architecture, to the visual design of the website. Wireframes establish functionality, and the relationships 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 design takes the complete wireframes
to the next step by adding elements of color,
font, style, and icons to provide the visual elaboration 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 prototype
JSP DEvelopment
The 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.
Web 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.
...the effect of different scenarios on
the display
...the kinds of information displayed
...the range of functions available
Following the guidelines above can help minimize changes later in the project, and help
keep the project on time and within budget.
38
insight from the front lines:
an e-commerce Site iS a
giant magnifYing glaSS
focuSed on Your data
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
39
problems in a data set across a million products or SKUs, you may find 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...
“Quick and dirty”
fixes are essential
to drive velocity
Errors tend to hide
other errors
Simple errors can block
multi-day test scenarios for a
project, or disrupt a business
process within operations
stage 5:
ongoing maintenance,
SuPPort & oPerationS /
PhaSe 2
This stage follows the deployment of the
application and the handover from the
project team to the support and operations
teams.
While your hosting company may provide first
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).
the suPPort team will need
to manage a wide range of
requirements:
Changes in fulfillment
or 3PL partners
Mobile application
development
Feature/functionality
enhancements
International expansion:
multi-currency,
multi-lingual
Ongoing bug fixes
Payment processing
Data and partner
integrations
Integrating new touch
points/omni-channel
management
Page speed and load
time optimization
41
Application and server
monitoring
Web analytics integration
Search Engine Optimization
(SEO)
42
the actiVities that take Place
during Phase 2 include:
the main oBJectiVes of the
suPPort & oPerations Phase are:
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
Patching and maintaining
the system
Maintaining system
configuration and
maintenance documents
Reporting on encountered
malfunctions and their
resolutions
Maintain communication
with hosting team
43
Monitoring user satisfaction,
traffic, data volumes, and
system performance to assure
fast, proactive resolution of
unexpected issues
Establishing proper levels of
user and system support to
resolve any issues related to
the commerce platform
Maintaining all parts of the
platform, including applying
patches, verifying optimal
configurations, and making
sure that the system can handle
steep traffic increases following
planned campaigns
Making continuous improvements, new features, and new
releases. Assuring that there is
a clear process for implementing change requests, installing
new releases, and resizing
the solution to accommodate
predictable traffic spikes
Updating system documentation functionality, configuration,
use cases, and environmental
factors change.
Communicating all new
policies and job descriptions
as they evolve.
44
Decision Point: Internal or
External Support?
INSIGHT FROM THE FRONT LINES:
HOW TO SUPPORT
One of the steps often missed in
planning an e-commerce strategy
is how to support it after it’s live.
MAKE A decision
Don’t wait until the site is
in development or has
gone live before making
this critical decision.
Plan Stage 5
long before you
begin Stage 5
SUPPORT TEAM
Ideally, you should identify
your ongoing support team,
whether internal or external
- and have them working with
you during the development
stages.
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?
46
rank them as follows:
insight from the front lines:
ScoPing out Your
commerce Solution
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.
must
have for
launch
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.
launch
important
but can wait for
Phase 2
47
nice
to have to
launch
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.
section two
Commerce
Platform Decision
Resources
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 involved with managing their B2B relationships with both online and offline customers. A solution from
hybris is evaluated in the report, with hybris positioned as a leader.
the forrester waVe B2B
commerce suites
online and moBile are transforming B2B commerce
In this report, available through hybris,
Forrester Research looks at how manufacturers, distributors and other B2B firms 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 significant investments in next-generation B2B commerce technologies to enable
these transformations, and unraveling the
vendor landscape remains a challenge.
This useful document includes the findings 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 findings were that online and mobile are
transforming B2B commerce and that
businesses have to act fast to not fall behind.
50
VENDOR COMPARISON TOOL
VENDOR COMPARISON TOOL
PIM (Product
Information Management)
REPORTING
HYBRIS
VENDOR 2
VENDOR 3
A seamless cross-channel experience is impossible without the right
master data management (MDM).
It is only logical that a consistent
experience across channels requires 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
Unimportant
51
Of little importance
Moderately important
Important
Very important
HYBRIS
VENDOR 2
VENDOR 3
You can’t manage what you can’t
measure. The sheer mass of available 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 conclusions. 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
Unimportant
Of little importance
Moderately important
Important
Very important
52
VENDOR COMPARISON TOOL
VENDOR COMPARISON TOOL
CROSS SELLING
PAYMENT
HYBRIS
VENDOR 2
VENDOR 3
Of little importance
Moderately important
Important
Very important
Unimportant
53
VENDOR 3
VENDOR 2
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 interface for easily integrating external
payment service providers (PSPs)
into the hybris system. More info at
www.hybris.com/modules/payment
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
Unimportant
HYBRIS
Of little importance
Moderately important
Important
Very important
54
VENDOR COMPARISON TOOL
VENDOR COMPARISON TOOL
Workflow Collaboration
SEARCH AND NAVIGATION
HYBRIS
VENDOR 3
VENDOR 2
55
Of little importance
VENDOR 2
VENDOR 3
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 features that optimize the end-user search experience - leading to increased sales. You can find more details
here: www.hybris.com/downloads/
productcollateral/search-and-navigation-module/227
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
Unimportant
HYBRIS
Moderately important
Important
Very important
Unimportant
Of little importance
Moderately important
Important
Very important
56
VENDOR COMPARISON TOOL
VENDOR COMPARISON TOOL
Order Management Tools
Advanced Personalization
HYBRIS
VENDOR 3
VENDOR 2
57
Of little importance
VENDOR 2
VENDOR 3
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
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 seamless and highly interactive shopping
experience. More details are available at www.hybris.com/products/
order-orchestration
Unimportant
HYBRIS
Moderately important
Important
Very important
Unimportant
Of little importance
Moderately important
Important
Very important
58
VENDOR COMPARISON TOOL
VENDOR COMPARISON TOOL
Back-end Merchandising
Partnerships/
Proven TrackRecord
HYBRIS
VENDOR 3
VENDOR 2
The hybris B2B commerce platform
includes state-of-the-art merchandising functionality. It also allows
companies to monitor buyer behavior, personalize product offerings,
and optimize the entire B2B shopping experience. Successful manufacturers, 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.
Unimportant
Of little importance
HYBRIS
VENDOR 3
hybris solutions are often designed,
planned, implemented, and supported 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 resources to support a wide range of
industries and diverse B2B customers around the globe.
Moderately important
Important
Very important
Unimportant
59
VENDOR 2
Of little importance
Moderately important
Important
Very important
60
VENDOR COMPARISON TOOL
VENDOR COMPARISON TOOL
References
CONCLUSION
HYBRIS
Unimportant
61
VENDOR 3
VENDOR 2
Of little importance
Moderately important
Important
HYBRIS
VENDOR 2
VENDOR 3
Very important
62
hybris B2B Accelerator
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 framework designed for business-to-business trading.
Rapidly deploy and manage multiple
B2B sites on a single platform.
Use existing catalogs, content,
and infrastructure to create
custom sites and catalogs.
Develop and manage content with a built-in, intuitive
Web-based product content management system
that includes effective workflow management.
Support complex product catalogs,
pricing logic, and user/role management.
Easily manage sites with multiple
languages, currencies, brands, taxes,
and other regional requirements.
Centralize order management capabilities to
enable efficient omni-channel fulfillment.
Maximize SEO rankings with out-of-the box tooling.
Deploy hybris B2B commerce in the way that
best fits your needs – either on-premise,
hosted by hybris, or on-demand in the cloud.
Support all channels –
Web, mobile, and offline vehicles,
such as print catalogs.
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 management and product content management solution
(hybris PCM).
hybris White Papers and
Solutions Briefs
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 Commerce solutions are essential.
BUILDING AN ROI TO
EVALUATE YOUR B2B E-COMMERCE INITIATIVE
This white paper provides a framework 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.
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 company. 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 wholesalers face when leveraging modern
e-commerce technologies to accelerate sales growth. It also provides
suggestions to help make the transition to an effective business model
that adequately supports traditional,
online, and mobile commerce operations.
THE CONSUMERIZATION
OF THE B2B CHANNEL
Driven by a range of customer, cost,
and market factors, the „Consumerization Effect“ is already taking
place in B2B channels. This paper
evaluates the opportunities that this
evolution offers to all B2B organizations, including the following:
1
2
3
65
Reducing costs by streamlining business operations
Increasing customer satisfaction by delivering omni-channel convenience
Managing the complexity of
B2B transactions
66
KEY QUESTIONS TO INCLUDE
IN AN E-COMMERCE PLATFORM RFP
This paper describes how a comprehensive RFP that thoroughly covers
all the critical points can assist companies in reducing costs and producing 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.
67
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 responsible for project delivery. It presents
a set of activities that an implementation team should consider during
a hybris commerce project implementation. This includes discussions
of development methodology, team
structures, and communication style; guidelines for building a project
approach, staffing model and timeline 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, including 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 since 2009 is 83%.
83%
B2B CASE Study
ReFERENCE CUSTOMERS
REXEL
hybris’ B2B case study on Rexel illustrates how they were able to increase average
order value and help customers via a self-service portal.
Rexel, a global leader in the distribution of electrical supplies and
services, serves three main end
markets: industrial, commercial,
and residential. Newey and Eyre is
the UK’s leading distributor of quality 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 product range outside normal working
hours, meaning they could spend
less time traveling to their local
branch, and more time on the job.
69
The company chose to develop a
groundbreaking, functionally-rich
‘one stop shop’ that that would provide the electrical wholesale market with a Web channel that offered
best-of-breed search and navigation, 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 criteria 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.
The fact that hybris could offer a
combined e-commerce and product
content management (PCM) platform 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 implementation. After four months, the
new platform launched, offering
customers the first truly multi-channel B2B experience in the
electrical wholesale market.
Read more details at:
www.hybris.com/downloads/
case-study/rexel/009
1 million products; 3,000 suppliers; 2 million customers;
500,000 orders / day; $2B online
sales
World’s largest tire company uses
hybris to support 2,000 dealers for
commerce & MDM, B2B & B2B2C
System of record for product
content 20,000 daily users and 300
editors
200 private label e-Shops Multi-catalog, complex pricing. Major
version upgrade: 15 Days.
World´s # 3 food service provider,
# 2 uniform supplier with $13B in
worldwide sales. Uses hybris to
enable 100k customers,
5 languages, 4 currencies, 30M
price rows
70
ABOUT HYBRIS
hybris is the fastest-growing major commerce platform company with a compound annual
growth rate since 2009 of ~83%.
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 orders, and its customers a single view of the business. hybris‘ omni-channel software is built
on a single platform, based on open standards,
that is agile to support limitless innovation, efficient to drive the best TCO, and scalable and
extensible to be the last commerce platform
companies will ever need. The top industry
71
research firm evaluating B2B commerce platforms lists hybris as “leader”. The same software 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, Thomson Reuters, Dupont, Stanley Black & Decker,
Airgas, Aramark, Doosan/Bobcat and 3M.
hybris is the future of commerce™.
FOR MORE INFORMATION,
VISIT www.hybris.com
72
hybris Software
Milestones
1997
Founded in 1997 with a simple mission of creating superbly engineered
commerce solutions. Over the years,
what that means has evolved – multichannel, open standards, high performance, data centricity, customer
centricity – and our company and
products have adapted. But our mission has remained the same. We are,
above all, a great commerce technology company.
Since 1997, hybris Professional
Services has been working with
customers and partners to design
and implement solutions based on
hybris technology.
2013
SAP acquired hybris in August,
2013 as an investment in the future of commerce and customer
engagement, to enable businesses to deliver relevant, contextual, and consistent experiences
for customers across all their
digitally-enabled interactions.
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.
TODAY
hybris now serves over 500
customers, including some of
the most recognized companies
in the world (global B2B brands
as well as consumer brands).
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
distinctions
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:
1
75
2
3
Rated as a leader…
SAP acquired hybris…
the hybris success story:
…in major analysts’ e-commerce
platform reports.
… in 2013, making it an even stronger competitor in the marketplace.
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 successful enterprise B2B customers.
NOTES
77
NOTES
78
NOTES
Disclaimer
The content of this hybris customer resource guide is highly confidential, 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, directors, 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
79
disclaimed. Accordingly, neither hybris nor any of its shareholders,
directors, officers, agents, employees, or advisers take any responsibility for, or will accept any liability whether direct, express or implied, contractual, 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, howsoever 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]
80
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