(Business processes) Develop products

Process: Develop products

Flow

Legend

Objective

Create and manage a master catalog by manually entering products and SKUs into the taxonomy.

Description

This process creates or updates a master catalog by manually creating products and SKUs and categorizing them into the previously defined taxonomy. Product information can be from a variety of sources - suppliers, manufacturers, or in-house - each with varying formats and taxonomies. Such information must be normalized, rationalized and cleansed before being entered into WebSphere Commerce.

WebSphere Commerce provides a product management user interface to manually enter the information into the WebSphere Commerce database.

Features

Automatic SKU generation.
Multiple language support for products and attributes (description and images).
Multiple currency support for product price.
User interface support to update multiple products on a single screen.
User interface supports copying product information from one to another.
User interface supports search and replace text across products.
User interface supports preview of images.

Customization

Reuse products in different master catalogs.
Algorithmic part numbering for SKU generation.
Automatic classification of products.

Edition

Professional, Enterprise, Express

Tasks

Task Description Role

Add attributes
Add or modify attributes that describe a product, service, part, SKU, kit or bundle. This could include images, additional translated descriptions, manufacturer or supplier data, MSRP, descriptive attribute information, and defining attribute information for products. A combination of the set of defining attribute's values determine the SKUs for a product.
Product Manager

Categorize product
Add or modify the relationship of a product, part, service, kit or bundle under a category of the hierarchy of the catalog or taxonomy.
Product Manager

Create part
A part is a product within the master catalog that may not be sold individually but rather is used to build kits and bundles in the catalog.
Product Manager

Create product
A product is a high level container which defines a set of attributes and its associated possible values. These values describe the SKUs of that particular product.
Product Manager

Create service
A service is a product within the master catalog that the business provides accompanying another product. Examples of services are warranties, gift wrapping, or personalized messages.
Product Manager

Create SKU
A SKU represents a buyable instance of a product and is defined by a particular combination of the product's attribute values. For example, a product may be a knit sweater with the following defining attributes: color ( values are red or blue) and size (values are S, M, or L). There could potentially be 6 SKUs associated with the product, one for each combination of the defining attributes (red-S, red-M, red-L, blue-S, blue-M, blue-L).

Each SKU may specify its own attributes such as images, MSRP and descriptions. SKUs may be generated based on possible combinations of the product and its defining attributes.
Product Manager

Business artifacts

Images
Master catalog
Product information
Taxonomy

Feedback

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Task	Description	Role
Add attributes	Add or modify attributes that describe a product, service, part, SKU, kit or bundle. This could include images, additional translated descriptions, manufacturer or supplier data, MSRP, descriptive attribute information, and defining attribute information for products. A combination of the set of defining attribute's values determine the SKUs for a product.	Product Manager
Categorize product	Add or modify the relationship of a product, part, service, kit or bundle under a category of the hierarchy of the catalog or taxonomy.	Product Manager
Create part	A part is a product within the master catalog that may not be sold individually but rather is used to build kits and bundles in the catalog.	Product Manager
Create product	A product is a high level container which defines a set of attributes and its associated possible values. These values describe the SKUs of that particular product.	Product Manager
Create service	A service is a product within the master catalog that the business provides accompanying another product. Examples of services are warranties, gift wrapping, or personalized messages.	Product Manager
Create SKU	A SKU represents a buyable instance of a product and is defined by a particular combination of the product's attribute values. For example, a product may be a knit sweater with the following defining attributes: color ( values are red or blue) and size (values are S, M, or L). There could potentially be 6 SKUs associated with the product, one for each combination of the defining attributes (red-S, red-M, red-L, blue-S, blue-M, blue-L). Each SKU may specify its own attributes such as images, MSRP and descriptions. SKUs may be generated based on possible combinations of the product and its defining attributes.	Product Manager