IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce

The IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce, or Management Center, is a suite of tools to support store management, merchandising, and marketing tasks for business users (Sellers, Marketing Managers, Product Managers, Catalog Managers, and others).

Other business user roles, such as Customer Service Representatives, use WebSphere Commerce Accelerator to perform business operations, such as managing stores, inventory, fulfillment, orders, returns, and payments.

Management Center tools

Role	Tools
Manage catalogs and merchandise	Catalogs tool Manage master and sales catalogs, including: defining categories creating products and SKUs categorizing SKUs bundling SKUs managing dynamic kits Manage product content, and create merchandising associations. Create, restore, view, and delete versions of catalog objects (sales catalog, category, and catalog entries). Manage search term associations, and associate search terms with landing pages. Manage product attributes with the Management Center attribute dictionary. Manage search engine optimization (SEO) properties for categories and catalog entries. View site search statistics for the keywords customers are using to search the site. Assign one or more attribute dictionary descriptive attributes to multiple catalog entries at a time. Add multiple catalog entries to multiple sales categories at a time in a single task. Create rule-based sales categories that use a WebSphere Commerce search based rule to find and automatically assign catalog entries to the categories. Use WebSphere Commerce search to find catalog entries to assign to a sales category. View the catalog entries assigned a specific attribute dictionary attribute.
Manage promotions	Promotions tool Create and manage promotions for merchandise. Review and manage promotions. Import promotion codes for use with promotions. Export promotion codes for a promotion. If Management Center is integrated with WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, we can open from Management Center to upload exported promotion codes. campaigns can include the promotion codes. Find promotions using the Advanced Search feature in the Promotions tool. Archive inactive promotions to remove the promotions from displaying in the main promotions list and promotion folders. Prevent promotions from displaying in the main promotions list by moving the promotions into promotion folders.
Manage marketing campaigns	Marketing tool Design marketing campaigns that can contain web and email activities. Create experiments to test campaign activities' effectiveness. Manage marketing content. Define the flow of marketing activities. Review and manage marketing activities. Manage search rules. Manage search rule experiments. If Management Center is integrated with WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, we can open from Management Center to create and manage marketing campaigns. These campaigns can include promotion codes that are exported from Management Center. Export customer segment information, such as email addresses, into a downloadable CSV file. Override the maximum file size limit for attachments associated with marketing content. Configure marketing activities to target customers who are viewing catalog entries that have specific attributes.
Manage attachments	Attachments tool Browse attachments Create, change, and delete attachments.
Manage installment rules	Installments tool Create installment rules to offer customers different installment payment options when they purchase items from the store catalog. Review how installment rules are scheduled in relation to one another in a calendar tool. Review the list of active and inactive installment rules. Activate and deactivate installment rules. Update installment rules. Delete installment rules.
Manage stores	Store Management tool Update store profile information such as the name or description of a store, contact information, store location, and supported languages and currencies. Change the style of a store, including the store layout and color. Specify the functions available in the store, such as which optional fields to display on store pages. View our changes in the store. Open or close a store. Update the URL keyword of a static store page for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) friendly URLs.
Manage catalog filters, price lists, and price rules	Catalog Filter and Pricing tool Create, and manage catalog filters. Manage price lists and price rules. Upload catalog filters. Upload price lists.
Manage tasks in Management Center	Workspace Management tool Manage content within a workspace by selecting tasks, managing content within tasks, adding comments, and approving or rejecting tasks. Work on assigned tasks, complete tasks, and submit tasks for approval. View, open, and compare business object change history records to quickly see what modifications were made. Undo change history records to correct mistakes or to approve a task without needing to reject it. View the change history for a task group after the task group is approved or canceled.
Create pages and layouts, and manage layouts for store pages	Commerce Composer tool Create pages for the store. Create layouts for pages by using predefined widgets and templates. Assign layouts to store pages. View layouts.

Management Center menu

We can access the tools from the Management Center menu.

https://hostname:8000/lobtools

Note: To display the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator menu option, we must use the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser and we must enable the menu option in the Management Center preferences.

Each tool displays in its own tab within the Management Center:

Management Center roles and access

Role	Management Center tool access
(Enterprise) Account Representative	(Enterprise) Catalogs (read-only) Promotions Marketing Attachments (read-only) Catalog Filter and Pricing Installments
(Enterprise) Sales Manager	(Enterprise) Catalogs (read-only) Promotions Marketing Attachments (read-only) Catalog Filter and Pricing Installments Page Layout (read-only) Commerce Composer (read-only)
(Enterprise) Channel Manager	(Enterprise) Store Management
Marketing Director 1	Catalogs (read-only) Promotions Marketing Attachments Installments Page Layout Commerce Composer
Marketing Manager	Catalogs (read-only) Promotions Marketing Attachments Installments Page Layout Commerce Composer
Seller	Catalogs Promotions Marketing Attachments (read-only) Catalog Filter and Pricing Installments Page Layout (read-only) Commerce Composer Store Management
Site Administrator	Catalogs Promotions Marketing Attachments Catalog Filter and Pricing Installments Page Layout Commerce Composer Store Management Workspace Management
Product Manager	Catalogs Promotions Marketing Attachments Installments Page Layout (read-only)
Category Manager	Catalogs Promotions Attachments Page Layout (read-only)
Buyer (seller side)	Catalogs Promotions Attachments (read-only)

¹ In addition to all the access privileges of the Marketing Manager role, users with the Marketing Director role can also download exported customer segment information, such as email addresses, to a local file system.

Related tasks
Use the Management Center

Related reference
Management Center keyboard shortcuts