Proteus^® is enhanced to provide comprehensive and powerful e-commerce functionality. The Proteus^® E-commerce Trading solution is designed to enable authorised customers to enter orders for seamless processing by the back office order and stock management systems, to enquire on the status of existing orders or perform account enquiries over the Internet.
 
The challenge of e-commerce is to take advantage of the significant opportunities whilst maintaining control, and providing a high level of service.
 
An appropriate level of security and management control must also be maintained
 
Customer expectations are raised by the technology available and an inability to deliver on promises will result in customer alienation. Little benefit is derived from using an Internet presence as simply an email transmission facility for orders that are subsequently re-entered and stock availability manually confirmed.
 
Proteus^® meets these challenges by providing a fully integrated, secure, and efficient solution with the following primary design criteria: 
 
* Seamless integration with the back office order, inventory and supply chain systems
* User interfaces must be clear and easy to use
* Internet responses must be at an acceptable level under normal conditions
* The system must be cost effective
* The solution must be scalable so that performance can be maintained as volumes increase
* A high level of security must be provided
* High availability must be achieved
 
The order entry facility will enable the customer to build an order selection basket based upon a product catalogue available on line. 
 
The catalogue will include product descriptions,
pictures   and   pricing.          Powerful      search capabilities will allow the customer to easily select the product they require. For regular customers details of previous orders will be available so standard or repeat orders can be easily entered.
 
Once the order is complete, stock availability will be checked against the main inventory database and the system will respond with confirmation that stock is available for shipment, or the estimated availability date.  The customer will have the option to confirm, amend or cancel all or part of the order.  If changes are made the stock availability will be rechecked until the order selection is confirmed or cancelled. 
 
Once confirmation is made, stock will be allocated to help ensure customer satisfaction.
 
Automatic credit card authorisation facilities are provided.  In the event of non authorisation the order will be placed on hold and it will be flagged for further action by customer services personnel.
 
Once successfully verified the order will be processed through the standard Proteus^® (or other external) order processing systems.
 
Optionally, order status information can be transmitted via email at the following stages: confirmation, payment clearance, despatch and back ordered.  The customer can access the system at any time to obtain the current order status information on any outstanding order or historical information regarding previous orders.
 
The Proteus^® E-commerce system can reside on the same server as the main supply chain system, or can be located on a remote server which communicates electronically with the host system. 

The Proteus^® E-commerce solution can be integrated with the main Proteus^® systems or linked with external systems using XML or other messaging conventions.

For further information contact Linda Rodway on +44 (0) 121 717 7474 or email me moreinfo@proteussoftware.com