Contents

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 1

Contents

1 Preface and overview.............................................................................. 3

2 Functional enhancements ....................................................................... 6

2.1 "Amazonification" of the application ......................................................................... 6

2.2 Complete integration of Apache Solr™ .................................................................... 7

2.2.1 Powerful full text search .......................................................................... 8 2.2.2 Feature search .......................................................................................... 8 2.2.3 Faceted search .......................................................................................... 8 2.2.4 Item identification .................................................................................... 9

2.3 Support for Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 8 .............................................................. 9

3 Improvements, enhancements and cancellation .................................... 10

3.1 Improvements ......................................................................................................... 10

3.2 Enhancements ........................................................................................................ 10

3.3 Annulments ............................................................................................................ 11

4 System support ..................................................................................... 12

4.1 Hardware ................................................................................................................ 12

4.2 Software ................................................................................................................. 12

5 License information .............................................................................. 13

Directory of figures

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 2

Directory of figures

Fig. 1: Heiler Enterprise Catalog Procurement .................................................................... 3 Fig. 2: Interaction of Heiler Enterprise Catalog Procurement ............................................... 4 Fig. 3: Logo Apache Solr ................................................................................................... 4 Fig. 4: Search screen with positioned shopping cart ........................................................... 6 Fig. 5: "Search as you type" functionality .......................................................................... 6 Fig. 6: Search tips.............................................................................................................. 7 Fig. 7: Apache Solr™ indexing ........................................................................................... 7 Fig. 8: Feature filter ........................................................................................................... 8 Fig. 9: Powerful full text search including faceted search .................................................... 9 Fig. 10: Special item identification ..................................................................................... 9

Preface and overview

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 3

1 Preface and overview

These Release Notes describe the new features in Heiler Business Catalog Version 7.0.

In addition to functional enhancements, using the latest Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 provides increases in process value in procurement of indirect materials and services.

Fig. 1: Heiler Enterprise Catalog Procurement

» The primary objective in purchasing is the issue of cost savings. These have a direct leverage effect for the entire company. Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 enables an 80 % reduction in process costs to be achieved.

» Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 also creates complete transparency. Decisions can be made more quickly. Furthermore, all open orders can be viewed at a glance.

» A high level of user acceptance is assured thanks to the simplicity of the application – particularly due to the increasing "amazonification" of e-procurement.

The application also achieves excellent acceptance with good data maintenance (including prices, manufacturers, material groups, etc.). This makes finding items faster and reduces process times.

A stable and high-performance system is crucial for achieving a high level of user acceptance.

With Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 a solution has been developed to integrate perfectly into Heiler Enterprise Catalog Procurement. For the first time, Heiler Enterprise Catalog Procurement now covers the entire procurement process:

Customers normally use an SAP ERP system combined with SAP SRM. Heiler Business Catalog is integrated into SAP SRM and acts as a Single Point of Search in the desktop purchasing system. Electronic catalogs from suppliers are provided by Heiler Catalog Manager, the content management solution from Heiler. Electronics catalogs are either provided by suppliers themselves or by the purchasing organization.

Preface and overview

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 4

Customers search for, find, and order goods and services in Heiler Business Catalog.

The entire transaction process, including transfer of the order, delivery documents, and invoices is either implemented by a well-maintained ERP or is covered by our partners, such as SupplyOn.

This solution portfolio for integrated procurement looks like this:

Fig. 2: Interaction of Heiler Enterprise Catalog Procurement

Excellent scalability makes it a powerful application for global procurement processes in multinational corporations. The completely revised search functionality based on Apache Solr™ now enables a faster and more powerful search.

Fig. 3: Logo Apache Solr

The Heiler Business Catalog user interface has been revised and is now more intuitive to operate. The setting options for facets, features and filters support you in finding items. As a result, you quickly get reliable and high-quality search results.

The user interface has also been optimized in terms of user friendliness and response time. The shopping cart is visible at all times and a section of the long description is displayed in the actual result list.

The icons in the application have been replaced with written terms. This is the first step towards a barrier-free Heiler Business Catalog. Further actions to completely remove barriers will be made successively.

Data independence enables a significant increase in performance and thus a reduction in response times. Data independence is achieved by completely indexing all item data, including prices, for example.

Preface and overview

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 5

The Heiler Catalog Intelligence 1.1 module can be directly integrated with the latest Heiler Business Catalog 7.0. Heiler Catalog Intelligence provides transparent evaluations and analyses in the area of indirect material procurement. Its sound information enables cost savings to be achieved, with an immediate positive impact on the department and on operating results.

The new version 7.0 of Heiler Business Catalog supports the latest database versions from the manufacturers Microsoft and Oracle. Detailed information can be found in the System requirements section.

Functional enhancements

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 6

2 Functional enhancements

This section summarizes the most important functional enhancements that have been added to Heiler Business Catalog 7.0.

Please refer to the manuals for operating instructions for the individual features and functional enhancements.

2.1 "Amazonification" of the application

Modularization of the application provides improved and easier integration into an existing corporate system environment.

User behavior from the private sphere is increasingly being adopted in a business situation. Users expect consistent behavior across applications. The high performance of search engines and the user friendliness of the most popular online shops are examples that have been incorporated into Heiler Business Catalog 7.0.

For the first time, the shopping cart has a fixed position. The last five items added to the shopping cart are displayed in an overview in the shopping cart window and are visible at all times. All other items can be found in the familiar shopping cart view.

Fig. 4: Search screen with positioned shopping cart

The total value of the shopping cart is continuously updated. Users can see at a glance whether their purchases are still within the defined budget.

The "Search as you type" functionality is another simplification and improvement in the quality of the search. As soon as the first letters are entered, suggestions are displayed below the input box.

Fig. 5: "Search as you type" functionality

The suggestion list is adjusted as each subsequent letter is entered.

Functional enhancements

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 7

Search tips have also been integrated to improve searching. These search tips support users when using search operators.

Fig. 6: Search tips

This makes it easier to search for associated terms, restrict the search results or prevent incorrect search results from being obtained due to spelling mistakes.

2.2 Complete integration of Apache Solr™

This fully integrated, super fast search platform from the Apache Software Foundation is an easy to use tool. Apache Solr™ is highly scalable and provides a search split across multiple servers as well as index replication. Specifically:

Apache Solr™ replicates the existing data stock, enabling it to find many more results than a conventional search engine in minimal time. For subsequent searches, the data stock is buffered.

Fig. 7: Apache Solr™ indexing

Apache Solr™ is an outstanding search engine which finds what you are looking for, even if you make spelling mistakes, by using alternative search terms. The order of the hits in the search results is determined by an automatic weighting system. This enables thousands of pages to be browsed not just quickly but also easily. This search technology totally eliminates the issue of a lack of performance with large data volumes. The number and accuracy of hits are increased, enabling process costs to be considerably reduced.

Functional enhancements

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 8

Many of the world's largest websites are operated using Apache Solr™.

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 has been adapted for integration of Apache Solr™ and extended with additional search functions. The main features of the search functionality include:

2.2.1 Powerful full text search

A powerful full text search enables the required products to be found very quickly. The search algorithm is adapted according to the number of hits.

The primary search is for the exact search term entered. If the result set is too small, possible spelling mistakes are automatically integrated into the search. If the result set is still too small, the next and last enhancement involves incorporating similar terms into the results found.

The powerful full text search is directly linked to the feature search and the faceted search.

2.2.2 Feature search

For every search, Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 automatically determines all the features of the items found. This innovative method enables the search result to be limited to the required features. For example, certain colors or sizes can be selected at this point. This makes finding the relevant items in Heiler Business Catalog even more efficient.

Fig. 8: Feature filter

2.2.3 Faceted search

The faceted search can be used to selectively limit the result set.

From now on, it will finally be possible to filter by prices. The price facets are created depending on the ratio of the lowest to the highest price.

Functional enhancements

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 9

Fig. 9: Powerful full text search including faceted search

2.2.4 Item identification

Special defined item identifiers are highlighted for each item in the results list.

Fig. 10: Special item identification

2.3 Support for Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 8

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 now supports the latest browsers – Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 and Mozilla Firefox 8.0.

Improvements, enhancements and cancellation

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 10

3 Improvements, enhancements and cancellation

This section summarizes the most important improvements and functional enhancements that have been added to Heiler Business Catalog 7.0. Furthermore all canceled functions are called.

3.1 Improvements

» Infinite Search Results » Long description (first 160 signs) in item list including „More“ » Configurable type

» After the 2nd letter is typed into the text field of the simple search (which will trigger an internal search with full results which will displayed at the 5th letter)

» After the 1st letter is typed, if a previously resolved autocomplete suggestion list has any still applying matches (cached results, partially)

» Reset Search » Shopping cart widget showing last items being added to it – configurable » Article comparison widget linking new GUI with old one – configurable » Product Inquiry widget linking new GUI with old one – configurable » Setting size of search result set – configurable and persistent » The pagination setting of the user is stored within a setting of the administration

ItemListNo as user specific setting » Price is 2nd sorting criteria after hit relevance » Price facetes

» The calculation of prices for an item in the case of graduated prices is based on the average price

» Prices will only be available within the currencies the article provides without further calculations

» The current implementation only allows to calculate the ranges of prices using the public catalog prices and the buyer specific catalog prices

» Search tips » Version information

3.2 Enhancements

» Tab behavior – configurable » List columns switched to column configuration of article » List icons replaced by written out statements » Paging not anymore free choice of page, but fast forward by one page » Separating Search and Catalog Navigation » Classification & Catalog View Configuration

» Items wherever a search can be executed will only be shown if they are part of any classification OR any catalog view(s) ( union ) assigned to the current user

Improvements, enhancements and cancellation

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 11

» This will result e.g. in nodes displayed within the tree component within the product class section which are only specified within a catalog view.

» On the other hand, if any item is matching a declared group node of a classification view, it is displayed within the catalog structure as well.

» If no classification view or catalog view is assigned to the user, the user has access to all items

» Search adjustment – configurable » Feature search with every search execution and catalog navigation – initiable » Ordering & Filtering – configurable » Interaction Reset » Advanced Search

» Configurable maximal number » Every selected category only appears once

» Renaming of shopping lists

3.3 Annulments

» Did you mean…? » Show equal articles » Put to shopping list » Add to favorites

System support

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 12

4 System support

Heiler Business Catalog Version 7.0 provides the following system support (revised: December 2011). For a detailed description of the system support, refer to the "System requirements" document, which we will be happy to supply on request.

4.1 Hardware

Client

» X86/64 processor » Main memory 1024 MB

Application server

» X64 2 x Quad Core >= 3 GHz » Main memory >= 8 GB » Hard disk > 100 GB (Raid)

Database server

» X64 2 x Quad Core >= 3 GHz » Main memory >= 8 GB » Hard disk > 100 GB (Raid)

4.2 Software

Client

» Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows 7 » Internet Explorer 7, 8, and 9 » Mozilla Firefox 5.0 – 9.0 » Disabled pop-up blocker » Recommended screen resolution: Min. 1280 x 1024

Server

» Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit) » Suse Linux Enterprise 11 (64 bit) – others on request

Databases

» Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 » Oracle Database 11g R2 (latest patch level)

License information

Heiler Business Catalog 7.0 13

5 License information

Licenses for third party products used by Heiler Business Catalog must be purchased from the relevant manufacturers. This applies in particular to the Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle databases. The license holder is responsible for obtaining information about the license terms for third party products and for complying with the license requirements of the relevant third party manufacturer.