ZUGSEIL MERCATA

ZUGSEIL MERCATA delivers advanced catalog collaboration tools. This enables its users to get the max from the b-op tradesphere, but also allows integration with legacy P2P partners.

Advanced catalog collaboration

Catalogs have been the main tool for sharing knowledge on products between business partners for centuries. b-op also continues this tradition and uses digital catalogs as well. The b-op trade sphere offers powerful functionality of creation, maintenance and sharing of catalogs. For partners, which have their b-op digital, catalogs can be published and used seamlessly.

Vendor side

Catalog design (curation)

Before any business between parties can start, the catalog design process has to be triggered, which is facilitated by the catalog designer app. In this process the owner of a b-op digital defines and shapes the offering by adding a range of products.

Catalog distribution

Once a catalog is published, the subscriber management process is triggered, which is facilitated by the catalog distribution manager. it is essential to understand which partners are using your catalog and how much revenue has been made over these catalogs per partner.In this process the contents, the audience and the validity are defined. The catalog is freely editable at any time. The owner of the b-op digital can share that current state of the catalog with his peers by creating an immutable revision and setting its state to published. This makes the catalog revision available to the target audience and will immediately inform all existing subscribers of this catalog, that a new revision is available.

Client side

Catalog subscription

For using products of 3rd parties, each digital can subscribe to catalogs of these parties. The catalog subscription process is mainly facilitated by the catalog subscription manager app. It allows the subscription to 3rd party catalogs and management of the subscriptions. Catalogs and used products can imported to the local digital and then can be kept up-to-date. Changes of products, structure, prices can be monitored in this app during the process of updating.

Classification management

Classifications are the central tool for efficient procurement proceeses and procurement controlling and is required at all parties of the commerce trade sphere: Suppliers fill in category speific data on their products, which customers use for finding these products rapidly. TALOGA brings

• easy access to products through multiple category trees - specifically designable to the needs of specific user contexts.
• easy integration of partner product offerings - mapping patner's classification trees to local trees allows the automatic sorting in of new products after being accepted.
• distributed category management - allowing the whole procurement organization to collaborate on category structures, but still stay in control of a centrally curating authority
• reporting

Member apps and services

• App:Article management
• App:Product management
• App:Catalog designer - The main tool for creation, editing and managing own catalogs.
• App:Catalog distribution manager - The main tool for monitor partner subscriptions to own catalogs.
• App:Catalog subscription manager - The main tool for managing the usage and incorporation of products of 3rd party catalogs

B-Op Catalog integration with legacy P2P software

Since 2016 as b-op trade sphere was defined, all business participants can have their own b-op digital and can be fully and digitally integrated at no extra cost.

But the Procure-To-Pay (P2P) process chain has been around way before 2016 and has been target for digitalization for long time. As a result of this legacy software exists for this process chain, each with a lot of customers which can not just switch to a b-op based system at once, but must ways to at least partially use the benefits instead before a migration project can start.

The ZUGSEIL P2P Hub allows the integration with 3rd party Procure-To-Pay plattforms, like SAP Ariba amongst others. This also enables the:

• export of b-op catalog revisions to a 3rd party formats (like CIF or cXML)
• import of CIF or cXML catalogs into a new digital's catalog revision (if any changes occured)

Related articles

• B-Op Yellow-Pages - The main tool for connecting and automated digital connection in trade networks
• ZUGSEIL P2P Hub - offers automation tools for catalogs and other Procure-To-Pay (P2P) objects.