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An upgrade to Entigo Corp.s Reality sell-side e-business software looks to make it easier for global manufacturing companies to implement sell-side private exchanges, as well as market and sell their products through channel partners, company officials said.
Entigo Reality 2.5, which will be announced this week, lets manufacturers and their channel partners manage the marketing, selling and servicing of their products in real time via the Web.
The upgrade, which will be available in the next 30 days, provides companies looking to interface with trading platforms with a punch-out capability to e-commerce platforms from Ariba Inc. and Commerce One Inc.
Certified to run on IBMs WebSphere platform, the Entigo Reality suite includes catalog and warranty functions. The upgraded suite provides manufacturers with more flexibility and control in automating, managing and improving such processes as online content creation, ordering, product registration and warranty processes, according to officials in Vienna, Va.
Other new features in Version 2.5 include Pricing Management, whereby manufacturers can manage and maintain contract pricing and standard discount rates, and TaxWare Integration, which automatically calculates taxes for orders based on geographic location. A new RMA Management module lets manufacturers track product returns.
Entigo Realitys catalog and order modules power the business-to-business Web site of BendixKing.com, Honeywell International Inc.s aviation division.
BendixKing, of Oletha, Kan., worked closely with Entigo to develop the Reality upgrade, said Neel Sehgal, site leader of e-business digitization and IT at BendixKing.
Sehgal expects the new promotions, XML (Extensible Markup Language) and e-mail notification features in Version 2.5 to drive tremendous customer satisfaction.
“[The promotions piece] is very important in terms of executing orders,” Sehgal said. “Right now, were able to put a promo on the Web site by doing HTML. But to have that integrated into the catalog, where pricing is affected, is very important. Right now, our customers have to call in to order a promotional product. So this is taking Web enablement to the next level.”
Sehgal said the XML standardization features will help in integrating various Honeywell e-catalogs into the BendixKing site.
While waiting for Entigo to develop the e-mail notification functionality, Sehgals team developed its own e-mail notification application. He plans to replace that with the Entigo upgrade, which BendixKing plans to purchase in the near future.