How Active B2B Works
Active B2B combines easy-to-use webpages with the business information maintained in your ERP/POS system.
Customers, salespeople and staff don’t need to learn how to use the ERP or understand how the integration works behind the scenes. They simply sign in to Active B2B and use webpages designed for the functions they need.
Active B2B handles the complexity behind those pages—identifying the user, determining the user’s role and permissions, presenting the appropriate customer and product information, and exchanging information with the ERP/POS system.
Easy-to-Use Webpages for Customers
Business customers access Active B2B through familiar, easy-to-use webpages.
Once signed in, customers can use the website to perform many of the everyday activities that would otherwise require a telephone call, email or assistance from a salesperson or customer-service employee.
Depending upon their role and permissions, customers can use webpages to:
- Search for and find products
- See products selected for their company or workgroup
- View and print custom catalog
- See their pricing
- Add products to quote
- Add products to an order
- Convert quote to an order
- Place orders
- Review previous purchases
- Reorder products
- View quotes
- Check order status
- View invoices
- Pay invoices
- Access information appropriate to their company, region or workgroup
The underlying business information may come from several places, but the customer experiences it through one convenient online interface.
Easy-to-Use Tools for Salespeople
Salespeople have their own web-based tools within Active B2B.
A salesperson can sign in and work with the customers assigned to them without having to navigate the ERP to perform routine ecommerce functions.
The salesperson can work from the customer’s perspective, helping the customer find products, selecting products for the customer, working with quotes and assisting with orders.
Because the salesperson and customer are using the same B2B platform, they can work together rather than having separate online and offline processes.
Inside salespeople can similarly use Active B2B to assist customers and support the sales organization.
Each Person Sees What They Need
When someone signs in, Active B2B knows both who the person is and what role that person has.
That determines the webpages, customers and information available to the user.
A workgroup worker does not need the same information as a corporate manager. A salesperson needs different tools from a customer. Product-maintenance staff need still another set of capabilities.
Active B2B uses roles and permissions to give each person access to the functions and information needed to do their job without unnecessarily exposing information intended for other users.
Active B2B Understands the Customer’s Organization
Behind the simple web interface is a structure that can represent complex business customers.
A corporate customer can contain regions and workgroups. Users are associated with the appropriate parts of that organization and assigned the appropriate roles.
This structure allows information to be shared where it should be shared.
For example, people within a workgroup can see appropriate products, quotes and purchasing activity belonging to that workgroup. A manager responsible for a broader portion of the organization can be given broader visibility.
The organizational structure is handled by Active B2B so the individual user simply sees the information appropriate to them when they sign in.
Customer-Specific Products Simplify Ordering
Many customers repeatedly purchase the same group of products.
Active B2B can associate products with an individual customer or workgroup, giving users a convenient way to find the products their organization normally buys.
They are not limited to those products when the complete ecommerce catalog is available, but their regularly used or designated products are much easier to locate.
This is particularly useful for organizations with many employees purchasing from a distributor with a large product catalog.
Product Information Comes From the Right Source
Not every piece of product information should be maintained in the ERP.
The ERP is an appropriate source for operational information such as pricing, inventory and other business data.
Active B2B’s ecommerce system is the source for the rich information needed to present products effectively online, including descriptive and keyword-rich product titles, detailed descriptions, images, categories and other merchandising information.
Active B2B combines these sources so customers see a complete product presentation without requiring the ERP to become an ecommerce content-management system.
Each system does what it does best.
Active B2B and the ERP Exchange Information Automatically
Active B2B is currently integrated with Epicor Prophet 21.
Behind the scenes, automated software programs—sometimes called executables—provide the connection between Active B2B and the ERP/POS system.
These programs run automatically on a schedule. No employee needs to remember to start an import, export data or manually synchronize the two systems.
The automated programs retrieve the business information Active B2B needs from the ERP/POS system and make it available to the website. Depending upon the implementation, this can include:
- Customer accounts
- Products
- Customer-specific pricing
- Quantity available
- Quotes
- Orders and order status
- Invoices
- Other account and business information
Information also moves in the other direction when appropriate. For example, orders placed through Active B2B can be automatically transferred to the ERP so they become part of the company’s normal order-processing and fulfillment workflow.
Think of the automated programs as messengers working continuously between the website and the business system. They retrieve information from one system, put it into the form needed by the other system, and deliver it where it belongs.
The customer and salesperson don’t see any of this happening. They simply use the Active B2B webpages and see the information they need.
Designed to Run Without Constant Attention
Once configured, these automated integration programs run on their established schedules, day after day.
They don’t require an employee to repeatedly move files or re-enter information between Active B2B and the ERP/POS system.
This automated integration is what allows Active B2B to combine an easy-to-use online experience with the company’s established business system operating behind it.
The ERP/POS system manages the underlying business information. Active B2B provides the easy-to-use B2B commerce experience. The automated integration keeps the two working together.
An Online Order Becomes an ERP Order
When a customer places an order through Active B2B, the information required by the business system is automatically transferred to the ERP.
Employees don’t have to print the web order and enter it again manually.
Once the order is in the ERP, the company’s established procedures for processing and fulfilling orders can continue.
As information about the order changes in the ERP, appropriate status information can be returned to Active B2B so the customer can see it online.
This creates a continuous process from online ordering through the company’s existing business operations.
Quotes Work With the Online Buying Process
Quotes can become part of the customer’s online purchasing environment rather than existing only in emails, paper documents or separate systems.
Customers and appropriate members of their workgroup can see relevant quotes through Active B2B.
Salespeople can also work with customers and their quoted products through the platform.
This gives both sides of the relationship a common place to work with the products being considered for purchase.
Printed Catalogs Are Created From the Customer’s Products
Active B2B can take the customer’s selected products beyond the website.
A customer or salesperson can choose products to include in a customer-specific printed catalog.
Active B2B uses the product information already maintained for ecommerce to create a catalog centered on the products relevant to that particular customer.
The result is a useful physical purchasing reference without requiring someone to separately assemble and maintain a customer catalog.
Shelf Labels Use the Same Product Information
Active B2B can also produce custom shelf labels corresponding to the customer’s products.
The labels can be placed where products are stored or used at the customer’s location, helping employees identify the correct item and connect the physical inventory location with the products available through Active B2B.
The website, customer catalog and shelf labels can therefore work together as parts of the same purchasing system.
PunchOut Connects Directly With Customer Procurement Systems
For customers that use a procure-to-pay system, Active B2B can support PunchOut through TradeCentric.
The process begins in the customer’s own procurement software.
The buyer selects your company as a supplier and is electronically connected to the appropriate Active B2B shopping experience. The buyer doesn’t have to separately navigate to your website and begin a conventional ecommerce session.
The buyer shops within Active B2B, selects the required products and returns the shopping cart electronically to the customer’s procurement system.
From there, the customer’s own system can handle its required approvals, purchasing rules and purchase-order process.
Active B2B therefore provides the product-selection and shopping experience while the customer’s procure-to-pay system retains control over its internal purchasing process.
Corporate and Regional Reporting Uses the Same Organizational Structure
Because Active B2B understands the relationships among corporate organizations, regions, workgroups and individual users, it can also provide information at different management levels.
- A workgroup user can be limited to information relevant to that workgroup.
- A regional manager can have broader access appropriate to the region.
- A corporate manager can access reporting across the organization that individual workgroups do not see.
The same underlying business information can therefore be useful to different people without giving every user the same level of access.
Product Staff Have Their Own Web-Based Tools
The distributor’s product staff also work through web-based interfaces designed for their responsibilities.
They can maintain the ecommerce information needed to properly present products online without requiring customers or salespeople to work directly with the underlying technology.
This separation allows product specialists to concentrate on product content while salespeople concentrate on customers and customers concentrate on buying.
The Integration Can Be Adapted to Other Modern ERPs
The current Active B2B platform is integrated with Epicor Prophet 21, but the B2B functionality itself is not dependent upon Prophet 21.
Active B2B separates the commerce experience from the underlying ERP integration.
When another modern ERP provides APIs that make the required customer, product, pricing, order, invoice and other business information available, an integration can be developed between that ERP and Active B2B.
This means the extensive B2B functionality and easy-to-use webpages do not have to be recreated simply because a business uses a different ERP.
Prophet 21 is the integration available today. The Active B2B platform provides a foundation for integration with other modern, API-enabled ERP systems.
Complex Behind the Scenes. Simple for the User.
There is considerable technology behind Active B2B: ERP integration, automated executables, organizational hierarchies, roles and permissions, customer-specific information, ecommerce content, order processing and procurement integration.
The customer shouldn’t have to think about any of it.
Neither should the salesperson.
They open a webpage, sign in and find the information and tools they need to do business.
Active B2B takes care of the complexity behind the scenes.
Learn More About Active B2B
See what Active B2B can do for your customers, your salespeople and your entire organization.
Active B2B currently integrates with:
Prophet 21 (P21)
Active Hub integrates with:
Zendesk
HubSpot
SalesforceACTIVETRANSFER INTEGRATES WITH:
- Office: 617.209.4221
- Address: 89 Ridge Ave, Athol, MA 01331