Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 BuyerXpert Data Sheet

ACTRA BUYERXPERT

INTERNET COMMERCE APPLICATION FOR
ENTERPRISE PURCHASING

Corporate purchasing is one of the most complex paper and people intensive processes in business. The new Internet purchasing channel provides an unprecedented opportunity to improve purchasing productivity, minimize order cycle time and reduce order processing costs. These cost savings dramatically impact net profit due to the volume of corporate purchases.

Actra BuyerXpert supports the transition from transactional to strategic purchasing by opening up ordering capability to all employees in the enterprise. By eliminating time-consuming, manual, and error-prone tasks and by automating the order entry and approval processes, Actra BuyerXpert dramatically reduces procurement costs for low-impact, high volume purchases. Its ability to enforce corporate contracts contributes to greater volume discounts and substantially reduced materials cost.

 


AN INTERNET PURCHASING
SOLUTION FOR EMPLOYEE
SELF-SERVICE ORDERING
BASED ON CORPORATE
AGREEMENTS







FEATURES OVERVIEW

  • Empower employees to create,
    approve and track orders while
    preserving corporate controls
  • Support secure, open,
    standards-based catalog,
    ordering, and payment
    transactions
  • Circulate orders for approvals
    using workflow for quick
    turnaround
  • Configure application behavior
    and terminology to fit your
    business practices
  • Gain insight into enterprise
    operations and purchasing patterns
  • Leverage existing investments
    in enterprise applications

 
 


SELF-SERVICE ORDERING
Browser-enabled employees can quickly, easily, and confidently create orders by selecting items from an Actra BuyerXpert catalog of approved suppliers. By transparently enforcing complex contract terms and order limits, routine purchases do not have to be handled by professional purchasing agents. Free of order-taking duties, purchasing professionals can now focus on supplier relationships and strategic tasks.

DYNAMIC APPROVALS
At the moment a requester submits an order, Actra BuyerXpert determines the correct approval path by considering employee role, dollar value, items being purchased, shipping information and much more. It automatically triggers and manages the workflow process using email for notifications, reminders, and escalation.

CONFIGURABLE BUSINESS LOGIC
Business rules allow customers to easily tailor BuyerXpert functionality to meet their business needs and keep pace with continuous business change. The application understands each buyer and seller relationship. Based on the individual placing the order, the item being bought, and the supplier involved, the system guides the requester through the buying experience.

OPEN SUPPLIER PARTICIPATION
Actra BuyerXpert provides a wide range of choices for supplier participation. Whether you implement Actra BuyerXpert in an Intranet or Internet environment, your partners are not burdened with proprietary software or data formats. By leveraging open standards, you can share commerce responsibilities with your suppliers and reduce duplication of effort -- without compromising security.

SCALABLE ARCHITECTURE
A secure, industrial strength framework underlies Actra BuyerXpert. Its object-oriented Internet architecture facilitates optimal performance at peak levels of enterprise traffic. Its distributed, modular design permits you to scale individual components such as the catalog or order management to meet demand.

Intuitive desktop ordering on your Intranet accommodates entry-level to advanced supplier participation on the Internet.


COMPLETE ORDER MANAGEMENT
  • Browser-based Requisition and
    Purchase Order creation from
    catalog or order form
  • Contracted and non-stock, off-
    catalog purchases
  • Repeat orders and multiple orders
    in progress
  • Accounting codes and employee
    Spending limits
  • Contract pricing with discounts,
    allowances, charges, and promotions
  • Sales tax calculations based on
    product and shipping information
  • Shipping point and carrier selection
    for freight calculations
  • Invoice, cash, and credit payment
    methods
  • Automatic order status updates
  • "OK to pay" receipt confirmations
  • Enterprise purchasing system
    interfaces

MULTI-VENDOR PRODUCT CATALOGS

  • Rapid product identification
    using keyword search, hierarchical
    browsing, and parametric search
  • Local catalogs or distributed,
    supplier-managed catalogs
  • Multi-vendor or single-vendor
    product display
  • Personalized views with partner-
    specific pricing and terms
  • Dun & Bradstreet Standard
    Product and Service Codes
    or company-defined commodity
    codes
  • Data loading and maintenance using
    electronic data interchange (EDI),
    text, spreadsheets, or manual
    data entry
  • Online graphical authoring for
    product classification
  • Multimedia support for text,
    graphics, audio, video, and
    attached specifications

DYNAMIC WORKFLOW

  • Requisition approvals, declines,
    and notifications
  • Dynamic creation of approver
    list based on employee roles
  • Company-defined process
    definition library
  • Rules-based, conditional routing
    with email integration
  • Approval reminders and
    escalation capability
  • Ad hoc changes to approver lists
  • Visual administration of
    complex workflow processes
  • Industry standards-compliant API

ADVANCED MEMBERSHIP AND PROFILE MANAGEMENT

  • User groups and hierarchical
    organizations
  • Secure name and password sign-on
  • Digital certificates for optional
    authentication using X.509 self-issue
    or third party certificates

FULL FUNCTION REPORTING SYSTEM

  • Browser-based report viewing
    and printing
  • Embedded graphs, charts, cross-tabs,
    and hyperlinks
  • Access control on pre-formatted,
    option-driven reports
  • Graphical report creation and
    customization tool
  • Object-oriented report building
  • Scheduling, versioning, and batch
    processing
  • Demand paging and multi-threaded
    viewing

CONFIGURABLE BUSINESS RULES

  • Over 200 pre-configured business
    parameters
  • Separation of system behavior and
    application data
  • Run-time evaluation and conflict
    resolution
  • Menu and tree-driven Java
    administration interface
  

Actra BuyerXpert’s dynamic workflow reduces approval cycle time with email integration and quick access to supporting details.

COMPREHENSIVE SECURITY

  • Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for
    point-to-point data communications
  • RSA password and credit card
    encryption
  • X.509 digital certificates

CROSS-SYSTEM INTEROPERABILITY

  • Open Buying on the Internet (OBI)
    v1.0 support
  • Open, published C++ APIs
  • Actra SellerXpert complementary
    solution for supplier-managed Internet
    catalogs and ordering

TIGHT INTEGRATION WITH ACTRA ECXPERT

  • Data transmission over public and
    private networks
  • Supports ANSI ASC X12, EDIFACT,
    UCS, and many other public and
    user-defined standards
  • Graphical tool for any-to-any mapping
    and translation
  • Legacy communications with batch
    scheduling to interface with mainframe,
    UNIX, or NT
  • Document storage, tracking services,
    and task management
  • Support for Simple Mail Transfer
    Protocol (SMTP) and Secure
    Multi-purpose Internet Mail
    Extensions (S/MIME)

ACTRA COMMERCEXPERT ARCHITECTURE

  • Java and HTML interface
  • Support for Netscape ONE (Open
    Network Environment)
  • Object oriented using CORBA and
    platform-independent, Internet Inter-
    ORB Protocol (IIOP) object messaging
  • Multi-threaded using Netscape
    Application Program Interface (NSAPI)
    for concurrent processing
  • Distributed components within an
    extensible architecture
  • Central definition of data attributes
    and graphical user interface (GUI)
    fields
  • Standard and consistent data element
    storage, data-driven application flow,
    and JavaScript use
  • Database independence
  • Runtime monitoring, audit and logging,
    backup, and archiving capabilities
  • Staging environment to test major
    functions and incrementally migrate
    changes to production

HOW TO REACH US
Web: http://www.actracorp.com
Email: info@actracorp.com
Phone: (888) 706-2600 or (408) 542-3183
Mail: 601 Caribbean Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089, USA

SUPPORTED PLATFORMS AND SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Operating System: Sun Solaris 2.5.1

Memory: 256 MB recommended

Disk Space: 3 GB recommended