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| Online Services for the 'World of Vision' |
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| Rodenstock Net - the B2B Portal on the Extranet |
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Already since 1998 Rodenstock has been using the Web to communicate with their customers. The B2B portal Rodenstock Net enables opticians all over the world to access product and service information published by the German-based Rodenstock Group directly and at any time. The central part of this e-Business application is the online shop. Here customers can order conveniently around the clock, 24 hours a day - 7 days a week, spectacle frames and lenses, complete spectacles as well as advertising and promotional materials. Useful services supporting day-to-day business activities round off the range of products. Rodenstock Net is a comprehensive online service that simplifies and speeds up the communication between Rodenstock Group and the opticians.
The portal provides up-to-date topic information and offers for specific target groups:
- the complete frame catalogue including delivery status and direct order initiation in the ERP system;
- interactive ordering of spectacle lenses including all options for individual orders to meet exacting requirements with total customer satisfaction, such as detailed refraction data acquisition, online plausibility checks and automated acquisition of spectacle-frame data through a Formtracer connected with a local PC;
- order tracking with real-time querying of the current manufacturing status of all spectacle lenses;
- comprehensive technical information on spectacle lenses;
- updates for Rodenstock's software;
- product information of various kinds and product advice;
- information about and downloads of materials for sales promotions and direct-marketing-campaigns of the customer;
- offers of the Rodenstock Academy including the possibility to book seminars online;
- continuous statistics of the sales (lenses and frames) made by Rodenstock to individual opticians in the current business year including a year-on-year comparison.
Rodenstock Net is the result of Rodenstock Group's consequent customer orientation and contributes greatly to their customer relationship management (CRM).
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| B2B Portal and Web Services in the Company's Intranet |
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As the portal is directly linked to the ERP system of Rodenstock (SAP R/3) opticians can not only order all frames and lenses directly but also complete spectacles. The complex process of ordering a spectacle is completely mapped in the system. For this purpose Rodenstock Net employs a Web Services interface, which makes it possible to visualize the shape data of the desired spectacle frame based on the refraction values of the lenses entered previously. By using the integrated delivery status function for spectacle frames and/or the real-time order tracking function for spectacle lenses customers can at any time check on the current availability of the required article or the current manufacturing status of their orders. As a result, the user does not need any complicated filing systems for catalogues, brochures or other printed information materials, does not have to adhere to fixed business hours, and can keep in direct contact with the responsible persons at Rodenstock via email.
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| Rodenstock's international Websites for End Customers - the B2C Portal |
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The international websites of
Rodenstock (www.rodenstock.com, www.rodenstock.de) aim at bespectacled
end customers. On these sites, interested people will find spectacle
catalogues and collections, product recommendations for a variety of
different uses and a spectacle consultant (to find the spectacle best
complimenting the individual facial features). Spectacles can be added
to an individual shortlist and then be printed or forwarded as an e-card.
And in addition the visitors will find a lot of useful information about
spectacles in general. Sight tests, vision tips, a sight glossary, profit
games and a newsletter subscription to receive regular and free
information by e-mail complete the various activities that are possible.
These websites use the same data pool as Rodenstock Net to display information
on spectacles. Only the composition, display and arrangement of the contents
are different. The website www.rodenstock.com is a multi-language and multi-region
site and supports the addition of any language without any programming effort.
The contents of the websites are maintained decentrally, and the runtime system
ensures that the requirements on the corporate design are met across all five
continents. Layout adjustments within the given limits of the corporate-design
requirements as well as region-specific presentations of products, assortments
and collections based on conditions specific to individual countries are
permitted and may be made by the responsible persons at each site as required.
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| Service-oriented Content Management |
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| All contents and product descriptions for Rodenstock NET and Rodenstock's international websites are maintained with the assistance of Werum's Content Integrator, a J2EE-based solution for Enterprise Content Management: Product data, technical and marketing-support information, document templates, pictures and all media officially released for illustration purposes are managed in the relevant departments and made available through the connected portal and intranet systems. The Content Management System (CMS) permits the access to the central product data master in SAP. Werum's Content Integrator has also a multi-language capability.
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| Technical Implementation |
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| The communications platform supporting B2B, B2C and B2E at Rodenstock Group is based on state-of-the-art and proven e-business technologies. High performance UNIX servers, Oracle as the system database as well as Apache and Jakarat Tomcat as the application environment make up the technical core of this platform. The management, maintenance and provision of all the data required for mapping the business processes is the responsibility of Werum's Content Integrator. Open-standard XML interfaces to the connected systems ensure smooth and reliable data exchange in both directions.
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| About Rodenstock |
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| Rodenstock is Germany's largest manufacturer of spectacle lenses and frames, and the leading brand in Germany. Founded in 1877, the company with headquarters in Munich, the City of Optics, employs today around 4,500 people worldwide and is represented in more than 80 countries across the five continents by a network of sales offices and distribution partners. Rodenstock operates production facilities for spectacle lenses at 11 sites in 10 countries and achieves about two thirds of its value generation through Europe-based manufacturing processes, 75% of this value in Germany. The competence and technical expertise for both spectacle lenses and spectacle frames makes the Rodenstock brand to the only brand in ophthalmic optics that can provide the 'complete spectacle system' as a one-stop-shopping solution to anyone who wears glasses. In the business year 2004 Rodenstock's turnover amounted to 339 million Euros.
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| Links |
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www.rodenstock.net (B2B Portal)
www.rodenstock.com (B2C Portal)
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