1 Project Summary
The E-Plus Group of companies chose btexx partner MT AG to provide the technical services involved in the relaunch of the E-Plus Retailer Portal. With its “btexx Portal Suite 2012” btexx GmbH delivered an advanced, comprehensive solution for the SAP NetWeaver Portal that has proven itself in the marketplace.
The E-Plus Retailer Portal was re-engineered from the ground up on the basis of the SAP NetWeaver Portal 7.3 platform. MT AG implemented the solution with “btexx Portal Suite 2012”. The software is optimally integrated in the SAP NetWeaver Portal and extends functionality in the area of web content management, document management, search and collaboration. Moreover, it also allows businesses to implement a modern design unique to their enterprise.
The new E-Plus Retailer Portal offers users a clear overview and is intuitive to use. As a single point of access it allows retailers to conveniently access content and services. The portal provides retailers with product information and analyses specifically tailored to their area of business. In addition, retailers can also book training courses and order products via the portal. The search functionality was also significantly enhanced.
Now retailers can find information and answers to their questions more quickly, which has dramatically lowered the number of inquiries made through other communications channels. The expanded range of services offers retailers noticeable added value.
2 Main Functions
The DIALOG Portal is completely customized and branded with E-Plus Group corporate style and look & feel.
2.1 Enduser Perspective
2.1.1 Startpage and basic framework
The startpage of the DIALOG retailer portal shows the actual information and latest news for E-Plus retailers. Prominent on this site is the Coverflow section above the news with important information and urgent updates. The site also contains access to global search, a tag cloud with links to important articles, pages or applications and system links to most frequently used external systems and applications. All the content including articles and application links are displayed based on user permissions and functional roles.
Basic Framework Features:
- Custom Masthead and Footer
- Pure CSS navigation with dropdown menus on mouseover up to level 3
- Breadcrumb
- Footer with access to dynamic sitemap, date protection provisions or legal notice
All other content including news, articles in coverflow section, tag cloud and system links can be editorially updated at any time. For easy and quick creation of new pages some of the editorial content that is meant for all pages such as breadcrumb or sidebar content (e.g. tag cloud and system links) are embedded in predefined page templates and the content supports easy central maintenance.
2.1.2. News Archive
The news archive comprises all published news and offers the users to search within the news articles. News are automatically archived based on publishing expiration date.
2.1.3 Form Center
The Form Center provides access to all forms needed by the retailer. Forms are organized by topic at a glance. The form center is also searchable.
2.1.4 Contacts
The Contact page enables the user to either find internal contacts (for staff members only) or hotlines and contact persons for different topics. Contact information is permission based.
2.1.5 HTML Content
Full Flexibility in creating new content with custom HTML, easily inserted by an HTML Template.
2.1.6 Promotion Material
The shop owner can look for and order advertising material and merchandising products.
2.1.7 Additional Features and reusable building blocks
- Video Gallery with maximum browser compatibiliy
- Picture Gallery
- Browsable PDF Renderer (Editors can upload PDF documents that will be converted and rendered in a browsable container with paging capabilities)
- Page Search functionality for “On page search capability”
- Fancybox Detail views of articles
- Customer Feedback
- Live Search Box with auto completion and top hit ranking
- Optional features that can be enabled in generic building blocks such as paging
2.1.8 Global Search
To search the portal a new Portal Search based on btexx universalSearch (UVS) has been implemented.
Search Functions include:
- Search by 4 segments:
- Documents
- Content
- Fillable Forms
- Contacts
- Filter the search results by:
- Content Category
- Release Date
Content categories are used to group search results and enable the user to further refine his search and limit the results to a certain category only.
On mouse over a preview thumbnail of every PDF document is shown. Previews are generated on the fly using a custom plugin that is based on the standard portal thumbnail functionality.
Additional features:
- Paging of search results
- Search term highlighting in search results
- Phonetic search
- “Did you mean” feature for search results
- Flexible custom design of search results
2.2 Editor Perspective
2.2.1 Direct Edit Menu
The Direct Edit Menu is a core feature of the new easyWCM implementation as part of btexx Portal Suite 2012. KM UI commands are no longer required and all KM commands are now integrated in the Direct Edit Menu that is directly accessible from every article. It allows quick and easy access to content related actions such as publishing or workflow tasks. The Direct Edit Menu can be customized to contain additional information and actions as required. It may show the most important information about an article or resource such as workflow status, publishing, editing or creation date without the necessity to leave the end user perspective. Moreover this enhancement no allows the content to be rendered in embedded mode. This means that the content can be edited in a WYSIWIG mode and the end user perspective totally matches the editor perspective.
2.2.2 In Place Editing
All content can be edited in place. There is no need to leave the page or navigate to KM folders in order to edit articles or change their status. Every article or iView gives direct access to content related actions.
Additionl features:
- Drag & Drop iViews from one content area to another. Drag & Drop functionality may be restricted to certain containers using content rules.
- Customizable easyWCM Toolbar to provide access to most important templates that can be dragged to any container for easy and quick content creation
2.2.3 Sample Selection
All editor templates are organized in categories to provide quick and easy content creation. Every template provides a preview to give the editor an idea of how the result looks like.
All building blocks used within the portal are highly generic and configurable to provide a consistent look & feel and user experience.
2.3 Mobile Access
One of the main goals of the portal relaunch was to increase the added value of all provided services to endusers. In order to enable sales and distribution to access the portal on the go it was necessary to enable the portal on mobile devices. The portal has been optimized for iPad usage and provides the same features and look & feel with almost no restrictions.
3 About E-Plus Group
The E-Plus Group is the challenger on the German mobile communications market. Simple services tailored to customer needs and a major reduction in call and data charges can be traced back to the initiative of the third-largest mobile network operator in Germany. After revolutionizing the voice market for larger user groups now the company opens the mobile data market for the masses by its massive network roll-out and highly attractive low-priced data tariff schemes. As a result of innovative business models, modern structures and strong partnerships the E-Plus Group was able to significantly strengthen its market position and show a more dynamic and profitable development than the market.
Since 2005 E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH und Co. KG has developed into a family of brands offering target group-specific services and thus breaks new ground in mobile communications in Germany. The flat-rate brand BASE and the mobile discounters simyo and blau are market leader in their segments, while the original E-Plus brand offers a range of services to its existing customers. The brand AY YILDIZ addresses the Turkish community in Germany. And the latest addition yourfone.de has opened the market for all-net flat-rates in the postpaid segment. The partners of the E-Plus group include many other brands, such as MEDIONmobile (ALDI TALK) and music TV station MTV.
23.5 million customers are using the network of the E-Plus Group to make calls and send text messages or data. The Group generates annual revenues of €3.2 billion (2011) and employs more than 4,700 people (FTE) in Germany.
E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co. KG
E-Plus-Straße 1
40472 Düsseldorf
Telefon +49 211 448 - 0
Telefax +49 211 448 - 2222
4 About MT AG
The MT AG is an IT service provider which is primarily specialized in process- and software integration in heterogeneous IT environment. As an acknowledged partner of leading technology businesses, MT AG combines the agility of a medium-sized enterprise with the solution competence of international consulting companies. The company provides a continuous and independent portfolio of consulting, conception and implementation as well as servicing the systems. Through its dedicated and professional commitment MT AG creates the crucial added value for customers’ business success.
Leading technology manufacturers certify MT AG an impressive technical competence. Namely across the different technological approaches and providers.
The MT company offers vendor-independent business and software consulting. Our multivendor-capability helps customers to focus on their targets. Without the usual suffer from tunnel vision on a single technology partner.
MT AG
Balcke-Dürr-Allee 9
D-40882 Ratingen
Telefon +49 2102 30961- 0
Telefax +49 2102 30961- 101
5 Lessons learned
- Plan sufficient time for a detailed requirements analysis and carry out a cost-benefit analysis for the requested features to reduce implementation time and costs
- Involve all involved parties (Marketing, IT, development, endusers, editors) to ensure a broad and common understanding of the expected result
- Schedule regular meetings to confirm common understanding based on the status quo of the implementation (at least every 2 weeks).
6 Why you should vote for “DIALOG” as SAP NW Portal Star
- Great user experience, modern user interface and design
- Great search functionality
- Easy and quick central maintenance of shared content
- In place editing of content
- WYSIWYG content creation (end user perspective = editor perspective)
- Variety of templates for easy and quick content creation
- Generic and reusable building blocks for consistent look & feel and user experience
- Possibility to search for dynamic content on pages using generic page search box and dynamic content building blocks (e.g. Expandable Boxes)
- Quick and easy access to content related actions such as publishing or workflow tasks via Embedit UI
- Based 100% on SAP NW Portal standards
- Mobile device support
- Rich Web 2.0 features such as auto completion, expandable boxes, tab navigation, fancybox and more
- SAP Managed Tags:
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