Collaboration

Whether it is a Buyer and Seller discussing details of a purchasing agreement, or a Customer Service Representative assisting a customer in placing an order, e-commerce collaboration is necessary to maintain the communication flow between parties. Traditionally, exchange of information has been achieved through phone or fax. WebSphere Commerce supports e-commerce collaboration functionality by offering two Web-based features within the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator:

Notes:

  1. To allow a CSR to use customer care, after you have installed and configured Sametime, you must create the CSR in the WebSphere Commerce system if the user does not already exist with CSR authority, and then register the CSR in the Sametime server. See Registering a CSR to use customer care for detailed steps. If the SameTime server is configured to use the same LDAP server as WebSphere Commerce, you do not need to register the CSR.
  2. To use the collaboration functions, your store must be set up for them. To enable collaboration in a store based on a sample, see Configuring flows. To enable customer care in a store not based on a sample, see the WebSphere Commerce Store Development Guide.

WebSphere Commerce also provides two sample stores that demonstrate collaboration functionality. The ToolTech sample store illustrates both collaborative workspaces and customer care, and the FashionFlow sample store shows the customer care feature. For more information on the sample stores, refer to the WebSphere Commerce Sample Store Guide.