CES in a Nutshell

Creation, storage, cross-referencing and management of foundational data is the key differentiator for Collaborative Enterprise Sourcing (CES). In order to derive full value from the analytical solutions, an organization's underlying foundation data must be cleansed and important relationships between the objects must be accurately established.

This has introduced many challenges, but the two foremost are:

  • How can you search for everything that you need about a subject

  • How can you organize and analyze all the information you need

With CES, you can find everything you need. For example, you can:

  • Search for and save information about an item.

  • Search for internal company content and analyze the content.

  • Create, duplicate, and edit items and companies.

  • Organize information for easy retrieval.

  • Check for prices.

CES is a web-based client application that offers easy access to search items (Manufacturer, Supplier, and Internal), view item details, view and edit item details, view and edit company details, view category browser, check prices, compare items, find similar items, view part profile, and so on.

The following table describes the key features available in CES:

Feature

Description

Search and Results

You can enter keywords and run the Simple Search, or browse the content hierarchy and view all relevant search results. You can then browse to the category of interest, or use Standard Search, or specify values for category-specific properties.

Analyze

You can categorizes the search results to view information in logical groupings, sort results by any parameter, view item details including customer-specific pricing options, alternate and equivalent items, and related components; and search for alternate suppliers.

You can compare items or check available prices for selected items from a single supplier or from all suppliers. You can also normalize prices to your preferred currency by selecting the Normalized Currency option. The prices for all the items are displayed in a common currency. Once in a common currency, the prices can be easily compared.

Pricing and Availability

You can view pricing information for an item. For al pricing types, pricing, currency, and units of measure are displayed. You can check the available prices for selected manufacturer, supplier, and internal items fro a single supplier or from all suppliers.

Create

You can create a manufacturer item, supplier item, or internal item, and related information. This information is then available for you whenever you need it. You can also create new companies, and company related information.

Edit

You can edit an item for both modifying the item specific data of the main item being edited, and defining new or modifying its existing relationships with the related items.

 

CES deployment and configuration require expertise in WebSphere V5 administration, Oracle and DB2 database creation, ENOVIA installation, and Windows administration.

This installation guide is intended for those who are installing the application, system administrators, and database administrators.

You can install the CES application using the SDMSetupUi. The SDMSetupUi is an interactive application, used to deploy the CES Server and VPMNav application.  You can use only automatic method to install the CES application.

The CES Installation Guide contains necessary tasks to install, configure, and initially launch the application.