[678] in I/T Delivery
Monthly Delivery Report for ECAT -- New Vendors
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lorraine J. Rappaport)
Fri Jan 11 10:46:49 2002
Message-Id: <200201111544.KAA29558@melbourne-city-street.mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 10:49:12 -0500
To: delivery@mit.edu
From: "Lorraine J. Rappaport" <ljr@MIT.EDU>
Cc: rfs@mit.edu
Mime-Version: 1.0
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Project Name: ECAT - New Vendors
Submitted by: Lorraine Rappaport
Report Date: January 11, 2001
Project URL: http://web.mit.edu/is/delivery/ecat
Accomplishments Past Period:
General:
- Met with various Support team representatives to discuss plans for the new
vendors.
PC Connection:
- PC Connection is LIVE! We have placed two live orders which have
processed successfully through the production catalog, ecatreq, SAP, EDI
and to
their ftp server. Once we receive word from PC Connection that the orders have
processed successfully through their order system, we will begin opening it up
to a few more team testers. Once we are comfortable that the ordering process
and delivery logistics work, we will open the pilot to community testers.
- EDI invoicing is still being tested and will not be in production for the
first phase of the pilot.
Dell:
- Completed the XML Order Request coding.
- We are able to access Dell's test catalog and submit XML-formatted Order
Requests to ecatreq and on to the SAP test environment.
- Some additional development work is required to accommodate the lack of
delivery information passed from Dell's site. (This issue is discussed in
detail below)
- Work is progressing on the XML Order.
Grainger:
- Held several design discussions with Grainger to outline our requirements.
- Grainger will soon be ready to start development work with us.
Goals for Next Period:
PC Connection:
- Open pilot to additional testers. Monitor progress.
- Plan for full rollout.
- Finalize testing of EDI invoicing and put into production.
Dell:
- Finish work on the XML Order.
- Test, test, test.
Grainger:
- Finalize design details.
- Begin development work.
Issues:
- Dell's catalog and shopping basket do not capture Ship-to information. They
typically rely on their customers' systems to collect that information and
send
it back to them in the PO. This is different from how our other ECAT vendors
operate. For Dell, users would have to remember a different business rule --
to add the Ship-to information on the ecatreq screen rather than in the vendor
catalog. The team has decided that this is not a reasonable, long-term
solution. Dell *might* be willing to do the development work required to
capture the Ship-to information and send it back to us in the Order Request
(as
other vendors do); however they might not be able to do this work until at
least March. In the meantime, we need to implement a workaround such that
users must enter the Ship-to information on the ecatreq page. Getting them to
enter it in the correct format will be the tricky part.
Other comments:
- I have joined PSB in some recent conversation with prospective vendors for
stationery products (business cards, letterhead, etc.). We have begun to
evaluate the electronic catalog products these vendors utilize and discuss
integration into the ECAT model.
- Conversations with Herman Miller/Creative Office Pavilion continue to plan
for their ECAT integration.
