whitepaper white label v0 9

Brightpoint Direct White Label Webshop

Whitepaper (27 Nov 2008)

White Label Webshop White Paper

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Content

1 Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 5

1.1 The system components.............................................................................................................. 5

1.2 The system users ........................................................................................................................ 6

2 Brightpoint Direct White Label: leading-edge webshop front end ............................................. 7

2.1 Product navigation ....................................................................................................................... 8

2.1.1 Categorization ...................................................................................................................... 9

2.1.2 Variants ..............................................................................................................................10

2.1.3 Grouped accessories .........................................................................................................11

2.1.4 Related products ................................................................................................................11

2.2 Product search and comparison ................................................................................................12

2.2.1 Simple searches.................................................................................................................12

2.2.2 Searching by product features ...........................................................................................12

2.2.3 Comparison by product features ........................................................................................13

2.3 Product presentation ..................................................................................................................13

2.3.1 Product pictures at different levels of detail .......................................................................15

2.3.2 Individual product descriptions and sales headlines..........................................................15

2.3.3 Rich set of product features ...............................................................................................15

2.3.4 Client-friendly grouping and sorting of product features and feature values .....................16

2.3.5 Integration of additional presentation media ......................................................................16

2.3.6 Indication of product availability .........................................................................................16

2.4 Guided purchase of combined products (e.g. phones + plans) .................................................16

2.5 Complex pricing .........................................................................................................................18

2.5.1 Display options for prices ...................................................................................................19

2.5.2 Prices for combined purchases (“from… prices”) ..............................................................20

2.5.3 Minimum price computation including subscription plan fees ............................................20

2.6 Guided completion of subscription plan purchases or prolongations ........................................21

2.7 Complex checkout process including selection of payment and delivery .................................22

2.8 Customer registration and self service area ..............................................................................23

2.9 Customer service centre agent ..................................................................................................23

2.10 Vouchers ....................................................................................................................................23

2.11 E-mail campaigns ......................................................................................................................24

2.12 Tell a friend ................................................................................................................................24

2.13 Multiple languages .....................................................................................................................24

3 Standard Brightpoint Direct White Label: Efficient Management Console (MC) for business

partners .................................................................................................................................................26

3.1 Search........................................................................................................................................27

3.2 Search Result List ......................................................................................................................27

3.3 Editor..........................................................................................................................................28

3.4 Managing static content (“Live edit”) .........................................................................................29


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3.5 Determining product portfolio ....................................................................................................30

3.6 Managing category structure and category content ..................................................................31

3.6.1 Static and dynamic categories ...........................................................................................31

3.7 Overwriting list of top sellers ......................................................................................................32

3.8 Overwriting product descriptions ...............................................................................................32

3.9 Adding and editing subscription plans .......................................................................................33

3.10 Adding purchase templates for combined offers .......................................................................34

3.11 Editing prices and price rules for combined offers ....................................................................34

3.12 Introducing product bundles ......................................................................................................35

3.13 Managing GSM number allocation ............................................................................................36

3.14 Setting up cart constraints .........................................................................................................37

3.15 Tracking e-mails, managing e-mail templates ...........................................................................37

3.15.1 Manage templates for system e-mails ...............................................................................37

3.15.2 Track sent e-mails, resending ............................................................................................38

3.16 Vouchers, tracking of voucher usage ........................................................................................39

3.17 Setting up and managing e-mail campaigns .............................................................................41

3.17.1 Template definition (Velocity) .............................................................................................41

3.17.2 Target group definition .......................................................................................................42

3.17.3 Scheduling .........................................................................................................................43

3.17.4 Tracking of feedback ..........................................................................................................43

3.18 Creating promotions and assigning promotions to advertising spaces .....................................44

3.19 Managing user accounts............................................................................................................46

4 Standard Brightpoint Direct White Label: Efficient Management Console (system) for

Brightpoint ............................................................................................................................................47

4.1 Creating product descriptions, pictures and media ...................................................................47

4.2 Maintaining product features and feature values ......................................................................47

4.3 Organizing product variation ......................................................................................................50

4.4 Managing product relations .......................................................................................................50

4.5 Setting up product bundling .......................................................................................................51

4.6 Maintaining Categories ..............................................................................................................51

4.6.1 Manually influencing of automatically generated top seller lists ........................................52

4.7 Maintaining Catalogs .................................................................................................................52

4.7.1 Managing the master catalog and multiple derived catalogs by using inheritance

structures ........................................................................................................................................52

4.7.2 Managing product portfolios ...............................................................................................52

4.7.3 Customized product information in specialized catalogs ...................................................53

4.8 Management and assignment of materials to products .............................................................53

4.8.1 Management of availability classes and policies ...............................................................53

4.9 E-mail templates ........................................................................................................................54

4.10 E-mail campaigns ......................................................................................................................54


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4.11 Setting up payment methods .....................................................................................................54

4.12 Setting up delivery methods ......................................................................................................55

4.13 Managing currencies .................................................................................................................56

4.14 Managing taxes .........................................................................................................................57

4.15 Managing tracking codes ...........................................................................................................57

4.16 Setting up languages .................................................................................................................58

5 Adaptability, extensibility and connectivity ................................................................................59

5.1 Webshop ....................................................................................................................................59

5.1.1 Design ................................................................................................................................59

5.1.2 Composition of components ..............................................................................................59

5.1.3 Adaptability of processes and wizards ...............................................................................60

5.1.3.1 Contract completion wizard ................................................................................................60

5.1.3.2 Order completion wizard ....................................................................................................64

5.1.4 Restrictions and business rules .........................................................................................65

5.2 Management Console (MC) ......................................................................................................66

5.2.1 Localization and configuration ...........................................................................................66

5.2.2 Specialized user roles ........................................................................................................66

5.3 System interfaces ......................................................................................................................68

5.3.1 Custom interfaces to external web service ........................................................................68

5.3.2 Interface to payment system ..............................................................................................68

6 Technology .....................................................................................................................................69

6.1 System Configuration ................................................................................................................69

6.1.1 Topology ............................................................................................................................69

6.1.2 Network Connection ...........................................................................................................69

6.1.3 3rd Party Software .............................................................................................................69

6.2 Management Console ................................................................................................................70

6.3 Front end ...................................................................................................................................70


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1 Summary

Brightpoint Direct White Label is a highly adaptable webshop solution for Brightpoint’s business part-

ners wanting to sell mobile phones, other wireless devices and related products online to consumers.

• Brightpoint Direct White Label features a leading-edge webshop front end is designed to op-

timize online sales of mobile phones and related hardware, postpaid and prepaid contracts. It

is particularly suited to selling combined offers of hardware and subscription plans, or con-

tracts.

• Brightpoint Direct White Label includes a web-based Management Console for maintaining

products and managing offers with complex price rules, sales promotions and marketing cam-

paigns.

• Brightpoint Direct White Label is fully integrated with the Brightpoint e-business infrastructure

and benefits from a centralized product database managed by Brightpoint, coupled with flexi-

ble integration to Brightpoint’s fulfillment processes and its warehouses.

• Brightpoint Direct White Label front ends can be customized and configured to meet their

business partners design requirements with their own branded ‘look and feel’.

• Due to their open architecture, Brightpoint Direct White Label’s feature-rich functionality can

be extended even further by business partner’s specific components. These components can

either be additions to the front end or as interfaces with the business partner’s web services.

1.1 The system components

The Brightpoint webshop system consists of the following components:


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• The data model which models all business objects, functions and processes.

• A web-based front end which consists of a single webshop for each Brightpoint partner, pro-

viding typical e-commerce functionality to B2C customers.

• A web-based Management Console (MC) within which Brightpoint support staff and

Brightpoint partners can manage all relevant data (product data, orders, customers, users as

well as shop parameters and processes).

• Internal and external system interfaces (payment system, credit check systems etc.)

1.2 The system users

The Brightpoint webshop system functionality addresses the following users:

• Employees of Brightpoint,

• Employees of the partners of Brightpoint and

• The customers of the partners.

Brightpoint support staff and Brightpoint partner’s administrators are provided with the Management

Console (MC) to easily maintain all data, parameters, processes etc. The customers of Brightpoint

partners browse products and order from a leading-edge webshop that presents products in a visually

appealing and informative way. After browsing the products or simply choosing from the offers availa-

ble, customers are helpfully guided through the straightforward checkout process.


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2 Brightpoint Direct White Label: leading-edge webshop front end

By offering Brightpoint Direct White Label as an online selling platform second to none, we believe we

have found the solution for customers wanting a transaction-centered web presence without stretching

your internal resources. The Brightpoint webshop system provides your webshop customers with an

easy to use front end with the optimal usability with the highest possible flexibility.

Categorization A familiar drill-down, menu-driven navigation system using

definable product categories, provides customers with an intuitive way to

browse and select products. You can sort and arrange the categories accord-

ing to your marketing strategies. Categorize products by, for example, manu-

facturers, features, functionality etc.

Variant Selection Many products such as handsets come in many

variations, e.g. different colors, software, language. Having selected

a product, customers can easily choose the variant they want. For

instance, between a black model and a Luscious Red.

Mobil Phone Finder As an alternative to the

navigation menus selection (see above); cus-

tomers can search on a variety of features

using the Mobil Phone Finder. For example, a

customer can search for all mobile phones that

provide WLAN, Bluetooth and an FM radio.

Product features are constantly updated by

Brightpoint centralized product Catalog admin-

istrators.

Availability Indicator Customers can find out easily if the

product they want is available now by using the Availability

Indicator. Customers can then decide either to wait until the

product is in stock or buy another similar product that is

available now.


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Feature List Decide yourself which mobile phone features you

find most important to display within the webshop. Customers

see only the product features you want to show in the webshop.

This is useful for differentiation yourself from your competitors

by focusing upon a specific set of features. Brightpoint provides

a complete set of all available features on the master product

catalog for you to choose.

Advertising Spaces Manager Arrange you products and ser-

vices as you like for the greatest visual effect on your webshop

pages. Add eye-catching Flash presentations, JPEG and GIF

images or text blocks, to tempt browsing visitors to your site.

Customer Service Center Agent White Label Webshop allows you to provide instant help to your

customer while they are online in the webshop. The customer calls you and tells you his unique ses-

sion code. With this code you can join his online session and see

exactly what the customer can see in his browser. You can either

simply give assistance or act yourself.

Vouchers Integrate voucher-based sales campaigns into your

marketing strategies. Following voucher distribution, customers

enter a voucher code to benefit from special rates and dis-

counts.

Tell A Friend If one of your customers likes a specific product

within your webshop, he can fill in a form and send information

about the product within an e-mail to an arbitrary e-mail ad-

dress.

2.1 Product navigation

Visitors to a webshop want to find products and product information quickly and conveniently which is

why White Label Webshop has a product navigation strictly created for the mobile phone market. Visi-

tors to your site can search intuitively for mobile phones, accessories, subscription plans or additional

services.


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The features of all products and the relationship between subscription plans, accessories and mobile

phones are managed and kept up to date in the Management Console. The data maintenance exper-

tise of Brightpoint ensures your webshop offers visitors with complete and up-to-date product informa-

tion.

Customers navigate within the front end in a number of ways: by using the category structure to navi-

gate to a specific subset of products, then the customer selects a specific product and navigates to all

variants of this product, its accessories and related products.

2.1.1 Categorization

Individualize your webshop by adjusting the product categorization and category structure to fit your

marketing strategy! Customers will see a category system with all your products listed systematically.

And this hierarchy can be designed freely, be it according to fixed parameters such as manufacturer,

design, features or simply to fit your personal flavor.

The main menu of the front end provides a list of categories that contains a number of products and

may also contain a number of sub categories. If the customer chooses a category (or sub category)

the products contained in the category are displayed in the main window.

Figure 1 - The main menu of the webshop contains categories and their subcategories.


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The search results summary line displays the number of products belonging to the selected category.

Customer can move forward and backwards within the results pages of the product list. The customer

can also choose,

• the criteria used to sort the product list, e.g. name, price, brand

• how many products should be displayed per page, e.g. 10, 20, 50

Each product will be displayed with:

• product name

• A thumbnail picture. For a larger picture (and more details) the customer clicks on the thumb-

nail picture.

• The sales price, for mobile phones this is typically a “from …” price, since the phone’s price

depends on whether it is sold alone or with a subscription plan.

• A short description. For a more detailed description of the product the customer can navigate

to the product detail page by either clicking on the thumbnail picture or the Read more button.

• A link to the product detail page (Details).

• From the detail page a link to a list of accessories that are associated with the phone (Acces-

sories).

• A button to add the product to the shopping cart (Buy).

• From the detail page a tell-a-friend link, where an automatic e-mail with product information

can be sent to the e-mail address provided by the customer (Tell a friend) – see section 2.12

for more details.

• From the detail page a button to add the product to a comparison list (Compare) – see section

2.2.3 for details of the product comparison functionality.

2.1.2 Variants

Of course you can, additionally always substitute images and information according to your wishes

and imagination. Or you simply create

your own, individual variants, like for

example with a special airbrushed case

or special software features.

Products often come in different va-

riants, the most common being color

variants. Search results return details of

variants for a particular product, as well

as the standard product information. On the product detail page a list of all variants of the same prod-

uct is displayed in a list. If the variants differ by more than one characteristic, they will still be displayed

together in the same list. This means the customer cannot choose a product variant that does not

exist.


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2.1.3 Grouped accessories

From any mobile phone product in a product list (category), search result list or on the product detail

page, the customer can navigate to a list of accessories that are compatible with their chosen product.

Figure 2 - List of accessories for a mobile phone.

Within the list, accessories are grouped by accessory groups, e.g. charger, head phones, car kits etc.,

where the grouping is defined in the Management Console (MC).

2.1.4 Related products

If your customer purchases a high-end mobile phone, they may want an attractive case to go with it.

But how can he easily find out which case, which memory card, which accessory fits their newly ac-

quired phone? Easily enough, as your webshop is configured all components that match the device.

This product knowledge is already part of your Brightpoint webshop product Catalog and always kept

up to date by Brightpoint.

The system can also provide related products which are products that are very similar to the selected

product. For example, if the customer chooses an ‘out-of-stock’ product they can select an ‘in-stock’

related product instead. This functionality is optional, as you may decide only to show products on the

webshop that that has stock availability, for instance.


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2.2 Product search and comparison

Typically there are two kinds of customers whose needs must be met by a successful webshop: i) the

customer who knows exactly what product he wants and ii) the customer who wants information be-

fore deciding to buy. Both types of customers are catered for in White Label Webshop. Whether a

visitor of your webshop searches for features, subscription plans or specific mobile phones, the White

Label Webshop navigation tools make the task easy.

As well as product navigation, customers can also search for specific products directly. A comparison

of mobile phone features, e.g. the size, the connectivity functions (UMTS, Bluetooth etc.) is provided.

2.2.1 Simple searches

Every webshop page provides a search window where users can search for a specific product. By

default, customers can search based on product names and short descriptions, but in fact, any prod-

uct attribute can be configured as search criteria in the Manage-

ment Console.

Figure 3 - A Search button is displayed on each page of the webshop.

If the customer

clicks on the

“Search” button, the

search result will be

displayed in the

main window.

Figure 4 - Search result list.

2.2.2 Searching by product features

Mobile phones today are increasingly packed with a vast array of features, e.g. display size, camera

resolution, data capability, connectivity etc. The customer can take advantage of these by a ‘target-

oriented search’, using the phone finder. The phone finder is accessed from the main menu (Phone

Finder). The features are grouped within categories, like e.g. Network Connectivity and Camera, and

the customer can make selections within each of the groups. The search result list will return a list of

phones that match the selected criteria.


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Figure 5 - Product finder.

2.2.3 Comparison by product features

The webshop offers the customer the ability to compare mobile phones based on product features.

• Mobile phone products can

easily be added to (or re-

moved from) the compari-

son list. Phones can either

be added directly on the

phone comparison page, or

by the customer clicking

the Compare button at any

time while browsing the

webshop.

• The features are arranged

together in groups, which

are defined in the Man-

agement Console (MC).

Each group’s display can

be expanded or folded by

the customer.

• If the customer chooses a

phone, he can directly add it to the shopping cart.

Figure 6 - Product comparison.

2.3 Product presentation

The accurate presentation of all your products within the webshop is highly important; here you can

give proof of your competence within the mobile phone business. Brightpoint provides you with a mas-

ter product Catalog, containing images, short and long descriptions, marketing texts and product fea-

tures. You are free to individualize your top sellers with specific images or descriptions of your own.


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The Brightpoint webshop offers an out-of-the-box solution without restricting your ability to customize

your product presentation.

Products are presented in the webshop in different ways: a customer can directly choose a product

and add it to the cart, or “ask” for more product information, e.g. a range of product pictures, extensive

product descriptions and marketing texts. Product features are grouped and sorted for easier viewing

together with additional presentation media and an indication of product availability.

Detailed product information is displayed to the customer on the product detail page, whose format

differs according to product type, i.e. mobile phones, non phone products (e.g. accessories, fixed net-

work phones, navigation systems) and subscription plans.

Figure 7 - Product detail page for a mobile phone product.

On the product detail page for mobile phones, the product will be described with:

• product name

• price, and

• Short description.

Additionally the customer can use the tabs to display:

• Description, where a long description of the product is required,

• Features, where the detailed features, e.g. the size of the phone and its technologies (Blu-

etooth, UMTS etc.), are shown,


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• Accessories, where a list of accessories that are compatible with the product is displayed and

the accessories are grouped for easier viewing.

Product Detail page buttons are:

• Buy, to add the product to the shopping cart,

• Compare (for mobile phone products only), to add the product to the phone comparison list

(for details see section 2.2.3), and

• Tell a friend, to inform a friend about the offered product (for details see section 2.12).

The product detail pages for non-phone products do not have Accessories and Features tabs. The

product detail page for accessories provides a Phones tab instead, where all phones that can use this

accessory are listed. The product detail page for subscription plans will contain information about all

the subscription plan fees. Subscription plan fees are defined in the Management Console, where

the following details are configured:

• what the fee is called for the specific subscription plan (name),

• whether the fee is a ‘one-off’ fee (e.g. set up fee) or a monthly fee (e.g. basic monthly fee),

• Whether the fee affects the price calculation of the minimum fee for the subscription plan for

the duration of a contract for this subscription plan (e.g. the basic monthly fee) or not (e.g. the

price per SMS).

2.3.1 Product pictures at different levels of detail

For each product a thumbnail, a small, a medium and a large picture can be added and used in the

front end as required. For example, for product lists and the phone comparison, a thumbnail picture is

used. On the product detail page the large picture will be displayed, as standard.

2.3.2 Individual product descriptions and sales headlines

Products are described with a set of marketing texts, a short description and a long description. As a

standard marketing text is displayed in product lists as a bulleted list; the short description is shown on

the product detail page and the long description displays on the product detail page, in the descrip-

tions tab.

2.3.3 Rich set of product features

In White Label Webshop new product features can be created

on the fly. You can define for each product type (e.g. mobile

phones) which product feature should be used to describe

products of this type. For each product this list of features is

automatically displayed in the product editor (in the Manage-

ment Console) where values of the features are maintained.


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The features are used to describe the products in as much detail as needed for the customer to find

products with specific features. Furthermore the features allow the customer to compare products in a

high level of detail. To allow product comparison by feature, the ‘quality’ of feature values can also be

defined, e.g. that less weight is better and more stand-by time is better etc.

2.3.4 Client-friendly grouping and sorting of product features and feature values

Product features can be grouped by product feature groups, e.g. camera resolution and whether the

camera has an auto-focus are grouped in a feature category called Camera. The grouping is used in

the ‘mobile phone finder’ and in the ‘mobile phone comparison’ to show to the customer only those

features that are particularly of interest.

Furthermore, to enable target oriented searches for specific products, a relation between the feature

values is maintained as well, such that the customer can search, for example, for a mobile phone with

a camera with at least 5 mega pixels.

2.3.5 Integration of additional presentation media

Additional presentation media, e.g. PDF files with detailed product descriptions or user instruction

videos can be assigned to a product. These additional media can be displayed in the webshop on the

product detail page (or indeed, any other place in the webshop).

2.3.6 Indication of product availability

The customer can see immediately availability information for the product. The availability can either

be displayed:

• as a simple stock amount

• as a phrase, e.g. in stock, low stock and not in stock

• graphically, as a set of indicator ‘lights’, where green stands for in stock, yellow for low stock

and red for not in stock

• as a set of availability classes :

o available (in stock) – no date associated,

o not in stock, but has an expected delivery date (delivery committed) – expected deli-

very date associated,

o not in stock and delivery date defined, but not fixed (delivery expected) – expected de-

livery date associated,

o Not in stock and no delivery expected (undetermined) – no date associated.

2.4 Guided purchase of combined products (e.g. phones + plans)

Customers expect enticing product combinations and with White Label Webshop you can decide

which combinations to offer to your customers according to your overall business strategy. For in-

stance, do you want to offer mobile phones together with post paid subscription plans only or with


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prepaid cards as well? Can customers purchase accessories without purchasing a mobile phone?

Potentially, you might want to offer various combinations at the same time or price some combinations

particularly appealing for marketing reasons.

These various combinations require different customer interactions in the front end during the selec-

tion process. The White Label provides our partners with a maximum of flexibility, so no development

effort is needed to set up or change the product combinations. Additionally, the front end is automati-

cally updated using ‘purchase templates’ which guide the customer through the purchase process.

The webshop system allows Partners to choose which purchases the customer is allowed to make,

e.g. if mobile phones can be sold without subscription plans, if accessories can be sold alone or with a

mobile phone only etc.

For each combination of product and plan you require, a purchase template can be defined that speci-

fies the specific order of the products within the combined purchase. According to the template and

the order, the customer is guided through the purchase process, e.g. when customers have chosen a

mobile phone, they are then guided through choosing a subscription plan as well.

Figure 8 - Purchase template for a mobile phone and subscription.

A purchase template contains a price table which has columns for the products (e.g. one for the mo-

bile phone and one for the subscription plan) and columns for the prices (e.g. the price of the phone, if

bought with this subscription plan, the price for the setup fee, the price for the basic monthly fee, the

price per SMS etc.).


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Figure 9 - Example list of purchase templates within a webshop. For each purchase template

an associated price table defines the prices for the combined purchase. The columns with the

products are mandatory, i.e. in each row all of these columns must have a value.

If the price table contains a price for a specific product combination, e.g. a specific mobile phone and a

specific contract, then this mobile phone can be sold together with the subscription plans according to

price table prices and restrictions found in the purchase template. Note that placing a product in a

webshop Catalog does not automatically make it show up in the webshop front end.

2.5 Complex pricing

Brightpoint has developed a sophisticated system of price tables to enable our Partners to set prices

for their products flexibly and conveniently.


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Prices are maintained in price tables. Within these price tables, prices can be defined for any product,

i.e. mobile phones, accessories, non phone products and subscription plans as well as for any combi-

nation of these (i.e. ‘combined purchases’).

As well as product prices, the price table also contains prices for subscription plan fees, e.g. setup fee,

price per SMS, price per MMS etc. More than one price row can exist for the same subscription plan.

Each of these additional price rows combines the subscription plan with another product (normally a

mobile phone). For each combination therefore, the prices for the subscription plan fees can differ. In

this way you can, for example, reduce the price per SMS and MMS if the subscription plan is sold with

an expensive handset.

Figure 10 - Price table for a purchase of a mobile phone together with a subscription plan with-

in the Management Console. Prices for a specific mobile phone and subscription plan can be

defined as well as prices for the subscription plan fees.

All prices can have a start date and end date assigned to them. Outdated prices cannot be deleted, so

the webshop system retains a full price history.

2.5.1 Display options for prices

In the Management Console you can define how prices are displayed in the webshop. The price dis-

play options are as follows:

• net or gross price, or both


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• tax amounts included in the price

• Decimal places.

2.5.2 Prices for combined purchases (“from… prices”)

A product may have many selling prices associated with it depending on the combination of products it

is sold with. In these cases the front end displays “from… prices”, where the price table is looked up

for all price rows that match the product and from the set of matching rows the minimum price is cho-

sen and displayed in the front end. The customer is therefore shown with the cheapest price he can

buy this product for. These prices are always shown as “from…” to make it clear to the customer that

this is the cheapest available price for the product.

2.5.3 Minimum price computation including subscription plan fees

Subscription plans can have many options which describe all relevant fees, either:

• A ‘one-off’ purchase price, when the

customer initially places a contract for

this subscription plan (e.g. the set up

fee), or

• A monthly contract fee (e.g. basic

monthly fee, price per SMS, price per

MMS).

The fee options and their values for each of the subscription plans are maintained in the Management

Console (MC). For each option it is defined if it is a ‘one-off’ or a monthly fee and whether it should be

displayed in the front end. Additionally the display order can be defined in which the options will be

displayed in the front end. A list of all fee options and their prices are displayed on the subscription

plan detail page.

Example:

In some countries (e.g. in Denmark), it is a legal requirement that the customer is provided with mini-

mum total cost throughout the duration of the contract period (e.g. 6 months in Denmark). This calcu-

lation is done automatically within White Label Webshop and includes all mandatory and optional sub-

scription plan fees. Within the front end the customer is provided with a list of all options that influence

the price for 6 months with their prices and the computed minimum price for 6 months.


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2.6 Guided completion of subscription plan purchases or prolongations

Buying a mobile phone contract involves complex interactions between the customer and the network

operator. To set up a contract for a subscription plan, several options have to be considered, e.g.

number porting and prolongation, where each of the selected options might trigger new decisions.

Setting up subscription plans require out-

standing flexibility to cater for diverse work

flows. Prepaid SIM cards require very different

processes compared to subscription plans or

a simple hardware purchase. Brightpoint Di-

rect White Label offers a truly unique solution

for all types of purchase.

If the customer wants a subscription plan or a

combination of a mobile phone and a subscription plan, he is guided by the webshop through the con-

tract completion process. The contract completion process is defined in the Management Console

(MC), where a part list defines the steps and decision pints that the customer needs to make as well

as the layout of these steps in the front end. Initially a customer who wants a subscription plan choos-

es at least one of the three following options:

• purchasing a new GSM number with the contract, i.e. if the customer does not currently have

a contract,

• extending an existing contract (also

called prolongation), so the customer

continues to use his GSM number, and

• Porting (also called migration) an exist-

ing GSM number that the customer

holds with another network operator.

New Number

In this case the customer is provided with a list of GSM numbers to select a number. White Label

Webshop provides for different types of phone

number (e.g. Gold numbers). The customer can

choose options for these types as well. The

GSM numbers are maintained in the webshop

system and the system ensures that each num-

ber is only assigned once. Optionally the GSM

numbers can be provided by the partners’ web

service and the web service will ensure that

each number is only assigned once.


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Prolongation

If the customer chooses to prolong an existing

contract, he has to provide the SIM card and the

GSM number for the current contract. If a web

service is provided by the partner, the webshop

system can confirm with the web service that the

customer is entitled to prolong the current con-

tract.

Porting

If the customer chooses the porting option, he has

to provide the SIM card number and the GSM

number of the current contract and to select the

provider of the contract.

Contract completion

In all cases the customer has to provide his personal details, e.g. name, address, e-mail address,

phone number etc. If any add on services, e.g. ‘hide number’ in phone book, are provided by the

partner, these will be offered to the customer as well. Once all information needed to complete a con-

tract has been selected and confirmed, the subscription plan and phone hardware is shown in the cart.

Depending on the cart restrictions (for example, that the cart can contain one product only), the cus-

tomer can either continue shopping or checkout.

2.7 Complex checkout process including selection of payment and delivery

Once all products are in the cart and all contract options have been selected, the customer finalizes

the contract. The customer data needed for the order, such as name, delivery address, payment and

delivery conditions, are collected during the checkout process. The whole process can be defined,

configured easily changed by you in the Management Console.

The customer can add a number of products and combined purchases to the cart. Cart restrictions can

be defined by the Partner, e.g. that only one product is allowed per purchase or a maximum number of

products are allowed per cart. On every page a small cart symbol is displayed. It links to the cart page

where the customer can view the cart’s content once the customer decides to purchase the products

in the cart, he triggers the checkout process from the cart page.


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Figure 11 - Cart page with one entry in the

cart.

The checkout process is designed in the Man-

agement Console (MC) where processes are

defined, for example, what input the customer

needs to provide and the design and layout of

the pages. Within the checkout process the

customer chooses a payment and delivery method. Payment and delivery methods are created in the

Management Console. They can be assigned fees as well as names which are used in the front end.

Payment and delivery fees, if applicable, are clearly shown separately and displayed in the cart.

2.8 Customer registration and self service area

The partner might want the customer to register before being allowed to place orders within the web-

shop. After registration the customer’s personal details, e.g. his payment and delivery addresses,

payment and delivery methods and language, are retained on the system.

This information can be used when the customer returns to the webshop. Automatically the ‘last used’

language is used by the system; during the order process the payment and delivery addresses and

methods will be preselected accordingly. A customer self service area is provided (“My Account” sec-

tion), where the customer can access his personal details and change them and view the orders that

he has recently placed.

2.9 Customer service centre agent

The webshop is equipped with a special link for customers to contact a Brightpoint, or Partner cus-

tomer, service centre agent. If the customer clicks the link, a special ID is displayed which can be used

by the service centre agent to join the customer’s session. The agent can then view the customer’s

screen and act as if he was the customer. This enables him to show the customer how to interact with

the webshop.

2.10 Vouchers

The Brightpoint webshop system offers a professional voucher extension, making your advertising

material valuable for your customers with a few clicks.

The webshop system allows the creation of unique and secure voucher codes, which can be given to

potential customers. Random numbered voucher codes can be generated securely within the Man-

agement Console (MC) and exported to .csv files. The system offers ‘serial’ as well as ‘promotional’

vouchers. Serial voucher production involves a large number of voucher codes being generated and

each code can only be used once. Promotional vouchers all have the same code and that can be used

as often as you define. These codes are used by customers to reduce the price of a specific product

or the whole order. Vouchers can also be restricted to a certain time frame. As a default only one


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voucher can be applied per purchase. The vouchers can be defined to either provide a fixed amount

or a percentage discount.

Customers can redeem vouchers in the shopping cart, at any time during the shopping process. So

customers will always see the reduced amount that he will have to pay and be more tempted to actual-

ly place the order. If the voucher cannot be used (e.g. because the voucher is out of date), the cus-

tomer will be informed. If the voucher amount exceeds the order amount, the unused voucher amount

will be waived. The success of a voucher cam-

paign can be viewed within the Management

Console, as all orders that have used on a

certain voucher campaign are listed.

2.11 E-mail campaigns

Customers expect to be contacted about new products and services on offer by email but without be-

ing over-run by unwanted spam. The Brightpoint webshop system allows you to send e-mails only to

those customers who have explicitly chosen this service.

The webshop system allows the creation and configuration of e-mail campaigns for product or the

webshop promotion. An e-mail campaign can be directed to a specific target group that you can define

in the Management Console. The target group can either be created as a static list of customers or

filtered, for example, all customers who have ordered product X within the last 6 months. The system

can automatically include the value of variables, such as customer name or order information, on the

emails. See section 3.17 for details.

2.12 Tell a friend

If a customer likes a specific product within your webshop, he can fill in a form and email information

about it to a chosen email address.

The customer only needs to provide the friend’s e-mail address and, optionally the friend’s name and

a message. The content of the e-mail is maintained within the Management Console (MC).

2.13 Multiple languages

The Brightpoint webshop system allows the easy addition of new languages. All front end text and

product information can be maintained in all

Within the webshop the customer can select a language for his session form a dropdown menu of all

active languages. All text that is displayed within the front end can be changed in the Management

Console (MC) in all languages that are active. This means that any text can be maintained in all active

languages.

active languages.


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Figure 12 - Localized attributes, i.e. attributes

that can be maintained in more than one

guage are marked within the Management Con-

sole accordingly.

Figure 13 - If the user clicks on the triangle

symbol in front of the attribute, the attribute values in all the active languages will be dis-

played.

New languages can be created and activated from within the Management Console as well. If a web-

shop offers more than one language, the language a customer chooses will be remembered on the

system as their ‘preferred language’ and is used to address the customer in future when he enters the

webshop and will also be the language for e-mails sent to that customer.


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3 Standard Brightpoint Direct White Label: Efficient Management Console (MC) for business partners

The layout and the product presentation in the webshop can be flexibly configured. Brightpoint part-

ners can use the Management Console (MC), to adapt the webshop and its content to your specific

requirements. The Management Console is a highly generic and intuitive user interface for managing

data. Via the MC your employees can easily access all relevant information and processes online in

browser-based administration screens.

Use the flexibility contained within the MC to customize the user interface to your business require-

ments. To help you manage your information efficiently there are user-friendly wizards, context me-

nus, intelligent search tools, Excel integration, mass data exchange etc. Employees from your various

departments can access information stored centrally via the MC. Role-based access security ensures

that users can only view or edit content, that is relevant to them. These rights can be defined at

attribute level for product classes and restrictions can be defined for accessing the different Catalogs.

All data in the Brightpoint webshop system is modeled within data types. Data types include, for ex-

ample, mobile phones, subscription plans, users, orders etc. The data type defines which features

(attributes) are used, to describe data objects (also called instances) of this type. For each attribute

a format is defined, e.g. text, integer, Boolean or string. Data objects are created and managed within

the Management Console (as well as created within the shop, like for instance a new customer or an

order etc.).


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The Management Console contains three areas:

• Task bar: Within the task bar the user chooses the language they want, switch to a specific

Catalog, search for any data, create new data objects, refresh the display or log out of the

system.

• Main explorer: Within the main explorer the data types are displayed in a hierarchical, or

‘tree-like’, structure. All content for the selected data type is displayed on the right hand side in

the relevant type manager.

• type manager: The type manager typically consists of three sections i) the search, ii) the

search result list and iii) an editor. Each section can be opened and closed.

3.1 Search

The Management Console provides an extensive search that is generic for every data type. If a data

type is chosen in the main explorer, the type manager is opened automatically and the search sec-

tion is extended. In the pull down menu all attributes of the chosen data type are listed and can be

added to the search criteria, or ‘condition’. For each attribute type the relevant comparison operator

(‘comparator’) are dis-

played and values are

chosen from the pull

down menu. Examples of

comparator values are:

“starts with”, “contains”,

“equals”, “is empty” and

“is not empty”.

Figure 14 - Search Attributes in the type manager.

3.2 Search Result List

Once a search has been made, the search result list section is extended and displays the results.

The search result list can be configured to display only the attributes you want to show for each data

type. The user can choose how many results should be displayed on one page (20, 50, 100, 1000,

etc.). From the search results ‘list view’ the user can switch into the ‘edit view’. Within the edit view

large data amounts can be edited at once. There is also mass data functionality, which is used to:

• search and replace all values within one of the columns,

• fill all values within one of the columns with a specific,

• Number all values within one of the columns.


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Figure 15 - Search result list within the type manager.

When an item in the search result list is clicked, the editor for that item is opened, and the search and

search result section is closed.

3.3 Editor

The editor consists of a number of

tabs. In each tab the attribute head-

ings are listed in sections. The tabs,

sections and which attributes be-

longing in each section can be con-

figured for each data type. Depend-

ing on the type of attribute (text,

date, price etc.) the appropriate

attribute editor is automatically cho-

sen. These editors support the user

when entering attribute values and

prevent mistakes.

Figure 16 - Editor within the type manager.


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3.4 Managing static content (“Live edit”)

The ‘Live edit’ function enables Brightpoint and partner employees to easily edit all content of the web

site on the fly.

When the webshop is opened in the live edit mode, content is highlighted and marked, as the mouse

moves over the content. The marked content can then be directly edited. Right-clicking a marked area

opens a MC window where the marked content can be viewed and edited. Changes are typically

done using WYSIWYG editors, so no HTML knowledge is needed to edit the web site content and

appearance. After the changes have been saved, they immediately become visible on the web site.

Figure 17 - Category page in live edit mode. The red frame indicates the chosen content to be edited.

Figure 18 - Right-clicking content opens a context

window to edit the content.


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Figure 19 - An MC window opens, where the selected content (above, it is the name of the

menu entry) can be viewed and edited.

3.5 Determining product portfolio

Your product portfolio sets your webshop apart from your competitors. However maintaining an exten-

sive product offering is time consuming and costly. The Brightpoint webshop system solves this di-

lemma.

Each Partner has their own product Catalog which defines the product range that the partner wants to

offer to their customers. This partner Catalog consists is a subset of products from the comprehensive

Brightpoint master Catalog. The partner can choose which products, product groups or services to

provide to its customers. The partner can manually select products from the dedicated Brightpoint

product range or use automatic selection filters.

Automatic product selection is achieved using a set of filters that can be defined to select certain

product groups, manufacturers, features etc. The product range of a webshop can be defined to con-


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sist, for example, of Nokia phones only. In this case every new Nokia phone that is added to the

Brightpoint product range would automatically be added to the partner Catalog – including all its de-

scriptions and pictures. Other new products in the Brightpoint product range would not be inherited,

i.e. not be added to the shop specific Catalog. Additionally, products from the Catalog can be made

visible or invisible in the webshop via an activation flag at the product level.

BrightPoint MasterCatalogue

Country Catalogue Country Catalogue Country Catalogue

Customer Catalogue

Customer Catalogue

Web Shop Catalogue

Web Shop Catalogue

Web Shop Catalogue

Etc ...

Etc ...

Etc ...

Customer Catalogue

Customer Catalogue

Web Shop Catalogue

Web Shop Catalogue

Web Shop Catalogue

Etc ...

Etc ...

Etc ...

Customer Catalogue

Customer Catalogue

Web Shop Catalogue

Web Shop Catalogue

Web Shop Catalogue

Etc ...

Etc ...

Etc ...

3.6 Managing category structure and category content

A crucial factor for the success of a webshop is the usability of its product search. An intelligent and

flexible product display structure based on sophisticated categorization can provide a decisive advan-

tage in the online marketplace.

3.6.1 Static and dynamic categories

Within the Brightpoint webshop system, products can be grouped in categories. These can either be

static or dynamic. In static categories, products are manually assigned. Dynamic categories auto-

matically assign products based on product type definitions filtered by restrictions. The category then

automatically contains all products that satisfy the defined restrictions (e.g. product type “mobile phone

product” and a restriction “UMTS needs to be enabled”).


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Figure 20 - List of categories that are defined in the Management Console for the demo web-

shop.

Defined categories can then be displayed within the front end; dynamic categories will automatically

display according to their associated definition. In this way, a top seller category can be defined, listing

the mobile phones with the highest top seller value. While the top seller value is automatically gener-

ated by the Brightpoint webshop system via the number of sales, it can also be set manually (for de-

tails see section 3.7).

3.7 Overwriting list of top sellers

The White Label Webshop automatically recognizes your top sellers and can display them, e.g. in a

specific category. Although the top seller feature benefits from being automated, manual intervention is

always possible to fine-tune the categorization.

The weekly sales of each product are saved as a variable which is then used to automatically compile

top seller lists. Another variable can be set manually with a selling number which can be set to over-

ride the automated value that has been computed automatically.

3.8 Overwriting product descriptions

It is essential that product descriptions and other informative text are accurate and up-to-date. How-

ever, functions and descriptions of the latest hardware are often extensive and not easy to manage.


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White Label Webshop offers properly-sized product images, multiple product descriptions, marketing

feature lists, and others. Of course, you are also able to adapt all this data to your needs.

Brightpoint has a huge investment in the optimal presentation of products. Descriptions, images, mar-

keting texts and feature lists (e.g. weight, color, camera resolution) are maintained in the Brightpoint

master Catalog in several languages. The products within the partner Catalogs automatically inherit all

the product descriptions from the Brightpoint master Catalog. Should a partner need specific product

descriptions, images etc. for one or more products, the data provided by Brightpoint can easily be

overwritten. This provides a distinct, customizable webshop-specific appearance of every product.

Figure 21 - Product Descrip-

tion.

3.9 Adding and editing subscription plans

Mobile phones are usually combined with a subscription plan. The different options found in a sub-

scription plan influence not only the final price of the order, but the checkout process as well, for ex-

ample, the difference between a prepaid subscription plan and a 2 years contract. Based on long-

standing experience in the mobile phone market, Brightpoint has a solution that balances standardiza-

tion and customization to solve these problems.

Within White Label Webshop, subscription plans can be defined at the webshop level, including their

subscription plan fees, add on services and pricing. A list of subscription plan fees, like e.g. set up fee,

basic monthly fee or price per minute, is provided; but other fees that are specific to a subscription

plan can easily be added. Add on services can be added and edited as part of the part list (see section

2.6 for details). The prices for the subscription plan fees are maintained within price tables for each

subscription plan (see section 2.5 for details).


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3.10 Adding purchase templates for combined offers

Each webshop enables different combinations of products to be purchased by the customer. Custom-

ers might e.g. not be allowed to purchase a mobile phone without a subscription plan or the partner

wants to restrict the sale of accessories to orders containing at least one mobile phone. Within the

Management Console, the White Label Webshop lets you define which combinations should be of-

fered to customers. New ‘purchase templates’ can be created ‘on the fly’, which define the webshop’s

behavior and associated price lists for each template. The webshop adapts to your business and not

the other way round!

Purchase templates are defined in the Management Console. For each new purchase template an

associated price table is automatically created and can be accessed from the Management Console

as well. For details see section 2.4.

3.11 Editing prices and price rules for combined offers

It can be a challenge to manage the myriad parameters that influence the price of a mobile phone; the

price of subscription plans (set-up fees etc) and call charge tariffs (e.g. basic monthly fee, price per


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SMS, and price per MMS). White Label Webshop easily copes with the complexity of calculating the

final price of a mobile and subscription plan combination.

Each purchase template has an associated price table to facilitate price management. Prices for single

products, where there is only a column for each the product and its price, can be directly set within the

price row of the product. For purchases, where the purchase template contains more than one prod-

uct, at least one of the item columns needs to be filled with a value and a price can then be assigned

to this product (see section for 2.5 details).

If the item columns contain subscription plans, the price table will contain price columns for all sub-

scription plan fees as well as the price row for the price of the order. The prices for the subscription

plan fees might not influence the price of the order, but the monthly price that results from the contract

based on the subscription plan. Existing price rows can be changed easily, as every cell of the price

row can be edited with a click and filters can be used to access specific price rows.

Figure 22 - Price table within the Management Console. The price table contains the item col-

umns for a mobile phone and a subscription plan and the price columns for the mobile phone if sold with the subscription plan and the prices for the subscription plan fees.

3.12 Introducing product bundles

Make your customers an irresistible deal using bundled offers. Bundles give you the capability to com-

bine different products into one. For example you could combine a Nokia N90 with a t-shirt, or a lotto

ticket.

Product bundles can either be:


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• physical or ERP bundles, where one or more products are combined within a package at the

warehouse, or

• Logical or shop bundles, where the webshop decides that certain combinations of products

will be priced differently to the sum of their single prices, although these products are still sep-

arate products in the warehouse.

Bundles are handled as products, which can have their own descriptions and images and can contain

an unlimited number of products.

3.13 Managing GSM number allocation

GSM numbers can either be imported directly into the White Label Webshop, e.g. via Excel spread-

sheets or provided on request from the webshop from the partners web service. If the numbers are

uploaded to the webshop system, the number that a customer chooses during the check out process

is automatically verified for validity and availability. The partner is provided with a list of the numbers

that have been used. He can also automatically be informed, if the number of available GSM numbers

goes under a pre-determined limit.

Figure 23 - List of GSM numbers that have been uploaded to the webshop system. Within the Management Console the numbers are listed and marked accordingly.


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3.14 Setting up cart constraints

Easily configure rules governing customer purchases, e.g. how many products of which type a cus-

tomer can add to the cart, or minimum/maximum volume needed to create an order. White Label

Webshop offers maximum flexibility without involving development effort.

Cart constraints can be defined per webshop based on ‘purchase templates’. The number of products

in the cart, which refer to the same purchase template, can be restricted. Minimum as well as maxi-

mum limits for the cart amount can be defined.

3.15 Tracking e-mails, managing e-mail templates

Every customer wants to be well informed – be it via a confirmation of his order, shipment confirmation

or even information about the latest offers in your webshop.

White Label Webshop provides three different options of sending e-mails:

• manual sending of e-mails (using the send button)

• automatic sending of e-mails triggered by a specific event (e.g. order has been placed, order

has been picked, new password requested by customer, e-mail to a friend)

• Automatic sending of e-mails triggered by time constraints (e.g. once a day, every two hours

etc.)

Marketing e-mails (e.g. newsletters) are usually triggered by time constraints.

3.15.1 Manage templates for system e-mails

For all e-mails to be sent, e-mail templates can be defined. Besides the sender and reply to ad-

dresses, these templates define the email content and design which can easily be adapted to the

partner’s requirements.


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Figure 24 - Editor for the maintenance of e-mail template content: the content can be main-

tained in text as well as html format. Both will be sent to the recipient for the recipients e-mail

client to choose which content to display.

The e-mail template editor not only adds standard text and images to the e-mail templates, but inserts

variables as well, e.g. the name of the customer, product names and descriptions. The syntax for the

variable content is defined by the Velocity template engine and when an automatic e-mail is sent, the

variable content is substituted with the appropriate specific content.

3.15.2 Track sent e-mails, resending

Every e-mail that has been sent is saved in the system and can be viewed within the Management

Console (MC), including the last sent date and a detailed error message, in case of a failure of deli-

very. Additionally, each e-mail can be re-sent, even to a different e-mail address. This is especially

useful, if a customer misspelled his e-mail address.


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Figure 25 - Sent E-Mails are kept in the system for reporting and can be resent to a different e-

mail address.

3.16 Vouchers, tracking of voucher usage

Partners of Brightpoint can at any time create and edit serial and promotional vouchers from within the

Management Console. All relevant parameters e.g. the number of redeemable vouchers, the validity

time frame or the product range for which the voucher can be used can easily be defined by the cus-

tomer.

Figure 26 - Creation of a promotional voucher within the MC.


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Figure 27 - Definition of voucher restrictions in the MC: the number of vouchers that can be

redeemed can be restricted, also date and product type restrictions can be put on voucher

usage.

The success of a voucher campaign can be viewed within the Management Console, since all orders

that have used a certain voucher campaign are listed.

Figure 28 - A list of all orders where vouchers have been redeemed can be viewed in the MC.


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3.17 Setting up and managing e-mail campaigns

Localize your customer target group and provide them with valuable information. White Label Web-

shop allows you to design e-mail campaigns that can be aimed at, say, customers that have bought a

specific mobile phone, to inform them about a new accessory for the phone. White Label Webshop

assists you in the easy selection of any target group.

The partners can choose from a wide range of conditions, e.g. all customers that have bought some-

thing within the last month, all customers that have bought a product from a specific product group, all

customers that have placed an order with a value of at least x. Conditions can be combined with AND /

OR statements to guarantee that the e-mail campaign targets potentially interested customers only.

3.17.1 Template definition (Velocity)

For each e-mail campaign an e-mail template can be designed in text and HTML format.


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Figure 29 - Products and vouchers can be added to specific lists. Products and vouchers that

are listed can then be referenced in the e-mail template. They will automatically be substituted

with the references.

3.17.2 Target group definition

Target groups are easily set up using a special wizard. A ‘filter preview’ allows the partner to find out

how many customers fit the target group and a test e-mail can be sent for review purposes.

Figure 30 - Target group selection within the MC: the filter selected allows the selection of all

customers that have bought a specific product or a list of products within a date range.


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Figure 31 - A predefined number of filters is provided to offer a huge range of choice.

3.17.3 Scheduling

The campaign can be scheduled to start at a specific date or run regularly every day, week etc.

Figure 32 - Scheduling options of an e-mail campaign.

3.17.4 Tracking of feedback

Additionally the system logs in the MC the number of e-mails sent and the number of responses to the

campaign. A list of all participants in the campaign can be viewed as well.


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Figure 33 - Logging of the e-mail campaigns: number of e-mails sent, number of responses,

last start date, last run and next scheduled start.

Each e-mail sent out to customers contains an ‘opt-out’ link so the customer can decide against re-

ceiving more e-mails. The system will make sure that these customers will never be targeted in future,

even if they do match the target group definition.

White Label Webshop allows the combination of e-mail campaigns with vouchers. As part of a voucher

campaign, voucher codes can automatically be added to the e-mails and distributed to customers.

3.18 Creating promotions and assigning promotions to advertising spaces

Achieve maximum brand recognition and product differentiation by optimizing advertisement and pro-

motion spaces. White Label Webshop lets you adjust the placement and content of your offers and

marketing campaigns at any time.


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Figure 34 - A list of promotions can be assigned to an advertising space.

Promotions that appear on the webshop, such as advertisements for products or links to manufactur-

ers, are not hard coded. Instead, promotions are logical objects and their attributes (image, marketing

text, link, validity, priority etc.) are easily managed within the system environment. As soon as a pro-

motion is set up, it can be displayed on one or more pages of the webshop, depending on the adver-

tising space it is assigned to. The same promotion can appear in multiple advertising spaces and mul-

tiple promotions can be shown randomly in a single advertising space. On the standard Brightpoint

Direct White Label several advertising spaces are available, such as categories of advertising space

and menu advertising space.


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Figure 35 - Display of promotions in the advertising space on the start page.

Promotions have a ‘media’ assigned to them that will be displayed in their advertising space. The me-

dia can be uploaded into the MC. Promotions can have a start and end date and will only be used

within the respective time frame. Each promotion can either link to a product detail page or to an ex-

ternal URL.

3.19 Managing user accounts

The back end gives you access to the webshop’s key functions, so to ensure easy and safe mainten-

ance of the webshop, user access to the Management Console can be restricted for each user ac-

count. In this way, for example, back end access for the customer service agents can be restricted to

customer and order data.

Each partner of Brightpoint receives a partner administrator login which has full rights to the Manage-

ment Console and can create and maintain logins for the employees of the partner. Furthermore, the

partner administrator can assign different employees and employee groups with appropriate access

rights for the Management Console. In this way each MC user is only given the functions that he re-

quires in daily business.


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4 Standard Brightpoint Direct White Label: Efficient Management Console (system) for Brightpoint

Brightpoint employees have access to the Management Console. Their user rights differ vastly from

the user rights of the partners. The Brightpoint administrator, for instance, can not only perform all

actions that a partner of Brightpoint can perform (see above), but also create and maintain Catalogs,

product features, product relations, languages, delivery methods, payment methods etc. User rights

allow data to be used across all countries, but for sensitive information (like orders or sales reports) to

be available to a specific group of users within Brightpoint only.

4.1 Creating product descriptions, pictures and media

The Brightpoint master Catalog contains all products that are sold in any of the partner webshops.

The Catalog contains product descriptions in different formats (short description, long description,

marketing texts) as well as images in various sizes (thumbnail, small, medium and large). Additional

media can be assigned to each product, e.g. PDF files with product descriptions or prices. The Cata-

log is maintained by Brightpoint employees within the Management Console. The MC provides special

editors and wizards for accessing the Catalog content.

4.2 Maintaining product features and feature values

As products in the mobile phone market come equipped with more and more features, White Label

Webshop allows for easy updating of new product features ensuring your product Catalog is always up

to date.

Product features can be created on the fly within the Management Console. As soon as a new feature

is added, its value can be assigned to each product since the feature automatically shows up in the

product editor.


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Figure 36 - Product editor: Within the features tab a list of all product features is provided. The

features are grouped logically for a better overview of the vast number of features.

Product features can be assigned different names since the same feature might be wanted to be

named differently by different partners. Furthermore feature categories can be defined and product

features can be assigned to these categories. The categories can be defined per webshop, i.e. the

assignment of product features to categories might vary for each webshop.


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Figure 37 - Product feature groups can be defined in the MC and will be used to group the fea-

tures within the product editor in the MC (left). Product feature categories can be defined in the MC as well and will be used to group the product features in the front end (right).


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Figure 38 - The product groups are used to group the features within the MC, whereas the

product categories are used to group the product features within the front end.

4.3 Organizing product variation

A mobile phone can exist in various different variants, e.g. according to color, software packages or

SIM locks. However variants of the same phone usually have the same features and are compatible

with the same accessories. Phone variants can be created in any Catalog and new variant attributes

can be added on the fly.

4.4 Managing product relations

The knowledge of relationships between products and their presentation in the front end is one of the

core competences of Brightpoint. It is vital to know which accessories can be combined with which

mobile phone, as this supports the customer’s decision to buy an accessory.

Between products various relationships can exist, e.g. compatibility, succeeding product, similar prod-

uct etc. These relations can result in special presentations or actions. The Brightpoint webshop sys-

tem enables the users, within the Management Console, create such relationships between products

according to the relation type. The most prominent example for a product relation is the hand-

set/accessory relationship. Based on this relationship the accessories for a mobile phone will be listed

on that phone’s product detail page. On the other hand, all phones that are compatible with an acces-

sory are shown on the product detail page of the accessory.


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Figure 39 - Display of compatible accessories with a product on a product detail page.

Another example for a product relation is ‘similarity’. One or more similar products can be offered to

the customer in the front end if a chosen product is not in stock, but the similar product is immediately

available.

4.5 Setting up product bundling

Within the Brightpoint webshop system any combination of products can be bundled and offered in the

webshop as one product. Bundled products may consist of mobile phones, accessories, services etc.

Within the Management Console the bundled product can be assigned its own product descriptions,

images and price. The bundled product can be assigned its own ERP product ID or the single ERP

product IDs of the single products.

4.6 Maintaining Categories

Dynamic and static categories can easily be defined within the Management Console. The system

automatically places all products in dynamic categories, according to the category restriction(s). See


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section 3.6.1 for details. The standard categories, e.g. mobile phones by manufacturers, would typical-

ly be created by Brightpoint and used in all the partner webshops. Partners can add any other catego-

ries to meet their individual requirements.

If a category contains sub-categories, e.g. the category Mobile Phones might have sub-categories for

mobile phones based on manufacturer, it will display the mobile phones assigned to the category but

not the mobile phones from all contained sub-categories. For dynamic sub categories it can be defined

in the MC, whether they restrict the set of products, that is assigned to the super category or refer to

all products within the respective Catalog.

4.6.1 Manually influencing of automatically generated top seller lists

The number of sales for each product is counted within the system and the weekly amount is saved in

a separate variable. This amount can be used to automatically compile top seller lists. Additionally,

within the MC, a top seller value can be defined manually for each product which will then overwrite

the automatically computed value.

4.7 Maintaining Catalogs

The Management Console (MC) provides Catalog management editors to keep the extensive Cata-

logs updated. Brightpoint employees maintain the Brightpoint master catalog that is used as a source

for all partner catalogs. The partner Catalogs can be created by Brightpoint as well. They inherit prod-

ucts from the master Catalog (for details see 3.5) and define the partner’s product portfolio, i.e. the

products that the partner provides to his customers within the partners webshop. The partners can

maintain their own catalogs, especially prices, but might also want to overwrite product descriptions

and images.

4.7.1 Managing the master catalog and multiple derived catalogs by using inheritance structures

The Brightpoint master catalog contains all available products and their descriptions, like images,

short and long description, marketing texts, product feature values, product relations etc. in several

languages. This catalog is the root of all other catalogs within the Brightpoint webshop system, i.e. it is

the central repository of all product data.

All other catalog will either directly or indirectly (i.e. via another catalog) inherit the products and their

descriptions from the Brightpoint master catalog. Which products will be inherited is either defined by a

set of filters (see section 3.5 for details) or manually by establishing a relationship from a product with-

in a catalog to the respective product within the master catalog.

For each catalog the decision can be made, whether to automatically inherit products from its super

catalog. If so, when a new product is added to the super catalog, the product will automatically show

up in the sub-catalog.

4.7.2 Managing product portfolios


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Typically each partner of Brightpoint will run their own webshop and for each webshop there will be

one catalog. Which subset of the master catalog will be “copied” into the partner catalog can be de-

fined for each partner catalog either manually or by a set of filters. The MC provides wizards to create

new catalogs. The partner can choose which product information will be inherited from the Brightpoint

master catalog and which will be maintained by the partner itself by overwriting data within their own

catalog.

In some cases, Brightpoint might want to restrict the set of products that the partner can sell within his

webshop to a subset of the master catalog. In this case a sub catalog of the Brightpoint master catalog

will be defined and maintained by Brightpoint. The partner catalog will then be defined as a sub cata-

log of the restricted catalog and allow the partner to select products from the limited range only.

4.7.3 Customized product information in specialized catalogs

The partners might want to benefit from the product features and product relationships that are defined

within the Brightpoint master catalog. But the product descriptions, e.g. the marketing texts and im-

ages are usually customized to meet the specific customer requirements.

The partner is provided with access to the Management Console and will be restricted to his own cata-

log. Within this catalog he can overwrite product descriptions. Data that has been overwritten in the

partner catalog will never be overwritten if, later, the respective data in the Brightpoint master catalog

changes.

4.8 Management and assignment of materials to products

For a product to be sold in a webshop, it physically must be capable of existing in one of the

Brightpoint warehouses and be assigned as a webshop ‘product’. Products can be created within cata-

logs without having an actual physical material assigned to them. But such a product can never be

sold in any webshop. Each webshop has an ERP system assigned to it. A product from the catalog

that is assigned to the webshop will be displayed in the webshop only, if the product has a material

from the same ERP as the webshop assigned to it.

4.8.1 Management of availability classes and policies

The Brightpoint ERP terminology for a product is material. Information about the material will be inter-

faced with the webshop system, so that availability information is exchanged between the ERP system

and the webshop system.

Stock amounts and expected delivery dates will therefore be available in the webshop system and can

be used to inform partners and webshop customers about products being in stock and if not, when

they will be available. All availability information that is provided in the webshops is based on the in-

formation provided by the ERP system, i.e. stock amounts and expected delivery dates are not main-

tained within the MC, but can be viewed only.


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4.9 E-mail templates

Brightpoint employees can take advantage of the extensive number of options for designing the e-

mails that are either send automatically or manually from the webshop system. The e-mail template

editors within the Management Console provide a plain text as well as an HTML editor. The e-mail in

HTML format can be edited easily using the provided WYSIWYG editor.

The e-mail templates are allowed to use variable content that will be substituted automatically if the e-

mail is send by the Velocity template engine. The Velocity syntax is easy to understand and offers a

huge range of options to adapt e-mails for specific customers. If an e-mail is sent both the text as well

as the HTML message will be sent. The recipients e-mail client can then choose which format to dis-

play, depending on the settings of the recipient.

Sending e-mails can either be triggered by a certain event (e.g. order has been placed, order has

been picked in the warehouse) or at a scheduled time (e.g. once a day, weekly). The scheduling can

be maintained within the Management Console. All sent e-mails are kept within the system and are

easy to find. Each e-mail can be resent from the Management Console, if necessary, e.g. when a cus-

tomer has accidentally provided the wrong e-mail address. A new e-mail address can be entered and

an e-mail with the exact same content will be sent to the new e-mail address.

4.10 E-mail campaigns

E-mail campaigns can be defined by the partners as well as by Brightpoint employees within the Man-

agement Console. The e-mail campaign component offers the creation of complex e-mail targets that

does not only use the Velocity template engine syntax but can reference specific products and vouch-

ers as well. A large set of complex filters is provided to make sure that the campaign addresses the

customers that are most likely to be interested in the offer. Just like any other e-mails that are auto-

matically send from the White Label Webshop, the campaigns can be flexibility scheduled. For details

see the description of the e-mail campaign component in section 3.17.

4.11 Setting up payment methods

Payment methods can be defined within the Management Console on a global level by Brightpoint. On

the global level it is also defined which delivery methods are allowed with this payment method.


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Figure 40 - Payment method editor within the Management Console.

At the webshop level it can be decided which of the globally defined payment methods are allowed

(payment method settings). Each of these payment methods has a front end description, a price, a

tax class and a free payment level (if that amount is reached within an order, the payment fee will be

dropped).

4.12 Setting up delivery methods

Delivery methods can be defined within the Management Console on a global level by Brightpoint. On

the global level it is also defined, which payment methods are allowed with this delivery method and

which carrier will be used.

The system also allows the definition of a delivery date rule for the specific delivery method. The deli-

very date rule defines a computation rule for the expected delivery date for the order, if this delivery

method is used. For example, the rule could define that no deliveries are made on a Saturday, Sunday

and public holiday and therefore these days need to be summed up and added to the expected deli-

very date for the order that does not yet take these days into account, but would typically be a fixed

number of days.


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Figure 41 - Delivery method editor within the Management Console.

Furthermore on webshop level it can be decided which of the globally defined delivery methods are

allowed within the respective webshop (delivery method settings). For each delivery methods a de-

scription to be used within the front end, a price, a tax class and a free delivery level (if that amount is

reached within an order, the delivery fee will be dropped) can be defined.

4.13 Managing currencies

Brightpoint employees can add currencies within the Management Console on the fly. Once they are

active, prices can be defined within this currency and the currency can be used as a webshop curren-

cy within the front end.


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Figure 42 - Currency editor within the Management Console.

4.14 Managing taxes

Brightpoint employees can add new tax classes within the Management Console. Each tax class has

a percentage assigned that is used to compute the gross amount for a net amount, if that tax class

applies. Tax classes can then be assigned to products or customers to define the tax that applies for

that product and/or that customer.

Figure 43 - Tax class editor within the Management Console.

4.15 Managing tracking codes

Tracking codes are added to the front end pages to send click information to affiliate networks (e.g.

TradeDoubler), price comparison engines (e.g. Kelkoo) or external traffic reporting and analysis tools

(e.g. Google Analytics). Each of the tools use their own syntax and require the webshop to add specif-

ic tags to either all or just specific pages (e.g. order confirmation page) of the webshop.


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White Label Webshop allows Brightpoint employees to add tracking codes to any page of the web-

shop without the need of programming knowledge. Simply, for each page the required code can be

defined in the Management Console and will automatically be added to the template for the page.

4.16 Setting up languages

New languages can be defined and activated by Brightpoint employees within the Management Con-

sole on the fly. If a new language is activated, all localized data will automatically have another lan-

guage version added, i.e. an additional input field for the new language will be provided in all editors

for localized data. For more details see section 2.13.


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5 Adaptability, extensibility and connectivity

The mobile phone market is subject to frequent changes. White Label Webshop is able to quickly

adapt to changing requirements. The system is built in a modular way and therefore extremely adapt-

able to respond to new requirements in the market. This approach ensures that little development

effort as possible is required and therefore customization costs are kept low.

5.1 Webshop

Even though the partner webshops are all running on the same platform, Brightpoint views each of

them as individual shopping areas within the internet. To provide the webshop customers with a mod-

ern look and feel, contemporary webshops are equipped with highly complex and therefore extremely

costly technology. Brightpoint is aware of this dilemma and has created a standard solution, that al-

lows its partners, with a minimum of effort, to create an appearance with a maximum of individuality.

The webshop, with its standard components and features is absolutely future proof and allows, without

any programming effort, to adapt the webshop design and processes on the fly.

5.1.1 Design

Brightpoint will advise you in adjusting your shop on the fly, to fit your design wishes and your corpo-

rate design. Although Brightpoint supplies product descriptions, images, feature lists, marketing texts

and order processes of high quality, these can be adjusted to your requirements at any time.

Cascading style sheets (CSS) can be used to define the design of the webshop: they allow partners

to change the colors, background images, logos, buttons, frames, fonts and font colors as well as the

layout of the web sites. The style sheet can be edited by the partner and uploaded via the Manage-

ment Console (MC). And the uploaded changes immediately apply to the partner’s webshop.

5.1.2 Composition of components

The philosophy of modularity is reflected throughout the White Label Webshop. Partners can select

from a wide range of available functions (see chapter 2 for an overview), and can define the presenta-

tion and content. No programming effort is necessary; changes can be done on the fly from the Man-

agement Console (MC). Should a partner require additional functionality that is not yet provided or that

is specific for that partner, a component can be created and integrated as well.

Each function of the webshop systems front ends is implemented using component. Examples of

components are the global menu, the detailed product description, the presentation of the content of a

category, search result lists etc. Also more complex functions, like e.g. the product finder, the product

comparison functionality, the voucher and the ‘tell a friend’ functionality etc. are implemented in com-

ponents. These components can then be used to create a webshop front end with specific functionali-

ty. Each of them can be switched off or on for a specific webshop from within the Management Con-

sole.


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From a front end point of view each page can be viewed as a paragraph container that contains a

number of paragraphs. Each of these paragraphs belongs to one component. From within the Man-

agement Console the order of these paragraphs within the paragraph container can be defined. The

layout of the front end web pages can be changed on the fly without any programming effort.

New components can easily be added. Development might be necessary to create new components

for partner specific extensions of the standard Brightpoint Direct White Label functionality. But these

new components can easily be added to the existing webshop by placing the corresponding para-

graphs appropriately in the paragraph containers. This can, again, be done from within the Manage-

ment Console.

5.1.3 Adaptability of processes and wizards

Purchasing processes quite often are highly specialized. Beside the presentation of the purchasing

process in general, the selection sequence of the products and services can be a major factor for the

success of your webshop.

Depending on the customer’s choice of a subscription plan, a large number of questions need to be

answered by the customer, before the contract can be placed. For example, whether the customer

wants to purchase a new phone number or extend an existing contract need to be addressed as well

as a phone number or a number of additional services selected etc.

Furthermore, once the customer has completed all these configurations for all the products that he has

added to the cart, a similar process is required to gather information for the whole order, e.g. payment

and delivery. Within the White Label Webshop both of these processes are highly adaptable. They can

be defined from within the Management Console and changed on the fly, whenever the process needs

to be adapted to a new situation.

5.1.3.1 Contract completion wizard

Once the customer has selected a specific product or product combination, further questions need to

be sorted out. This is especially the case for subscription plans. Examples are:

• choice between new number, prolongation or porting of a phone number

• add on services like e.g. ‘hide number’ in phone book, secret number

• payment method and details for the monthly phone bill

• payment address for the monthly phone bill

White Label Webshop uses the part list concept to make this process flexible and easily adaptable. A

part list configuration can be assigned to each product or product combination. The part list configu-

ration defines all options that are provided regarding the purchase of the respective product. Further-

more is defines the user interface elements (e.g. the buttons and texts), that are to be used in the

front end.


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The part lists can be maintained from within the Management Console. The part list configuration con-

sists of a list of part configurations.

Figure 44 - Example of a part list configuration.

Each part configuration can either be automatic or manual. Automatic part configurations are executed

by the webshop system, where manual part configurations require the webshop customer to make a

selection or choose a specific option.


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Figure 45 - Example of a manual part configuration. It defines the contract type selection (e.g. new number, prolongation, porting) and requires the customer to select one of the options.


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Figure 46 - The contract type has 3 different values, from which the customer can choose.

Figure 47 - Link to the user interface element that defined how the selection will be presented

within the front end.


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Figure 48 - A list of radio buttons is defined as user interface element.

5.1.3.2 Order completion wizard

The part list concept is used for the order completion process as well. The configuration of the order

completion process is configurable from within the Management Console which includes the user in-

terface definition. A part list configuration can be assigned to the webshop. This part list configuration

defines the checkout process including e.g.

• selection of the payment method

• provision of the delivery address

• selection of the delivery method

• acceptance of terms and conditions

• acceptance of e-mail newsletter or

marketing e-mails

The resulting wizard within the front end will

guide the customer through the order comple-

tion.


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5.1.4 Restrictions and business rules

Business rules can be defined and the

Brightpoint webshop system will auto-

matically ensure that these business

rules are met. Examples for business

rules are price rules and delivery date

rules.

Figure 49 - Definition of a business rule for the computation of the expected delivery date of

the order.

Figure 50 - Definition of a business rule regarding the subscription plan option slot for the se-

tup fee: On the weekend (from Friday night at 9pm to Monday morning 6pm) the set up fee will be reduced to 0DKK.

Additionally it can be defined per webshop, whether:


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• a product will be displayed within the webshop, if the stock amount of the related material is

less than or equal to zero

• a product can be bought within the webshop, if the stock amount of the related material is less

than or equal to zero

5.2 Management Console (MC)

The Management Console is highly generic and therefore highly flexible. The generic searches,

search result lists and editors can easily be adapted to the partners needs and specific configurations

be created for individual partner employees with different tasks, e.g. customer service agents.

5.2.1 Localization and configuration

The language of the MC can freely be chosen and the localizations of all texts within the MC can easi-

ly be maintained within simple localization files. How data is displayed within the MC can be defined

within a configuration file. The configuration can be changed at any time on the fly. Within the configu-

ration file it can e.g. be defined which nodes are displayed within the main explorer, which attributes

are used within the searches, which attributes will be displayed in the search result lists, which tabs

and sections each of the editors will have and which attributes they contain etc.

5.2.2 Specialized user roles

The MC users can access all data and media objects, system parameters and operations (data ex-

ports etc.) etc. that they are entitled to. Which content they are allowed to read and/or change, de-

pends on their user roles and the assigned access rights.


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Figure 51 - MC Editor for access rights.

User groups are defined and for each data object within the MC the access rights for all the users in

that user group can be defined. The MC will look different for each user as they can only see what

they have been given access rights to. Additionally further personalization can be done by creating

specific configurations for specific users or user groups.

Within each user group a special administrator role can be created. The administrator can create

new users within the user group and restrict their access rights. In this way the partner can take over

the administration of their MC users themselves.


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5.3 System interfaces

5.3.1 Custom interfaces to external web service

System interfaces can be provided to:

• receive GSM numbers, that are provided to the customer

• inform the partner about used and released GSM numbers

• update stock amounts

• Run credit checks, address validation etc.

• Send webshop orders to the partners ERP system.

Each of these can either be implemented as interfaces to a web service, provided by the partner. Or

the data can manually be exchanged via e.g. CSV or Excel upload and download. Another option is

the automatic upload, e.g. orders to a partners ftp server.

5.3.2 Interface to payment system

System interfaces to any payment system that the partner wants to use can be provided in additional

components. Following are implemented:

• Bibit recommended

o General information www.Bibit.com

o Supported payments www.bibit.com/content.php?page=payment&sub=accept

• Dibs recommended only for Scandinavia

o General information www.dibs.dk

o Supported payments www.dibs.dk/produkter/dibs-internet/produktvarianter/dibs-

premium

http://www.bibit.com/�

http://www.bibit.com/content.php?page=payment&sub=accept�

http://www.dibs.dk/�

http://www.dibs.dk/produkter/dibs-internet/produktvarianter/dibs-premium�

http://www.dibs.dk/produkter/dibs-internet/produktvarianter/dibs-premium�


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6 Technology

The Brightpoint webshop system is based on the Hybris e-commerce platform, a standard J2EE soft-

ware package for e-business applications.

6.1 System Configuration

The environment consists of a production system, a quality assurance, and a development system. In

the following chapter the topology, network connection and 3rd party software of the production system

are described.

6.1.1 Topology

DB 1DB 1DB 1 DB 2 SAN

Client TrafficDirector

Application Server

DatabaseStorage

Firewall

Figure 52 - Topology of the Brightpoint webshop system.

6.1.2 Network Connection

The network connection between the servers and to the backend systems are a redundant Gigabit

Ethernet. The connection to the Internet is a redundant 1 Gigabit Ethernet connection.

6.1.3 3rd Party Software

Use Product

Operating System Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition


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Servlet Engine Tomcat 6

Database Server Oracle 10g DB Standard Edition

6.2 Management Console

The client PCs accessing the Management Console of the Brightpoint webshop system will need to

run the following browsers:

• Firefox 2

• Internet Explorer 6 or 7

For the browsers JavaScript has to be activated.

6.3 Front end

The webshop front ends support all common browser versions. JavaScript needs to be activated, such

that the customer can use the full functionality of the front end (e.g. sliding bars in the product finder).

whitepaper white label v0 9

Documents

expected delivery dates

determining product portfolio

service centre agent

white label webshop

basic monthly fee

external web service

brightpoint support staff

mobil phone finder