News and Insights_

Salesforce Acquires CloudCraze: What it means for both companies and their customers

On March 12th Salesforce entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Chicago-based CloudCraze. This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with events in the enterprise eCommerce space over the past several years. Indeed, as early as June of 2016, when Salesforce announced its acquisition of Demandware, Avatria’s Anando Naqui suggested that one next […]

Appointment Service Design for eCommerce Applications

There are appointments in many different eCommerce scenarios. Whether it’s in the form of a movie ticket, an airplane ticket, or an oil change, each appointment scenario requires specific business rules and technical decisions to properly design its system. Assuming that you’ve chosen a service to serve as the appointment master, this design will outline the necessary steps […]

Why Online Retailers Should Care About Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality is once again in the headlines as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prepares to vote on repealing open internet rules on December 14th. With this vote, the previous rules set by the FCC may be overturned, revoking Net Neutrality, and allowing internet service providers (ISP) to prioritize web traffic and offer services based on […]

Staffing: Delivering with Your Implementation Partner

Commerce implementations are fast paced and require a lot of time and effort from the implementation team. However, the time and effort is equally as important for the companies that bring in this team of consultants. These companies often need a well thought out division of labor and work-stream ownership to support the overall project. […]

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Self-Service: Impact Beyond the Customer

When customers are unable to interact with a business’s digital storefront in an autonomous manner, it can often cause frustration for the customer and lead to unnecessary customer service overhead for the business.  If you shop online think about why you do so and what you expect from the sites where you shop; there’s a […]

Commerce Solutions and the Creative Process

During commerce implementations, technology companies and technology teams often focus only on just that: technology. The emphasis is on the platform, the code, and its development and testing. While these are critical elements of all commerce projects, it is important to not overlook the creative process. This vital track of work consists of team members […]

Elite BAs may not Develop Code, but are Pivotal to Project Success

In my experience, there has been a misconception that solid Business Analysts are pretty easy to find and are interchangeable within an eCommerce project. What I have come across is that finding very strong BAs that are difference makers on a project is not so easy; and having a great one is essential to overall quality […]

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order-automation

Want to improve operational efficiency? Increase order automation.

Every business strives to improve operational efficiency in an effort to reduce overhead and free up resources for strategic initiatives.  One of the ways that retailers accomplish this is by reducing or eliminating the number of times a person has to interact with an order before it is fulfilled.  This concept, often referred to as Order […]

Considering upgrading SAP Hybris 5.x to 6.x? Read this first.

Companies consider upgrading their software for many reasons.  Whether they decide to upgrade to take advantage of new functionality, address platform defects, or maintain platform support from the vendor, each company that upgrades can improve their chances of success by following the guidelines below for upgrading from SAP Hybris 5.x to 6.x. Guidelines for Upgrading There […]

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What Salesforce’s Acquisition of Demandware Means for Commerce

On June 1, Salesforce announced its $2.8B acquisition of Demandware, the market leader in cloud-based eCommerce. In doing so, Salesforce launches Commerce Cloud, part of Salesforce’s cloud ecosystem and jumps headfirst into the world of digital commerce. The deal is expected to close on July 31, 2016. The platform commerce space has seen a number of […]

Find Your Match: A Look at Purpose-Built Commerce Solutions

You are a company that is looking for a new commerce solution, and you don’t know where to start. How do I pick the right product? Can I narrow down my list of potential suitors right off the bat? Most likely, and it’s possible to find a product that is built closer to your specs […]

Mitigating the Causes and Effects of Scope Creep

Even well-executed eCommerce implementations that are launched on time and budget fail to meet client expectations. Often times no single group (client, consultant or third party) is at fault, and the root cause can be traced back to either differences in the understanding of the body of work to be implemented or changes to that […]

Cloud Infrastructure Automation Shows Promise in Infancy

Many of today’s retail companies are no longer interested in hosting and maintaining their own digital storefronts, preferring instead to focus their resources on innovation that drives a channel-less experience for their end-consumers.  This has created a rapidly expanding opportunity for technology implementation companies to provide Managed Services for their customers.  In fact, it has […]

Why Bad Product Data Disrupts eCommerce Implementations

There are many challenges in “getting it right” when it comes to product data, and we will dive into this topic in the context of an eCommerce implementation. This may be a refresher for some, or a fair warning to others that may not have the experience, but in either case it should provide valuable […]