Multichannel commerce software vendor hybris has announced the immediate release of the hybris 4.1 Multichannel Suite. hybris is extending the boundaries of a state-of-the-art multichannel commerce solution with this new release by including mobile commerce, the introduction of product content management (PCM) functionality, brand new order management and cross channel fulfilment functionality plus improved search and navigation capabilities with its tight integration with Endeca. It offers support for cloud-based deployments and scenarios with the highest requirements in terms of number of transactions and size of data volume.Speaking about the 4.1 Multichannel Suite, Ariel Luedi, CEO of hybris, said: "The release of hybris 4.1 is the new benchmark within the eCommerce market in terms of agility, functionality as well as breadth and depth of channel integration. It truly embraces multichannel commerce, both online and print, and provides our customers with an agile platform which can quickly be adapted to new business needs or changing consumer behaviour. Commerce Anywhere is only possible with systems like our PCM application where all content elements and content types are managed in one application and shared across all channels providing customers with consistent messaging and information."
hybris claims that it is no longer good enough to just provide a standalone online store or print catalogue, and then have them operate in silos alongside high street stores and telephone sales. All of these need to be properly integrated and managed. Companies are faced with customers, both in the B2C and B2B markets, who are using several touchpoints (catalogue, online, store) before making a purchase and it is crucial not to confuse them with inconsistent information regarding pricing, promotion, assortment and inventory level.
Content and context need to flow across all sales channels in a uniform and consistent way, recognising and following the customer on his journey across channels and providing him with the right information and incentives to enable a purchase decision.
Leading analysts like Forrester are advising retailers, distributors and manufacturers to put great emphasis on defining a PCM strategy and to implement an integrated cross channel sales and marketing application infrastructure in order to respond to new customer behaviour and to maximise sales opportunities.
New applications and features for hybris Multichannel Suite 4.1 include:
- hybris PCM goes beyond traditional PIM systems. hybris PCM enables enterprises to manage not only the typical structured attributes found in a traditional PIM system but also any sales and marketing related content. Traditional product information can now be managed together with channel specific content like web content or print and mobile media, user generated content and any digital assets like videos and images. All this within the one application using one user interface. Productivity features such as workflow management, data quality validation and flexible and visual import and export tools can be used across all content types and editorial processes.
- Mobile Commerce functionality is provided in 4.1 through a full package of mobile services, ranging from mobile website, device detection and optimisation to location based services. The solution also allows retailers to generate, print and send out bar and QR codes, for use by mobile devices such as iPhones for promotions, vouchers and deeplinks. With a mobile API to integrate easily with native mobile applications and a pre-integrated solution for SMS providers, companies can provide their customers with a variety of mobile services like notifications or promotions (e.g., send text to 1234 and get voucher or deeplink to promotion landing page).
- New Web Content Management System provides businesses with the flexibility to give their brands better online presence, enabling a lot of additional information and content to be efficiently administered and published across all channels. Users can select from a wide range of page templates and content components to update or create entirely new pages. The web content management feature in 4.1 makes it easy to create and manage content for multichannel, especially eCommerce and mobile commerce scenarios.
- Order Management and Cross-Channel Fulfillment has massive improvements in 4.1 that provide a centralised hub to integrate order processes from different channels, allowing users to implement a true 360 degree cross channel strategy. It offers open interfaces to integrate connectors to warehouses, financial systems, payment vendors and fraud service providers to guarantee coverage of the complete ordering process. To facilitate fulfillment it allows rules-based order splitting and grouping into consignment. In addition, it offers useful functions for B2B specific order processes such as order replenishment.
- Seamless Endeca integration provides 4.1 with the latest search and navigation enhancements such as dynamic merchandising, guided navigation, dynamic landing pages, search engine marketing, social commerce, closed loop analytics, rich internet applications, and personalisation. This gives powerful, but easy-to-use, capabilities that guide customers to the right products. As a result improvements can be made on the implementation and management of new and innovative website capabilities, resulting in faster time to high performing sites and higher conversion rates and sales.
- Scalability and Performance is guaranteed for any type of project using multithreading features, advanced transparent caching on several levels, full session failover, advanced clustering and much more. For any given metric hybris will need less resources to achieve comparable performance than other high-end eCommerce systems .4.1 scales easily up to 1,000's of page impressions per second and millions of products.
- SOA strategies are fully supported by providing a service oriented interface to all hybris functionality out-of-the-box based, for example, on RESTful webservices.
- Cloud and Virtualisation hybris is supporting and recommending virtualisation for any production environment using products from VMware or Microsoft. As an innovation, hybris 4.1 is now supporting the deployment on cloud infrastructures like Amazon's EC2 or Microsoft's Azzure. hybris is even supporting clustering across instances in order to benefit from the almost unlimited elasticity of the cloud.
- hybris traditional release compatibility allows hybris customers as usual to migrate in a matter of days to the latest hybris version, even with heavily customised systems, to take full advantage of new features.
hybris 4.1 is available immediately. For further details please visit: www.hybris.com
About hybris
hybris is a leading vendor of next generation agile multichannel commerce software. Its clear vision about the need for consistency, co-ordination and personalisation of information across all channels and throughout all phases of the customer lifecycle has resulted in the development of an integrated, agile solution which supports the industrialisation and automation of operational marketing and sales processes. It is spearheading innovation in this field, enabling businesses to communicate and sell across all channels in a consistent and effective way.
Established in 1997, hybris has a proven track record of profitability and growth, with ambitious expansion plans for the future. Headquartered in Munich, it has offices in the US, UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and Sweden. Its international presence is extended via a dedicated network of business and technology partners across Europe and the USA. It has over 200 customers worldwide running more than 1.500 websites "powered by hybris". Customers are global brands from retail and manufacturing industries, including: Toys 'R' Us, Adidas, Pirelli, Conrad, Norgren, Lufthansa, Reebok, Grundfos, Demag, Sika, Bunzl UK & Ireland, Phonak, Waterstone's and Rexel.
For further information, please contact:
Mel Oxford or James Cooper Ascendant Communications
Tel: +44 (0) 208 334 8041
Email: moxford@ascendcomms.net / jcooper@ascendcomms.net
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