What can you do using Coena's consistent product information?

People do different things in the supply chain, but they have 1 thing in common. Products. Different people perform different tasks to deliver products. Coena provides supply chain tools that allow everyone within a supply chain to speak the same language when it comes to products. No more "but we have different product codes for those products", "yes, but we don't call those by that name", or "I thought you meant something else". With Coena, you can define a single language of products and share it with anyone you want in the supply chain.

What kind of information can you define?

Identity information

It must be possible to identify products uniquely in the supply chain. Some products use global standards for identity, such as ISBN for Books. Others products simply don't, such as clothing. With Coena, it is possible to manage the identity of any product, whether it follows standards or not.

It is important that the same products share the same identity in the supply chain. This reduces mistakes, improves efficiencies, and makes things consistent. Coena can manage identities on 3 levels. The 1st level identifies a generic product made by a specific manufacturer. The next level permits, if required, the specification of variations in the product, such as size and color. Each variation can be identified by a unique stock-keeping unit (SKU) identification. Finally, the 3rd level permits, if required, the specification of serial numbers for individual items.

Product Description

You can have different descriptions for the same product for different audiences. All of these descriptions can travel the length and breadth of your supply chain, and different people can pick the description relevant for them. Sales staff can get tips on how to sell the product. Logistics staff can get tips on handling the product. Marketing staff can get campaign information about the product.

Product Appearance

A picture says a 1000 words, and with Coena, you can associate as many pictures as you like with the product. You can associate pictures based on perspective (front-view, right-view, top-view, side-view), occasions, or show the product being used. Each picture can be annotated, which means everyone in the supply chain can get an explanation in text of what the picture is trying to convey.

Colors and Patterns

For some products, capturing their color is very important. With Coena, you can complex colors and patterns and define them universally so that anyone in your network can find products based on common color and pattern libraries.

How can the product be used with other products?

Using Coena, you can build relationships between products. If 2 products must be used together (e.g. a headset and a mobile phone), or a product can be used instead of another product ("I don't have this product, but I do have a similar one"), Coena makes sure that the people that need to know have easy access to this information.

Searchable Product Specifications

Capture every characteristic of your product, and make sure your customers can't find them by these characteristics. For instance, if you offer some products with a zipper, and some other products without a zipper, your customers can filter all products with zippers. Now you can truly match supply and demand.

Materials

Coena offers a comprehensive materials database. You can define materials that are used to manufacture your product, and then make them searchable with each material as a filter.

Weights, dimensions, and sizes

Coena supports all international standards for weights and measurements, and makes it easy to translate between them. You can capture any number of dimensions for your product, beyond the simple length, width, and height. Coena can also manage multiple sizes, so that if your product comes in different sizes, you can manage multiple weights and dimensions for each size. This information can be used by anyone in your supply chain. Salespersons can rest assured that they aren't selling something in the wrong size to a customer. And your logistics and warehousing staff will know exactly how much space to allocate for each product.

What are the advantages of Coena Global Marketplace?

The fat-butterfly B2B model was launched in early years of the millennium. Business procurement and sales would be brought together by building a common website, and then everyone would transact using this simple website. Most of these ventures don't exist anymore (for more information, read "How not to build an online market: the sociology of market microstructure" by Peter Kollock and E. Russell Braziel). Coena's marketplace design was conceived during this heyday, and was at odds with the hype of "building a web-site solves everything" during the dot-com era. We understood that it was more important to address the needs of the individuals trading on the marketplace, than trying to artificially centralize all of the functions in the marketplace. A marketplace built with Coena is de-centralized (people trading in the marketplace make their own decisions and control what they want to share), distributed (people trading in the marketplace are all over the place with different internet connections), and disruptive (people trading in the marketplace do several things at the same time, and finish things when they want, not when the solution says they do).

Coena provides a complete global solution for global supply chains. All users can truly participate as equals with Coena's deep B2B tooling, which provides marketplace management functions that work when users are also offline. Advertisements on the marketplace can be displayed to all companies, or to a few selected companies. Users can develop an online brand through stylized product portfolios. Products published by users are indexed and easily searchable by other users. If users in the marketplace want to communicate, they can chat with each other. If they want to conduct transactions (orders, quotations, invoices), then they can send business messages to each other.

What kind of actions is Coena Marketplace allowing me?

Advertise your products

After defining your products, make sure potential clients have access to what you have to offer. You can publish advertisements for everyone in the marketplace, or only to trusted parties.

Search and contact business partners

Once a marketplace user finds what they need, they can contact the user with questions, requests for quotations, or just order the product. Communications with trading partners can be tracked, and real-time updates can be sent between trading partners to update each other on the status of their orders.

Search for products

Coena's marketplace searching is one of its strongest features. When comparing apples and oranges, only those characteristics common to both apples and oranges are displayed for search refinement. When comparing several apples, then specific characteristics that are unique to apples are offered as additional search criteria. For buyers using the marketplace to find exactly what they need, they can filter thousands of advertisements to match their exact demand.

What does Coena Inventory Management bring you?

Business big or small, localized or global, and isolated or networked, have to manage their inventory. Coena provides a highly flexible inventory management application that can be networked for multiple locations. Your customers will hear "Yes, we have it in stock" more often. You will not keep your customers waiting anymore and you will be able to sync all your product information in one single place and share inside your network.

Using Coena, you can monitor and keep your stock levels at an optimum amount, ensuring that you can keep "just enough inventory".

How can the Inventory Management help your business?

Create individual or batches of items

You can add inventory 1 at a time, or create entire batches of items in 3 simple steps. You can define items based on SKUs, and if required, you can link items to product specifications. You can capture variations in size and color for each item. If required, you can add information about how items should be handled and stored. You can manage the entire lifecycle of an item, starting from its production to its sale to its scrapping (cradle to grave). For any item, you can track its entire history of changes. And you can manage your raw materials, selling stock, and assets from a single inventory management solution from Coena.

Multiple Locations for Global inventory

Inventory can be managed simultaneously for several global locations, and each location can search and find inventory in other locations in real-time.

Fast Inventory Search on any characteristic

Coena's fast searching technology is setting new standards for find the right stock within seconds. You can search for almost any characteristic of an item, such as its price, item type, handling instructions, its location, or its intended usage. Using refinement filters, users can use any number of criteria to narrow down their choices.

Manage any floor layout

The inventory management component can be configured for any storage schematics, ranging from large warehouses to small rooms, from pallet storage to high shelving.

What makes Coena Business Messaging different?

Communication between business partners, build relationships and supports all your activities. A fast and concise communication process will reduce time spent with sending specifications about products, sending and receiving purchase orders, invoices and quotations. No more hours spent in searching or organizing piles of paper, no more valuable space filled with dozens of thick folders and no more re-keying the information to process it. Coena created Business Messages and Chat to satisfy your business communication needs from your working desk.

What are the Coena communication tools?

Business Messages

Business messages are used to send formal quotations, offers, orders, and status updates. Coena provides a simple and easy-to-use user interface that mimics e-mail clients, but packs tremendous power to link messages to business data. Messages sent when users are offline are stored in a messaging server, and then sent to the user when the user comes online.

Chat

Just interested in finding quick answers from other online users? Using Coena chat, you can chat with any business partner that is online at the same time you are.