Business networks let multiple businesses work together to achieve common goals, such as selling together to reach new customers, buying
together at a lower price and offering shared services to provide a complete solution.
Selling diverse products together
In business networks with diverse products, network moderators collect product information and stock levels from their members with
Coena Node. Then, they market the products on web-based marketplaces
and retail shops using Coena Hub. To help members share knowledge and use the same language, network
moderators define the structure of products using our product management tools. A network moderator also
defines processes for order fulfillment, deciding on the sequence and rules for business actions.
Selling standardized products together
In business networks with standardized products, network moderators define product standards to help
members produce a consistent level of quality. Network moderators obtain real-time stock levels from
their members with Coena Node and sell them to retail shops. Logistics operations to move physical stock
from network members to customers is tracked and reported. Members send and receive quotations, orders, invoices, and logistics messages
with business network messaging.
Buying similar products together
Network members who need to buy similar product from the same supplier achieve significant savings by consolidating their orders. With
Coena Node, network members indicate how much of a product they need. Then the network moderator collects
demand from all members, and sends consolidated orders to the suppliers. A Network moderator can connect to logistics providers and provide
services to members to track shipments of each individual member's orders with the supplier.
Offering shared services together
Several businesses can work together and offer shared services to customers through the network moderator. These services can be very specific,
like consulting services or highly standardized, like equipment rentals. The network moderator defines the structure of the services to ensure
a consistent customer experience. Customers can order services, and individual members of the business network can invoice for the services
they have provided.
Want to learn more? Our stories section contains examples of the development of business networks.
Product Management
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.
Inventory Management
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.
Marketplace
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.
Business Messaging
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.
