Separately, Enterworks' Catalog Builder, introduced this month, integrates disparate sources and allows suppliers to format only once before delivering to multiple channels. Enterworks is trying to ease the pain of reformatting a supplier's electronic catalog every time it wants to post items to a different e-marketplace. Catalog Builder sits on top of Enterworks' Content Integrator software and maps product information from sources in different components of a supplier's back-end systems.
Users can categorize items and create a structure for the product catalog.
The software passes off the data to Content Integrator, which publishes the information in whatever format the e-marketplace requires. Content Integrator recognizes a supplier's business rules on things such as when to apply discounts. It has little impact to your operational system. HubStorm's eSupplier also draws catalog data from multiple sources, but it organizes it in a single master catalog. Calif. A rules-based engine lets suppliers set rules for dynamic pricing, shipping charges and the like.