IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce

The IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce, or Management Center, is a suite of tools to support store management, merchandising, and marketing tasks for business users (Sellers, Marketing Managers, Product Managers, Catalog Managers, and others).

Other business user roles, such as Customer Service Representatives, use WebSphere Commerce Accelerator to perform business operations, such as managing stores, inventory, fulfillment, orders, returns, payments, and auctions.

Management Center tools

The following table summarizes the tools that Management Center provides.


If you are ...	You can use the Management Center ...
Managing catalogs and merchandise	Catalogs tool Create and manage master and sales catalogs, including: defining categories creating products and SKUs categorizing SKUs bundling SKUs managing dynamic kits Enrich and manage product content, and create merchandising associations. Create, restore, view, and delete versions of catalog objects (sales catalog, category, and catalog entries). Create and manage search term associations, and associate search terms with landing pages. Manage product attributes with the Management Center attribute dictionary. Manage search engine optimization (SEO) properties for categories and catalog entries. View site search statistics for the keywords customers are using to search your site. Assign one or more attribute dictionary descriptive attributes to multiple catalog entries at a time. Add multiple catalog entries to multiple sales categories at a time in a single task. Create rule-based sales categories that use a WebSphere Commerce search based rule to find and automatically assign catalog entries to the categories. Use WebSphere Commerce search to quickly find catalog entries to assign to a sales category. View the catalog entries that are assigned a specific attribute dictionary attribute.
Managing promotions	Promotions tool Create and manage promotions for your merchandise. Review and manage promotions. Import promotion codes for use with your promotions. Export promotion codes for a promotion. If Management Center is integrated with IBM Marketing Center, you can open IBM Marketing Center from Management Center to upload exported promotion codes. IBM Marketing Center campaigns can include the promotion codes. Find promotions by using the Advanced Search feature in the Promotions tool. Archive inactive promotions to remove the promotions from displaying in the main promotions list and promotion folders. Prevent promotions from displaying in the main promotions list by moving the promotions into promotion folders.
Managing marketing campaigns	Marketing tool Design creative marketing campaigns that can contain web and email activities. Create experiments to test your campaign activities' effectiveness. Create and manage marketing content. Define the flow of marketing activities. Review and manage marketing activities. Create and manage search rules. Create and manage search rule experiments. If Management Center is integrated with IBM Marketing Center, you can open IBM Marketing Center from Management Center to create and manage marketing campaigns. These campaigns can include promotion codes that are exported from Management Center. Export customer segment information, such as email addresses, into a downloadable CSV file. Override the maximum file size limit for assets that are associated with marketing content. Configure marketing activities to target customers who are viewing catalog entries that have specific attributes.
Managing assets	Assets tool Browse attachments, managed files, and managed directories. Create, change, and delete attachments. Create, change, and delete managed files. Create and delete managed directories. Upload files, such as product images and marketing content.
Managing installment rules	Installments tool Create installment rules to offer customers different installment payment options when they purchase items from your store catalog. Review how installment rules are scheduled in relation to one another in a calendar tool. Review the list of active and inactive installment rules. Activate and deactivate installment rules. Update installment rules. Delete installment rules.
Managing stores	Store Management tool Update store profile information such as the name or description of a store, contact information, store location, and supported languages and currencies. Change the style of a store, including the store layout and color. Specify the functions that are available in your store, such as which optional fields to display on store pages. View your changes in the store. Open or close a store. Update the URL keyword of a static store page for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) friendly URLs.
Managing catalog filters, price lists, and price rules	Catalog Filter and Pricing tool Create, and manage catalog filters. Create and manage price lists and price rules. Upload catalog filters. Upload price lists.
Managing tasks that you perform in Management Center	Tasks tool Manage content within a workspace by selecting tasks, managing content within tasks, adding comments, and approving or rejecting tasks. Work on assigned tasks, complete tasks, and submit tasks for approval. Workspace Management tool Manage content within a workspace by selecting tasks, managing content within tasks, adding comments, and approving or rejecting tasks. Work on assigned tasks, complete tasks, and submit tasks for approval. View, open, and compare business object change history records to quickly see what modifications were made. Undo change history records to correct mistakes or to approve a task without needing to reject it. View the change history for a task group after the task group is approved or canceled.
Managing layouts for store pages	Page Layout tool Assign layouts to store pages. View layouts.
Creating pages and layouts, and managing layouts for store pages	Commerce Composer tool Create pages for your store. Create layouts for pages by using predefined widgets and templates. Assign layouts to store pages. View layouts.

Management Center menu

You can access the tools from the Management Center menu. The following screen captures show the menu contents for the base Version 7 Management Center and for each feature pack. The screen captures show how the menu evolved as new tools are added to Management Center.

Note: To display the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator menu option, you must use the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser and you must enable the menu option in your Management Center preferences.

Management Center tools menu with workspaces enabled

Each tool displays in its own tab within the Management Center:

To switch between each tool, click the appropriate tab.

Management Center roles and access

A Site Administrator can assign one or more Management Center roles to you. Your roles determine which tools you can access.


Role	Management Center tool access
Account Representative	Catalogs (read-only) Promotions Marketing Assets (read-only) Catalog Filter and Pricing Installments
Sales Manager	Catalogs (read-only) Promotions Marketing Assets (read-only) Catalog Filter and Pricing Installments Page Layout (read-only) Commerce Composer (read-only)
Channel Manager	Store Management
Marketing Director Note: In addition to all the access privileges of the Marketing Manager role, users with the Marketing Director role can also download exported customer segment information, such as email addresses, to a local file system.	Catalogs (read-only) Promotions Marketing Assets Installments Page Layout Commerce Composer
Marketing Manager	Catalogs (read-only) Promotions Marketing Assets Installments Page Layout Commerce Composer
Seller	Catalogs Promotions Marketing Assets (read-only) Catalog Filter and Pricing Installments Page Layout (read-only) Commerce Composer Store Management
Site Administrator	Catalogs Promotions Marketing Assets Catalog Filter and Pricing Installments Page Layout Commerce Composer Store Management Workspace Management
Product Manager	Catalogs Promotions Marketing Assets Installments Page Layout (read-only)
Category Manager	Catalogs Promotions Assets Page Layout (read-only)
Buyer (seller side)	Catalogs Promotions Assets (read-only)

If you need to change your access, contact your Site Administrator.

Developers familiar with the Management Center framework can also customize it further to suit their business needs.