IBM WebSphere Commerce V7.0 Feature Pack 8 accelerates time-to-market for next generation B2B e-commerce and adds important new capabilities for both B2B and B2C
IBM United States Software Announcement 214-379October 1, 2014
ENUS214-379.PDF| Table of contents | ||||||||||||||||||||
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(Corrected on November 24, 2014)
Updated Terms and conditions section.
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| Overview |
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Business to business (B2B) customers now expect the same rich content, cutting-edge capabilities, and productivity benefits that they experience when using business to consumer (B2C) websites. At the same time, many B2B businesses are looking to grow their business through direct B2C online selling channels. These businesses need to manage all their channels, whether B2B or B2C, on a common platform that provides business user tools with the capabilities to quickly create and publish engaging and seamless brand experiences across all digital channels, including mobile, with a reduced dependency on their IT department.
IBM® WebSphere® Commerce V7.0 Feature Pack 8 delivers enhanced e-commerce capabilities for B2B businesses that help accelerate time-to-market and deliver engaging brand experiences through an updated WebSphere Commerce Aurora store. Using best practices for store implementations and management, the Aurora store now provides a single starter store that supports both B2C and B2B models and takes advantage of the WebSphere Commerce representational state transfer (REST) application programming interface (API). With Feature Pack 8, B2B and B2C businesses are able to benefit from leading capabilities designed to:
- Enable sellers to engage with buyers through their chosen devices using Responsive Web Design (RWD) to optimize the storefront search and browse experience.
- Achieve faster time-to-market for new campaigns and initiatives. IBM Commerce Composer for WebSphere Commerce reduces the dependency on IT departments and gives business users unprecedented control over site content and the user experience.
- Expedite the adoption of innovative third-party services and solutions from a wide range of partners by providing access to prebuilt integrations for WebSphere Commerce that are validated as Ready for IBM Smarter Commerce™. Integrations include partner widgets for Commerce Composer that are designed to further enhance the customer experience.
- Allow buyers to find more relevant products faster using the power of WebSphere Commerce search with features that include faceted search, search-based merchandising, and product recommendations, all supported by business user tools that enable product attribute-level control over products offered.
- Deliver value faster and at lower cost by taking advantage of WebSphere Commerce Starter Store Companion Assets. These assets include documented use cases, wireframes, a style guide, and test scripts for the automated test framework.
In addition, WebSphere Commerce V7.0 Feature Pack 8 delivers productivity benefits with dynamic sales categories, flexibility through an expanded range of B2B and B2C REST API services, enhanced integration for IBM Sterling Configurator, and further enhancements for the benefit of B2B and B2C businesses as requested directly by customers through the IBM Request for Enhancement (RFE) Community. The RFE Community is available at
WebSphere Commerce V7.0 Feature Pack 8 replaces Feature Pack 7 and includes all of the features previously released with Feature Pack 7. For complete details about WebSphere Commerce V7.0 and previous feature packs, refer to the announcement listed in the Reference information section.
For ordering, contact your IBM representative, an IBM Business Partner, or IBM Americas Call Centers at 800-IBM-CALL (Reference: YE001).
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| Key prerequisites |
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WebSphere Commerce V7.0 Feature Pack 8 runs on selected levels of the IBM AIX®, IBM i, Microsoft™ Windows™, Red Hat Enterprise Linux™, Sun Solaris, and SUSE Linux Enterprise operating systems. Refer to the Technical information section for details.
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| Planned availability date |
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- November 26, 2014: Electronic download
- December 5, 2014: Physical media
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| Description |
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Enhancements in IBM WebSphere Commerce V7.0 Feature Pack 8
A single storefront for B2B and B2C
The Aurora storefront is enhanced with business to business (B2B) capabilities that include requisition lists, purchase orders, line of credit, multiple carts, product entitlement, and contract pricing to create a single starter store for all business models. The single storefront provides the following additional benefits:
- A consistent and functionally rich customer experience for both B2B and business to customer (B2C) that leverages:
- IBM Commerce Composer for business control of the user experience.
- Responsive layouts and widgets that deliver content optimized for the browser size and aspect ratio.
- WebSphere Commerce search for advanced search-based merchandising, eSite and B2B price facets, and auto-suggestions with entitlement.
- WebSphere Commerce Companion Assets to help expedite faster solution delivery at lower cost.
- An enhanced user experience for buyer administrators and buyer approvers with administrative and operational functions provided directly within the storefront. Buyer administrators can approve new buyers, create buyer approvers, and perform specific tasks on behalf of buyers, including the management of requisition lists and submitting orders.
- Access to validated prebuilt integrations to third-party services and solutions from a wide range of partners. Integrations include partner widgets designed for Commerce Composer.
Expanded REST API services
The WebSphere Commerce representational state transfer (REST) application programming interface (API) is expanded to include support for additional B2C functionality in the Aurora starter store and introduces B2B-specific functionality. In addition, the REST framework is updated to simplify the creation and consumption of REST APIs and helps support:
- Development of native mobile applications.
- Use of alternative web UI technologies for storefront presentation.
- A consistent approach for partner widgets, designed for Commerce Composer, to interact with the WebSphere Commerce server.
Enhanced IBM Sterling Configurator integration
Feature Pack 8 simplifies and accelerates the selling of complex products through an enhanced integration to IBM Sterling Configurator that:
- Enables business users to set up multiple predefined configurations for configurable products in the WebSphere Commerce catalog and manage purchase entitlement for specific customers. Predefined configurations support:
- WebSphere Commerce search for faceted search and navigation.
- Merchandising associations, marketing activities, and promotions.
- Supports globalization across WebSphere Commerce, Sterling Configurator, and IBM Sterling Visual Modeler.
- Enables pricing integration, including enhanced support for the price lock capability.
- Enables WebSphere Commerce orders that have configured products to be processed by IBM Sterling Order Management.
You must acquire Sterling Configurator, Sterling Order Management, and IBM Sterling Order Management Configurator Add-on for WebSphere Commerce software separately. For details, refer to the Software requirements section.
Dynamic sales categories
Powerful new Management Center catalog tooling enables business users to quickly create sales categories containing products and SKUs based on search rules.
- Business users can define the contents of a category using rules based on categories, attributes, and other properties that are in the WebSphere Commerce Search index.
- Products and SKUs in dynamic sales categories can be set at authoring time or can be dynamically updated on a predefined schedule.
- Business users can explicitly specify products to supplement the list generated from the search rule.
IBM Tealeaf® integration for B2B
Business users can employ Tealeaf Customer Experience to help rapidly identify and resolve hidden or hard-to-find site application problems through analytical insights and problem area drill down. By replaying troublesome shopper interactions, exact problems can be quickly pinpointed and resolutions can be actioned. The Aurora starter store B2B checkout flow is preconfigured for Tealeaf Customer Experience in Feature Pack 8. (The B2C checkout flow was preconfigured for Tealeaf Customer Experience in Feature Pack 6.)
Feature Pack 8 bundles IBM Tealeaf Customer Experience and IBM Tealeaf Impact for use in test environments. You must acquire IBM Tealeaf Customer Experience software separately for production and staging use. For details, refer to the Software requirements section.
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| Reference information |
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For details about WebSphere Commerce V7.0 Feature Pack 7 and previous feature packs, refer to 214-002, dated January 07, 2014.
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| Availability of national languages |
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Availability
Description date Language
IBM WebSphere V7.0 Feature Pack 8 November 26, English
Electronic Download 2014 French
German
Italian
Polish
Portuguese
(Brazilian)
Romanian
Russian
Spanish
Chinese
(Simplified)
Chinese
(Traditional)
Japanese
Korean
IBM WebSphere V7.0 Feature Pack 8 December 5, As above
Physical Media 2014
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| Program number |
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Enhancements in Feature Pack 8 affect the following products:
Program
number VRM Program name
5724-I36 7.0.0 IBM WebSphere Commerce Express
5724-I37 7.0.0 IBM WebSphere Commerce Developer
Express
5724-I38 7.0.0 IBM WebSphere Commerce Enterprise
5724-I39 7.0.0 IBM WebSphere Commerce Developer
Enterprise
5724-I40 7.0.0 IBM WebSphere Commerce
Professional
5724-I41 7.0.0 IBM WebSphere Commerce Developer
Professional
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| Technical information |
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Specified operating environment
Hardware requirements
For basic requirements, refer to 209-362, dated October 27, 2009.
After the general availability date, visit the IBM WebSphere Commerce V7.0 Knowledge Center for the latest information at
Software requirements
For basic requirements, refer to 209-362, dated October 27, 2009.
After the general availability date, visit the IBM WebSphere Commerce V7.0 Knowledge Center for the latest information at
The program's specifications and specified operating environment information may be found in documentation accompanying the program, if available, such as a readme file, or other information published by IBM, such as an announcement letter. Documentation and other program content may be supplied only in the English language.
Planning information
Packaging
The products detailed in this announcement will be available in both ESD and packaged formats. Physical media is delivered on CDs or DVDs. This program, when downloaded from a website, contains the applicable IBM license agreement and License Information, if appropriate, and will be presented for acceptance at the time of installation of the program. For future reference, the license and License Information will be stored in a directory such as LICENSE.TXT.
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| Software Services |
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IBM Software Services has the breadth, depth, and reach to manage your services needs. You can leverage the deep technical skills of our lab-based, software services team and the business consulting, project management, and infrastructure expertise of our IBM Global Services team. Also, we extend our IBM Software Services reach through IBM Business Partners to provide an extensive portfolio of capabilities. Together, we provide the global reach, intellectual capital, industry insight, and technology leadership to support a wide range of critical business needs.
To learn more about IBM Software Services or to contact a Software Services sales specialist, visit
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| Ordering information |
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This product is only available via Passport Advantage®. It is not available as shrinkwrap.
These products may only be sold directly by IBM or by authorized IBM Business Partners for Software Value Plus.
For more information about IBM Software Value Plus, visit
To locate IBM Business Partners for Software Value Plus in your geography for a specific Software Value Plus portfolio, visit
Passport Advantage
The licensed part numbers for ordering have not changed.
Refer to 209-362, dated October 27, 2009.
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| Terms and conditions |
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The terms and conditions for WebSphere Commerce V7.0, as previously announced in Software Announcement 209-362, dated October 27, 2009, are unchanged. Separate License Information documents are available for Feature Pack 8.0 as follows:
Product License
identifier Product name Information ID
5724-I38 WebSphere Commerce Enterprise L-JTAG-9MYKLQ
V7.0 Feature Pack 8
5724-I40 WebSphere Commerce Professional L-JTAG-9MYKLQ
V7.0 Feature Pack 8
5724-I36 WebSphere Commerce Express® L-JTAG-9MYKLQ
V7.0 Feature Pack 8
5724-I39 WebSphere Commerce Developer L-JTAG-9MYKLQ
Enterprise V7.0 Feature
Pack 8
5724-I41 WebSphere Commerce Developer L-JTAG-9MYKLQ
Professional V7.0 Feature
Pack 8
5724-I37 WebSphere Commerce Developer L-JTAG-9MYKLQ
Express V7.0 Feature Pack 8
The programs' License Information is available for review on the IBM Software License Agreement website at
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| Statement of good security practices |
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IT system security involves protecting systems and information through prevention, detection, and response to improper access from within and outside your enterprise. Improper access can result in information being altered, destroyed, or misappropriated or can result in misuse of your systems to attack others. Without a comprehensive approach to security, no IT system or product should be considered completely secure and no single product or security measure can be completely effective in preventing improper access. IBM systems and products are designed to be part of a comprehensive security approach, which will necessarily involve additional operational procedures, and may require other systems, products, or services to be most effective. IBM does not warrant that systems and products are immune from the malicious or illegal conduct of any party.
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| Prices |
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The prices are unchanged by this announcement.
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| Order now |
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To order, contact the Americas Call Centers or your local IBM representative, or your IBM Business Partner.
To identify your local IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, call 800-IBM-4YOU (426-4968).
Phone: 800-IBM-CALL (426-2255)
Fax: 800-2IBM-FAX (242-6329)
Email: callserv@ca.ibm.com
Mail: IBM Teleweb Customer Support
ibm.com® Sales Execution Center, Americas North
3500 Steeles Ave. East, Tower 3/4
Markham, Ontario
Canada
L3R 2Z1
Reference: YE001
The Americas Call Centers, our national direct marketing organization, can add your name to the mailing list for catalogs of IBM products.
Note: Shipments will begin after the planned availability date.
IBM Software Value Plus
These products are available under IBM Software Value Plus, either directly from IBM or through authorized Business Partners who invest in skills and high-value solutions. IBM customers may benefit from the industry-specific or horizontal solutions, skills, and expertise provided by these Business Partners.
Additions to Software Value Plus will be communicated through standard product announcements. For a current list of IBM software available under Software Value Plus, visit
For questions regarding Software Value Plus, visit
Trademarks
Smarter Commerce is a trademark of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
IBM, WebSphere, AIX, Tealeaf, Passport Advantage, Express and ibm.com are registered trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
Terms of use
IBM products and services which are announced and available in your country can be ordered under the applicable standard agreements, terms, conditions, and prices in effect at the time. IBM reserves the right to modify or withdraw this announcement at any time without notice. This announcement is provided for your information only. Additional terms of use are located at
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