Base Composer - How to use

Base Composer consists of 3 tabs and a view of the cart content:

My customer numbers tab

Provides a list of customer numbers that you sold IBM products to (Distributors), together with extra customer numbers you registered in ESS.

Advanced search tab

Similarly to Inventory Explorer > Advanced search tab, you can find inventory data in several ways for adding to your cart retrieval.

• You can look for inventory data by using several search modes. When an inventory record is found, it must match the cart enterprise for it to be added to your retrieval.
• If the inventory records customer number is not in your profile, you are asked to confirm registration in order to add the machine to your cart. Keep in mind that upon registering the customer number of this machine to your profile, you'll only have 'View information' authorization to this particular inventory.
• You can also access the details of an inventory record to see the software license, active software maintenance contracts and hardware configurations.
• If the inventory record customer number is BP blocked, you will not be able to add the record to your cart, see its details or register the customer number on your profile.
• A filter is available to limit the results list even more.

My carts tab

It consists of a list of all your existing carts you created so far.

• "My carts" is the view where you can see all your existing carts here together with their customer number, name, status, last update, and a list of available activities. A filter is available to limit the results list if you need to narrow your search.
• Carts represent your previous retrievals and can always be reopened at any time.
• The cart status indicates whether some records are up-to-date or outdated. If some of the records are outdated, you can always click the refresh icon to rebuild your cart with the latest details.
• If the cart's customer number is not on your profile, you are asked to register to open it.
• Opening a cart sets it as your current cart. When you open a cart, you add more inventory records to it, remove inventory records from it, refresh its content. You can also view details of every record, which is included: software license, active software maintenance contracts and hardware configurations.
• If you assign a nickname to your cart, so that it is easy for you to identify what it represents.
• You can delete carts, which you do not need anymore.

Cart content

It's an overview of inventory records that you selected for your retrieval.

• When you select a customer number, a list of hardware machines that are available is loaded. A filter is available to limit the results list even more.
• It shows an overview of the inventory records and their customer numbers that are in your cart. The view can be expanded by clicking the arrows on the upper right part of the modal window.
• For each machine, you are able to look up details of its software license, active software maintenance contracts and hardware configurations.
• If the customer number is not yet registered on your ESS profile, you are asked to confirm registration, being a silent registration.
• You can choose only a customer number that is within the same legal enterprise as your current cart content.
• When your cart is empty, all customers are available again.
• When you add 1 inventory record, the cart is set and you can operate only with the customer numbers within the same legal enterprise.
• Enterprise attributes are affiliate, DUNS global, DUNS domestic, DUNS number, Global Buying Group ID, and Buying Group ID. At least one of the attributes needs to match.
• Customer numbers that are BP-blocked are not shown.

You can assign a nickname to easily identify what the cart contains and change the cart's customer based on customer numbers available across inventory records within the cart. Choosing a customer number that is not in your profile yet, provides you with the option to register it first.

You can open up the cart content details to see more information about the inventory records and the customer numbers that are associated with them. For each inventory record, you can view the software license, software service contracts and hardware configuration details. Those details represent the records as they are in the cart and not necessarily live inventory. If some of the records are outdated, you can always click the refresh icon to rebuild your cart with the latest details.

Once you have an active cart that has up-to-date data, you can click the Complete cart button that behaves differently depending from which application you access Base composer:

• ESS - completing cart closes Base composer and creates a CFR file with its content
• e-config on Cloud - gets you to the base validated step populated with selected inventory
• CPQ Hub - gets you back to your folder with an overview of the selected inventory

On-order data

On-order data information is displayed in the machines table and can be recognized by a new icon. When the machine is inserted to a cart, on-order data is also displayed in the cart details.

The New cart button saves your current cart and creates a new cart. You can always reopen your existing carts through My carts tab.

The Close button saves your current cart and closes the Base composer without any additional activity.

Parent topic:

→ Base Composer - General information