Driving Complex Content in E-Commerce

By Penny Lunt

Many vendors claim that their software drives e-commerce. But when you need to handle complex online transactions that require supporting content, electronic signatures and workflow, how many of them really fit the bill?

Our search for real-life examples of content management, forms and workflow software powering e-commerce turned up three instructional case studies. Persistence Software is managing complicated contracts completely online. LCM Healthcare is submitting insurance claims and getting paid online. JCPenney is creating and repurposing content for high-volume online and print catalogs.

Online Contracts From Start to Signature

Persistence Software, a San Mateo, CA-based developer of e-commerce application servers, had a contract challenge on its hands. "Our contracts are complex," explains Chris Russell, the company's chief financial officer. "We sell software licenses, consulting services, development licenses and so on, [and they're not] shrinkwrap products."

Persistence Software

E-commerce challenge: Need to move from paper to online contracts to match e-commerce focus of business.
Solution: Content management software specialized for contracts and delivered via ASP.
Vendor: diCarta, Redwood City, CA, 650-474-3800, www.dicarta.com
Product: diCarta Contracts.
Description: Software for managing, negotiating, processing and renewing contracts, delivered via the application service provider model.
Client: Any browser.
Price: Annual fee starting at $10,000 that includes 25 contracts.

LCM Healthcare

E-commerce challenge: Processing insurance claims and accepting payments online online from among parties with different formats and software.
Solution: Hosted claims management, data interchange and e-payments software
Vendor: Medi.com, Thousand Oaks, CA, 805-777-7773, www.medi.com
Product: Claim Master and ERA Master.
Description: Claim Master streamlines claims distribution and management of UB92 and HCFA1500 forms. ERA Master enables providers and payers to automatically receive electronic remittance advice from government and commercial insurance carriers.
Price: Undisclosed fee per claim.

JCPenney

E-commerce challenge: Simultaneously managing multiple online and print catalogs.
Solution: Content management software
Vendor: Documentum, Pleasanton, CA, 925-600-6800, www.documentum.com
Product: 4i eBusiness Edition.
Description: Content management software providing site management and replication features for e-commerce sites with multiple Web servers. Permits authoring in tools such as Microsoft Word, in templates designed within 4i and in such Web design tools as HomeSite, DreamWeaver and Front Page.
Client: Any browser.
Price: $200 to $600 per seat based on volume. Server-based pricing option ranges from $7,000 to $80,000.

Until recently, Persistence used paper contracts, and they were up to two inches thick with dozens of yellow sticky notes. It took up to 12 months to negotiate the details. This did nothing to impress the company's roster of Web-savvy clients, which includes Cicso, Intel, Morgan Stanley and Shopnow.com.

"When you're a company that promotes electronic commerce, you have to conduct your business the same way your customers conduct their business," says Russell.

Russell heard about contract management software from an application service provider (ASP) named diCarta, Redwood City, CA. While she was already a fan (and a user) of the ASP model, Russell had two concerns about using an ASP for contracts. One was that she would be sending confidential data off to somebody else's server. The other concern was ensuring sufficient encryption so that nobody could pick off the data on its way to the ASP.

"Those two requirements are relatively easy to satisfy," Russell says. "For the first, make sure that the ASP gives you rights to recover your information should your relationship end or the company go out of business. For the second, make sure that they're using 128-bit encryption."

Convinced that the diCarta software was safe, Russell was sold on the return on investment possibilities. She expects to save a lot of money on contract renewals. Persistence has been using telemarketers working at 6 percent commission to renew $3 million worth of annual contracts. A module of the diCarta solution now sends notifications to the customer at 90, 60 and 30 days prior to the close of the contract. At 30 days, the software also notifies Persistence.

"Now I can focus the telemarketing staff on bringing in new customers and gaining new sources of revenue," Russell says. "That will pay for the diCarta software."

Healthcare System Takes Claims and Payments Online

Despite its name, Chicago-based Little Company of Mary (LCM) Hospital and Health Care Centers employ 3,500 people in multiple hospitals, doctors offices and other facilities. These employees used to fill out and mail paper insurance claims. Processing took 45 working days, and claims were sometimes returned just for formatting or clerical corrections.

Using an application service provider solution from Medi.com, Thousand Oaks, CA, the claims process has been turned into one e-commerce transaction. Using Medi.com's Claim Master and ERA Master software, UB92 and HCFA1500 claims are sent and processed electronically, and LCM receives an electronic payment within 10 working days.

"This greatly improves our cash flow and interest earned on cash flow," says Clyde Evans, director of business services at LCM.

LCM currently processes 100,000 claims a year. They use a mainframe for patient and billing information. Claims data is downloaded from the system and transmitted to a server running Medi.com software. The Medi.com system process the data and puts it in a format acceptable to the payers. It performs compliance edits on the data and will identify errors or incompatibility with a payer's system. LCM employees address these problems before the claims are sent.

"We no longer have surprises about nonstandard claims," Evans says.

Medi.com sends the e-claims through the Envoy payment network and through direct connections with such major payers as Medicaid and Medicare. At the back end, the LCM uses Medi.com's electronic remittance advice software, ERA Master, to receive payments via electronic funds transfer, and it posts them to the mainframe billing system.

JCPenney Exchanges Digital Assets Over the Web

Retail giant JCPenney, Plano, TX, has a $4 billion catalog business that manages 70 catalogs, 20,000 images and 4 million SKUs. The content management challenges were overwhelming, particularly as online opportunities unfolded.

"Very few content management vendors out there have the architecture in place to handle a print business of our size as well as an online business, particularly in the product-oriented world," says Robert Green, JCPenney's Internet systems development manager.

A few months ago, the cataloger chose Documentum 4i eBusiness Edition from Documentum, Pleasanton, CA, as a content repository for all print and online catalogs.

"Documentum's architecture and scalability work well for us," Green says. "All digital assets, including photos and text descriptions, are indexed and stored to 4i."

For the online catalogs, a custom application ports text and graphics to JCPenney's Web server, where the images and copy are rendered to match the online catalog design. Suppliers such as Levi Strauss submit product information and photos in XML format to a JCPenney FTP site. From there they are automatically extracted into the 4i repository at designated intervals. The cataloger will soon begin using 4i to repurpose content for third-party shopping sites, such as America Online and auction site Fair Market.

As for the print catalogs, JCPenney's publishing software repurposes selected photos and text available in 4i. The company will soon migrate to a new publishing system, which will also use 4i.

Green says JCPenney was attracted by Documentum 4i's zero-deployment Web-based clients and its workflow technology. "A lot of departments have to touch content before it goes on the Internet," he says. "This way it appears in each person's inbox."

As an example, there might be an "assortment plan" for 500 items to be offered in a particular catalog. When an item shows up in the inbox of a graphics person, they will associate an image to the item, whereas copywriters will associate appropriate text. When both parties are finished with the item, it is sent on to a reviewer who makes sure it's the right image and that the copy reads well.

"In the past, we had a piece of paper that went from office to office," Green says.