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Intelligent Online Configuration of Products by Customers of Electronic Shop Systems

Objetivo

The INTELLECT project aims to contribute to a new type of trade in the business sector of trading and shopping in Europe. Therefore the project will develop an electronic shop system including an online configuration module for products which will be represented by 3D / virtual reality techniques and advanced user assistance and advice to improve the business opportunities for European service providers and consultants as well as for manufacturers, wholesalers, sellers, and their customers.

INTELLECT objectives are to enable the suitable representation of products including all practicable variants in electronic commerce systems to achieve the most realistic possible visualisation. Industrial target groups are bicycle manufacturers, suppliers, and wholesalers, distributors of computer equipment and networking products and in addition average customers. The conception of the system will be as generalised as possible to facilitate the transfer to other industrial sectors.

The use of the INTELLECT system will support the close co-operation of companies and customers inside of the European production, supply and trade chain to strengthen the enterprises involved in the European market against the world-wide acting non-European competitors.

INTELLECT is subdivided into seven phases: In phase I the user requirements will be analysed, a user group will be established by a kick-off workshop and the state-of-the-art in on-line shop systems, virtual reality development and user-advice and assistance systems will be evaluated. In addition a first market survey will be carried out. Based on these results phase II will carry out the system modules' conception and will make a decision about the software development environment. First small modules will be produced by the rapid and evolving prototyping method. Phase III will perform and conclude the implementation of the system and overall integration of the modules.

Phase IV starts the integration of the system developed
at the users' sites to lead over to the different pilots. The information repository will be populated again by close involvement of the end users. The partially overlapping phase V will evaluate the system/pilot regarding its usefulness and suitability to the user needs. This will include techno-economic adequacy analyses as well as usability tests. The first market survey will be extended to a market definition to quantify market targets and to identify economic consequences for possible services to be provided and industrial users.

Phases VI and VII are continuous tasks for dissemination and exploitation, and project management. The INTELLECT project management serves to a successful handling and settlement of all management related responsibilities. The dissemination and exploitation management tasks will be carried out to achieve the planned goals including a promising post-project commercialisation phase.

As a result of the project's activities, by the end of the project, the e-commerce system prototype developed will be ready for commercialisation and the end users involved in tests and demonstrations will be able to use the system for their core business, then extended to the Internet.

Milestones
The overall INTELLECT result will be an electronic commerce system for products which can be con-figured on-line in virtual reality. Company's in-house databases, security and privacy demands, a con-figuration module incl. management of variant dependencies, and a user-friendly assistance module will be integrated. Milestones are the establishment of a user group, the specification and implementation of the system, the conclusion of the pilots, and two international workshops for dissemination.

Objectives:
INTELLECT will combine modern eShop functionality with state-of-the-art database and variant con-figuration technology as well as upcoming Web 3D techniques like Java3D and VRML (a development environment for virtual reality "worlds" in the world wide web), the integrated Helpdesk module will provide user friendly pre- and after-sales support to the customers through the use of multimedia, Communication with media chosen by the customer based on the technical environment.

Work description:
The system to be developed by the INTELLECT project is composed of several modules which are shown in the following figure. The main Intranet modules consist of the existing database (management system) for the order processing module and electronic shopping. This database contains all product and order related information. It will be populated and updated using information already available in the supplier systems. This information will be updated on-line using standards for the ex-change of product data (e.g. STEP). In addition a second database is filled with multimedia representations (volumes models, sounds, videos, textures, etc.) as well as all rules of their interdependencies concerning the technical construction and representation of the company's product line. The configuration module supports creation and population of this second database.
Further - next to the electronic shop module - the presentation module is intended as the main module for online interaction with the customer. This module offers
- individual configuration of the viewed objects,
- textual and audio visual explanations,
- tips for the customer concerning his selections, things that fit well together in terms of technical properties, style and design,
- strength and weakness of the product when fitted with optional features and more.
All presentation on the screen of the customer's computer will be realised with newest multimedia technologies. Virtual reality (VRML) will be used to demonstrate e. g. the fit of the accessories selected to the virtual image of the main product.

In case of unanswered questions the customer has the possibility to call the company's hot line or call centre with the application via the Internet. Technologies to be used are Internet telephony with screen sharing and / or video conferencing.
The electronic shop module takes the order of the customer over a secure connection via the Internet. At this time a human employee could carry out a spot check of the order to attest the customer the correctness of the order. An acknowledgement with complete details of the order will be returned automatically to the customer.

Milestones:
The overall INTELLECT result will be an electronic commerce system for products which can be configured on-line in virtual reality. Company's in-house databases, security and privacy demands, a configuration module incl. management of variant dependencies, and a user-friendly assistance module will be integrated.
From the customer's point of view the system must be usable as easy as possible and should reflect the proceedings of a 'real' shopping event one to one. The goal is to open the world of electronic purchase to the average consumer without any (computer related) specialised knowledge. On-line configuration using 3D interfaces integrated into electronic shop systems will lead to a new type of trade in the business sector of trading and shopping.
Summarised the following advancements will be achieved:
- For the shop system vendor:
- Higher chances of market penetration,
- better standardised clearing mechanisms.
- For the shop owner/operator:
- Increased buyers' rush by simple usage and better (more realistic) presentation,
- easy to handle configuration module for the complete product's multimedia information; tools for using existing and creating new graphical representations including logical inter-dependencies of all product's variants,
- installation and management of the shop with support by a holistic tool kit including prod-uct relevant information usually not stored in the order processing system of the company,
- closer customer relationship by hot-line via advanced communication methods like Inter-net telephony, online chat system or video conferencing tools up to better after-sales services,
- support of available and established paying methods.
- For the user:
- User friendliness: simplified selection even by complex products or product structures, by better understanding of the handling procedures of the shop system for average custom-ers, technical inexperienced people.

Ámbito científico

Programa(s)

Tema(s)

Convocatoria de propuestas

Data not available

Régimen de financiación

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinador

UNIVERSITAET BREMEN
Aportación de la UE
Sin datos
Dirección
BIBLIOTHEKSTRASSE 1
28359 BREMEN
Alemania

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Última actualización: 13 Junio 2005

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/IST-1999-10375/es

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