Architectural design for product catalog management application software

US8326703B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• SAP AG · DE

Inventors

• Markus Peter · St. Leon-Rot, DE
• Jens Freund · Heidelberg, DE
• Stefan Kaetker · Dossenheim, DE
• Gerd Moosmann · Pforzheim, DE
• Peter Latocha · Malsch, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 30, 2005
• Grant date: Dec 4, 2012
• Expiry date: Jun 27, 2029

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q30/0641
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for implementing a software architecture design for a software application implementing catalog management useful to create or update published catalogs based on product master data changes or external supplier catalogs. The application is structured as multiple process components interacting with each other through service interfaces, and multiple service interface operations, each being implemented for a respective process component. The process components include a Purchasing Contract Processing process component that handles agreements between a purchaser and a supplier; a Product Catalogue Authoring process component that creates and edits product catalogs by collecting product information from relevant sources, controls the quality of the product catalogs' contents, and controls when and to what extent Product Catalogues can be published; and a Product Catalogue Publishing process component that makes published product catalogs available to a large number of users electronically for use in other business processes.