Microsoft Navision Commerce Portal
Course 8421: One days; Instructor-Led

A thorough understanding of these topics allows you to use Commerce Portal to improve your responsiveness to vendor and customer demands. Your vendors and partners can use a personalized, convenient Web portal to do business with you. You learn how to maintain all your Web pages from within Navision, avoiding the need for extra Internet resources. Commerce Portal can help reduce costs by automating your commerce interactions and optimizing your supply chain. You can also create and complete reverse auctions, allowing your vendors to bid on an item via your Web portal, so you always get the best possible price the market can offer.

Audience
This course is intended for customers wanting to learn about the features of Commerce Portal and for those who want to develop a working knowledge of the procedures required to effectively use the product. It is intended for customers familiar with the accounting and business management application in Navision and for people that already have a general knowledge of business management and of Windows® 2000, Microsoft® SQL 2000 Server®, and Microsoft® Commerce Server.

The class is targeted toward IT professionals, information workers, office managers, CEOs, and consultants who need to understand the technical aspects of Commerce Portal and gain foundational knowledge of the application functionality.

At Course Completion
After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Create multiple websites to suit your business needs.

• Define permissions for your Web portal users based on roles.

• Create an electronic catalog.

• Set up automatic e-mail notifications to Web portal users and colleagues.

• Set up specific language-dependent text and descriptions to be used on your Web portal.

• Create a reverse auction and thereby increase the cost efficiency of your purchasing activity.

• Maintain and change your Web pages as necessary.

• Troubleshoot common issues and maintain Commerce Portal.

Prerequisites
Before attending this course, students must have:

• General knowledge of Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft SQL 2000 Server, and Microsoft Commerce Server.

• Basic knowledge of the accounting and business management application in Navision.

Microsoft Certified Professional Exams
No Microsoft Certified Professional exams are associated with this course currently.

Course Materials
The student materials include a comprehensive workbook and other necessary items for this class.

Course Outline
Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter provides students with a general overview of the features and benefits of using Commerce Portal in an integrated environment.

Main Topics

• Prerequisites

• Overview

• Key Features

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• Identify the key features and benefits available when using Commerce Portal.

• Know what the prerequisites are for installing Commerce Portal.

• Understand how Commerce Portal links the Microsoft products together.

Chapter 2: Setting Up Commerce Portal

This chapter focuses on the setup procedures for Commerce Portal. After you have completed the installation of the required Microsoft products and Navision servers and clients, there are a number of parameters in the Commerce Portal application area that you have to choose. This chapter covers all the different setup procedures that have to be in place before you can start to use Commerce Portal.

Main Topics

• Setting Up Commerce Portal

• Setting Up Navision Application Server

• Setting Up a Website

• Setting Up Web Portal Roles and Permissions

• Setting Up Notification Processes

• Setting Up Web Templates

Labs

• Creating a Website

• Creating Notification Processes

• Creating Web Templates

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• Set up general information for Commerce Portal.

• Set up different websites comprising your Web portal.

• Create different portal users, give them roles and allocate permissions.

• Set up internal and external notifications.

• Understand and create Web templates.

Chapter 3: Setting Up Web Pages

This chapter outlines how to create Web pages that make up your Web portal based on the Web templates that you have already set up. It shows how to verify that all links are valid. The chapter also describes how to add pictures to your Web pages.

Main Topics

• Creating Web Pages

• Testing Hyperlinks

• Adding Pictures to Your Web Portal

Labs

• Creating a Web Page

• Adding Lines to Web Templates

• Adding Menu Items to Your Web Portal Home Page

• Reloading Web Pages

• Testing and Fixing Hyperlinks

• Creating a Picture

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• Create Web pages.

• Understand how to maintain and update hyperlinks.

• Add pictures to your Web pages.

Chapter 4: Setting Up Items and Customers

This chapter outlines the final steps you must take before you can welcome users onto your Web portal. Your Web portal contains an electronic product catalog to display the items that you plan to sell. When you design your catalog, you may want to display your items in groups. You can group your items in many different ways.

Main Topics

• Grouping Items on Your Web Portal

• Customers and Commerce Portal

Labs

• Creating a New Class of Item on Your Storefront

• Synchronizing to your Web Portal

• Creating a New Contact Person

• Logging On to Your Web Portal

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• Group items on your Web portal.

• Allow new and existing customers to place orders on your Web portal.

Chapter 5: Working with Reverse Auction

This chapter describes how you use a reverse auction to ease your purchasing process by requesting offers on different items from your vendors through the Web portal. You can give your vendors access to some of your internal information, located in Navision, by giving them access to your Web portal and you can use the notification process to automatically inform your vendors via e-mail of different events connected with your reverse auctions. This chapter covers all the tasks involved in completeing a reverse auction.

Main Topics

• Vendors and Commerce Portal

• Reverse Auction

Labs

• Creating a New Contact

• Creating a Reverse Auction

• Making a Bid for a Reverse Auction

• Closing a Reverse Auction

• Selecting a Vendor and Making a Purchase Offer

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• Enable vendors to access information and respond to reverse auctions on your Web portal.

• Create and complete a reverse auction.

Chapter 6: Maintaining Microsoft Business Solutions(Navision Commerce Portal

This chapter gives an overview of the system architecture used for Commerce Portal and describes ways to troubleshoot Commerce Portal and monitor its status.

Main Topics

• System Architecture

• Synchronization

• Troubleshooting Synchronization

• Monitoring the Status of Commerce Portal

Labs

• Stopping and Starting the Navison Application Server

• Changing the security setting of the Synch. Message Queue

• Stopping and Starting the Navision Commerce Portal Synchronization Service

• Handling the Error Message Queue

• Troublshooting Navision Application Server

• Maintaining Commerce Portal

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• Understand how the components are linked together to comprise Commerce Portal.

• Understand how the data is synchronized.

• Troubleshoot the synchronization process to establish the cause of unsuccessful synchronization.

• Maintain Commerce Portal.

Example I: Adding Page Properties to Web Pages

This example is a comprehensive lab that describes how to add a new page property to an existing Web page and how to display this on the Web portal.

Labs

• Adding a New Page Property to the Web Template

• Assigning a Value to the Page Property

• Modifying the Relevant ASP Files

After completing this example, you will be able to:

• Add a new page property to an existing Web page.

• Assign a value to the page property and display the result on your Web portal.

Example II: Adding New Fields to Your Web Portal

This example is a comprehensive lab that describes how to expand the synchronization of the Contact table to include a new field and how to display the value of the new field on your Web portal.

Labs

• Modifying the Synchronization Management Codeunit

• Designing Commerce Server

• Forcing Synchronization of the Contact Table

• Modifying the Relevant ASP Files

After completing this example, you will be able to:

• Show additional fields on the Web portal by adding the fields you want to synchronize to the codeunit as well as to the relevant ASP page.

• Modify contact information in Commerce Server to enable fields to be visible on the Web portal.

Example III: Adding Permissions

This example is a comprehensive lab that describes how to add a new permission to the Permission List table, and explains how to modify the relevant ASP page to recognize the new permission.

Labs

• Adding a New Value to the Permission List Table

• Adding a New Permission to a Role

• Modifying the Relevant ASP Page

After completing this example, you will be able to:

• Add a new permission to the Web Portal Permission table in Navision and then add this new permission to a role.

• Make use of this new permission on the Web front, ensuring that the information can be viewed from the My Account Web page.