eCl@ss classifies a wide range of industrial products and was developed by leading German companies. It defines a standard for the exchange of information between suppliers and customers and is used in particular for mapping the procurement market for purchasers. eCl@ass is characterized by a 4-step hierarchical classification key the first three levels of which represent product groups and has a register of currently 30.000 keywords. As a compromise designed to satisfy the different requirements of many companies eCl@ass currently supplies a constrained set of properties for the description of products (attributes/parameters). However, this is already a major step ahead for the exchange of information between companies.
Browse through the eCl@ss standard with our classviewer. 
The classification of products (goods and services) is a prerequisite for the electronic data exchange in particular. If eCl@ass can be established as a standard anybody understands and uses, there must be the option to further adapt it to the needs of individual companies. The additional criteria so added must be as adaptable as possible to suit the needs of individual companies.
With INCONY's ANTEROS software, product catalogues, configuration systems and spare part brokerage systems, internal and external marketplaces can be developed that are on the one hand eCl@ss-conformant but which can on the other hand be structured more deeply. So a roller bearing may classified along the four classification levels of eCl@ass but on the fourth level it may be further subdivided to hold more details. So new levels and parameters can be added to increase the precision of the retrieval. The possibility to offer several classifications in a catalog and to make it possible to map these on each other enable a smooth transition from existing classifications to the eCl@ss standard. In addition different views on the data are supported. Since the different views and classifications systems always access a single database there is no danger of inconsistencies data can be decentrally entered and so it´s easy to keep it up-to-date.
The more unique the specification of a product line in particular that of an individual product the more effective and efficient is search for both the sell-side and the buy-side which obviously has a cost-cutting effect. Uniqueness of search information is provided by classifications and parameters. Since the levels of detail of a description can be freely selected it is no problem to map complex structures while maintaining adherence to a classification, e.g. eCl@ss. If the data structure was normalized by both business partners via base classification another step is made towards electronic business (e.g. e-procurement is made).
What is special about ANTEROS in this context is its openess to both operating systems and databases and its openess in data exchange formats and classifications. There is virtually no effort required in coupling a company's data sources and destinations. ANTEROS can be integrated in almost all existing systems making today's IT investments a basic module for software you develop to meet tomorrow's requirements.
INCONY is eCl@ss profi
