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Posted to dev@ofbiz.apache.org by Ron Wheeler <rw...@artifact-software.com> on 2015/02/04 16:02:31 UTC

ERP Buyers Guide

http://post.technologyevaluation.com/t/180998/19677306/17511/2/?560a3889=VEVDIDIwMTUgRVJQIGZvciBEaXNjcmV0ZSBNYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nIEJ1eWVyJ3MgR3VpZGU%3d&3b64e84d=X19uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2RhaWx5X2Vu&3b64e84d=X19uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2RhaWx5X2Vu&b0c7069d=MjM4NDEzOA%3d%3d&fb8dc108=cndoZWVsZXJAYXJ0aWZhY3Qtc29mdHdhcmUuY29t&x=3c8d597c

is a link to an interesting whitepaper from TEC (Gartner competitor) 
discussing the main ERP solutions that they follow.
The big trend that they identify is a move to more functional user 
interfaces that actually help users make sense of the data and find what 
they want quickly and do that in a way that is familiar to ERP users 
(Spreadsheets model).
They talk about automatic search where the user can type information 
into any field (phone number, first name, company name and have the 
system show up potential matches without having to go to a search 
screen.  This is what people who use email or web browsers expect 
computers to be able to do.

They expect that an ERP can be customized by each end-user to meet the 
needs of their job function and their aesthetic needs and that color be 
used effectively to highlight important information on screens.

They also discuss the trend towards strong analytics.
It includes screenshots from the top ERP solutions so it is easy to see 
what product evaluation analysts are looking for.

Integration of Social Networking is coming to ERP as well.

This should be carefully read before any attempt is made to get Gartner 
to evaluate OFBiz since it will give some indication about what they are 
going to expect when they open the demo and how they will approach the 
UI and analytics capabilities and data presentation.

Around page 18 there is a checklist of the functionality in 11 major 
areas that is covered by the ERP solutions (20 covered) that they 
consider important for Discrete Manufacturing situations.

Big discussion on the business case for CPQ and how this is becoming 
important in ERP selection.

There are companion articles about ERP for Process Industries and other 
applications that can be downloaded.


Ron

-- 
Ron Wheeler
President
Artifact Software Inc
email: rwheeler@artifact-software.com
skype: ronaldmwheeler
phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102


Re: ERP Buyers Guide

Posted by Ron Wheeler <rw...@artifact-software.com>.
Too far past my pay-grade!
This is more for the people working on the long-term development plans 
and the marketing position of OFBiz.

Not every competitor has all of the ideas incorporated into their products.
Not every idea is going have an ROI that the OFBiz community will find 
compelling but I thought that it was something worth reading for anyone 
who is looking at the future of OFBiz.
If there is anyone contemplating UI changes or addition of new modules, 
it is interesting.
It is not overly detailed and the discussion is about trends rather than 
specific product implementations.

It also has some slides about where the customers are spending money and 
what areas are getting $$$ attention by ERP users.

The feature checklist might be something that we might want to use as a 
base for some pages in the web site.
It certainly gives a way to group functionality into a reasonable set of 
categories that fit on 1 page and gives a scale that can be used to 
indicate how extensively OFBiz supports the requirements. Easy to 
compare the other companies using the TEC guide.
I am not sure how different Gartner's breakdown is.

Ron

On 05/02/2015 2:14 AM, Pierre Smits wrote:
> Feel free to register the improvement JIRAS for the overall aspect and 
> the individual occurrences.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Pierre Smits
>
> *ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com>*
> Services & Solutions for Cloud-
> Based Manufacturing, Professional
> Services and Retail & Trade
> http://www.orrtiz.com <http://www.orrtiz.com/>
>
> On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 8:02 AM, Ron Wheeler 
> <rwheeler@artifact-software.com 
> <ma...@artifact-software.com>> wrote:
>
>     I think that they are showing search results as the user types and
>     the ERP does not care what field you are entering.
>     If you start typing in the postal code field it will display
>     everyone whose postal code matches what you have typed so far.
>     When you stop typing, you can select the party that you are
>     interested in from the search results on the screen.
>     If you start with a phone number or last name or whatever, the
>     effect is the same.
>
>     It clearly places a load on some computer(server or browser) and
>     the balance between bandwidth, server processing and user
>     convenience is constantly changing.
>
>     The dropdown filtering is a good start but they are carrying the
>     process one step further.
>
>
>     Ron
>
>
>
>     On 05/02/2015 12:30 AM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
>
>         BTW, when a lookup is not appropriate there is also the
>         simpler autocomplete dropdown field that we have recently
>         fixed https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-6036
>         By and large there are more possibilities in this area, cf
>         http://demo-trunk-ofbiz.apache.org/example/control/FormWidgetExamples
>
>         Jacques
>
>         Le 04/02/2015 23:43, Jacques Le Roux a écrit :
>
>             Le 04/02/2015 16:02, Ron Wheeler a écrit :
>
>                 http://post.technologyevaluation.com/t/180998/19677306/17511/2/?560a3889=VEVDIDIwMTUgRVJQIGZvciBEaXNjcmV0ZSBNYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nIEJ1eWVyJ3MgR3VpZGU%3d&3b64e84d=X19uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2RhaWx5X2Vu&3b64e84d=X19uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2RhaWx5X2Vu&b0c7069d=MjM4NDEzOA%3d%3d&fb8dc108=cndoZWVsZXJAYXJ0aWZhY3Qtc29mdHdhcmUuY29t&x=3c8d597c
>
>
>                 is a link to an interesting whitepaper from TEC
>                 (Gartner competitor) discussing the main ERP solutions
>                 that they follow.
>                 The big trend that they identify is a move to more
>                 functional user interfaces that actually help users
>                 make sense of the data and find what they want quickly
>                 and do that in a way that is familiar to ERP users
>                 (Spreadsheets model).
>                 They talk about automatic search where the user can
>                 type information into any field (phone number, first
>                 name, company name and have the system show up
>                 potential matches without having to go to a search
>                 screen.  This is what people who use email or web
>                 browsers expect computers to be able to do.
>
>
>             I did not read yet.
>
>             When we standardized javascript in OFBiz, by replacing all
>             other javascript frameworks and APIs by jQuery, there have
>             been a specific effort around lookups and we implemented
>             the auto-complete feature inside them (actually the js
>             standardization came from this effort, which was initially
>             done on the calendar where we began to replace pop-ups by
>             js-layers). Auto-complete is just the feature you explain
>             above. Of course limited, it's not a search engine, the
>             set is constrained. In theory, we could have something
>             much more powerful based on Solr for instance. But I'm not
>             sure we will ever see that in OFBiz...
>
>             BTW, during the jQuery effort, I improved the Price Rules
>             and Promo Rules screens, using dependent dropdowns I then
>             introduced (you would have to use R09.04 to see how it was
>             before). I even made recently an effort in the Product
>             Promo Rules screen to use auto-complete lookups instead of
>             simple inputs
>             http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/ofbiz/trunk/applications/product/webapp/catalog/promo/EditProductPromoRules.ftl?r1=1653938&r2=1653937&pathrev=1653938
>
>
>             I believe there are still inputs we could replace by
>             auto-complete lookups. An effort which would be worth to
>             do would be to take an inventory of those. We could then
>             replace them...
>
>             Jacques
>
>
>
>
>     -- 
>     Ron Wheeler
>     President
>     Artifact Software Inc
>     email: rwheeler@artifact-software.com
>     <ma...@artifact-software.com>
>     skype: ronaldmwheeler
>     phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102
>
>


-- 
Ron Wheeler
President
Artifact Software Inc
email: rwheeler@artifact-software.com
skype: ronaldmwheeler
phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102


Re: ERP Buyers Guide

Posted by Pierre Smits <pi...@gmail.com>.
Feel free to register the improvement JIRAS for the overall aspect and the
individual occurrences.

Best regards,

Pierre Smits

*ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com>*
Services & Solutions for Cloud-
Based Manufacturing, Professional
Services and Retail & Trade
http://www.orrtiz.com

On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 8:02 AM, Ron Wheeler <rw...@artifact-software.com>
wrote:

> I think that they are showing search results as the user types and the ERP
> does not care what field you are entering.
> If you start typing in the postal code field it will display everyone
> whose postal code matches what you have typed so far.
> When you stop typing, you can select the party that you are interested in
> from the search results on the screen.
> If you start with a phone number or last name or whatever, the effect is
> the same.
>
> It clearly places a load on some computer(server or browser) and the
> balance between bandwidth, server processing and user convenience is
> constantly changing.
>
> The dropdown filtering is a good start but they are carrying the process
> one step further.
>
>
> Ron
>
>
>
> On 05/02/2015 12:30 AM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
>
>> BTW, when a lookup is not appropriate there is also the simpler
>> autocomplete dropdown field that we have recently fixed
>> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-6036
>> By and large there are more possibilities in this area, cf
>> http://demo-trunk-ofbiz.apache.org/example/control/FormWidgetExamples
>>
>> Jacques
>>
>> Le 04/02/2015 23:43, Jacques Le Roux a écrit :
>>
>>> Le 04/02/2015 16:02, Ron Wheeler a écrit :
>>>
>>>> http://post.technologyevaluation.com/t/180998/19677306/17511/2/?
>>>> 560a3889=VEVDIDIwMTUgRVJQIGZvciBEaXNjcmV0ZSBNYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nIEJ1eWVy
>>>> J3MgR3VpZGU%3d&3b64e84d=X19uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2RhaWx5X2Vu&3b64e84d=
>>>> X19uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2RhaWx5X2Vu&b0c7069d=MjM4NDEzOA%3d%3d&fb8dc108=
>>>> cndoZWVsZXJAYXJ0aWZhY3Qtc29mdHdhcmUuY29t&x=3c8d597c
>>>>
>>>> is a link to an interesting whitepaper from TEC (Gartner competitor)
>>>> discussing the main ERP solutions that they follow.
>>>> The big trend that they identify is a move to more functional user
>>>> interfaces that actually help users make sense of the data and find what
>>>> they want quickly and do that in a way that is familiar to ERP users
>>>> (Spreadsheets model).
>>>> They talk about automatic search where the user can type information
>>>> into any field (phone number, first name, company name and have the system
>>>> show up potential matches without having to go to a search screen.  This is
>>>> what people who use email or web browsers expect computers to be able to do.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I did not read yet.
>>>
>>> When we standardized javascript in OFBiz, by replacing all other
>>> javascript frameworks and APIs by jQuery, there have been a specific effort
>>> around lookups and we implemented the auto-complete feature inside them
>>> (actually the js standardization came from this effort, which was initially
>>> done on the calendar where we began to replace pop-ups by js-layers).
>>> Auto-complete is just the feature you explain above. Of course limited,
>>> it's not a search engine, the set is constrained. In theory, we could have
>>> something much more powerful based on Solr for instance. But I'm not sure
>>> we will ever see that in OFBiz...
>>>
>>> BTW, during the jQuery effort, I improved the Price Rules and Promo
>>> Rules screens, using dependent dropdowns I then introduced (you would have
>>> to use R09.04 to see how it was before). I even made recently an effort in
>>> the Product Promo Rules screen to use auto-complete lookups instead of
>>> simple inputs
>>> http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/ofbiz/trunk/applications/
>>> product/webapp/catalog/promo/EditProductPromoRules.ftl?r1=
>>> 1653938&r2=1653937&pathrev=1653938
>>>
>>> I believe there are still inputs we could replace by auto-complete
>>> lookups. An effort which would be worth to do would be to take an inventory
>>> of those. We could then replace them...
>>>
>>> Jacques
>>>
>>>
>>
>
> --
> Ron Wheeler
> President
> Artifact Software Inc
> email: rwheeler@artifact-software.com
> skype: ronaldmwheeler
> phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102
>
>

Re: ERP Buyers Guide

Posted by Jacques Le Roux <ja...@les7arts.com>.
Le 05/02/2015 08:02, Ron Wheeler a écrit :
> I think that they are showing search results as the user types and the ERP does not care what field you are entering.
> If you start typing in the postal code field it will display everyone whose postal code matches what you have typed so far.
> When you stop typing, you can select the party that you are interested in from the search results on the screen.
> If you start with a phone number or last name or whatever, the effect is the same.

Then as I proposed a tool like Solr seems appropriate. But this means also a lot of work to integrate.

>
> It clearly places a load on some computer(server or browser) and the balance between bandwidth, server processing and user convenience is constantly 
> changing.

Yes this is actually the problem. Not everybody can afford such load and actually need the feature.

>
> The dropdown filtering is a good start but they are carrying the process one step further.

It's a bit like bid data. It greats to have when you need it, but not everybody really needs it and can afford what it entails.

Jacques

>
>
> Ron
>
>
> On 05/02/2015 12:30 AM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
>> BTW, when a lookup is not appropriate there is also the simpler autocomplete dropdown field that we have recently fixed 
>> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-6036
>> By and large there are more possibilities in this area, cf http://demo-trunk-ofbiz.apache.org/example/control/FormWidgetExamples
>>
>> Jacques
>>
>> Le 04/02/2015 23:43, Jacques Le Roux a écrit :
>>> Le 04/02/2015 16:02, Ron Wheeler a écrit :
>>>> http://post.technologyevaluation.com/t/180998/19677306/17511/2/?560a3889=VEVDIDIwMTUgRVJQIGZvciBEaXNjcmV0ZSBNYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nIEJ1eWVyJ3MgR3VpZGU%3d&3b64e84d=X19uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2RhaWx5X2Vu&3b64e84d=X19uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2RhaWx5X2Vu&b0c7069d=MjM4NDEzOA%3d%3d&fb8dc108=cndoZWVsZXJAYXJ0aWZhY3Qtc29mdHdhcmUuY29t&x=3c8d597c 
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> is a link to an interesting whitepaper from TEC (Gartner competitor) discussing the main ERP solutions that they follow.
>>>> The big trend that they identify is a move to more functional user interfaces that actually help users make sense of the data and find what they 
>>>> want quickly and do that in a way that is familiar to ERP users (Spreadsheets model).
>>>> They talk about automatic search where the user can type information into any field (phone number, first name, company name and have the system 
>>>> show up potential matches without having to go to a search screen.  This is what people who use email or web browsers expect computers to be able 
>>>> to do.
>>>
>>> I did not read yet.
>>>
>>> When we standardized javascript in OFBiz, by replacing all other javascript frameworks and APIs by jQuery, there have been a specific effort 
>>> around lookups and we implemented the auto-complete feature inside them (actually the js standardization came from this effort, which was 
>>> initially done on the calendar where we began to replace pop-ups by js-layers). Auto-complete is just the feature you explain above. Of course 
>>> limited, it's not a search engine, the set is constrained. In theory, we could have something much more powerful based on Solr for instance. But 
>>> I'm not sure we will ever see that in OFBiz...
>>>
>>> BTW, during the jQuery effort, I improved the Price Rules and Promo Rules screens, using dependent dropdowns I then introduced (you would have to 
>>> use R09.04 to see how it was before). I even made recently an effort in the Product Promo Rules screen to use auto-complete lookups instead of 
>>> simple inputs
>>> http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/ofbiz/trunk/applications/product/webapp/catalog/promo/EditProductPromoRules.ftl?r1=1653938&r2=1653937&pathrev=1653938
>>>
>>> I believe there are still inputs we could replace by auto-complete lookups. An effort which would be worth to do would be to take an inventory of 
>>> those. We could then replace them...
>>>
>>> Jacques
>>>
>>
>
>

Re: ERP Buyers Guide

Posted by Ron Wheeler <rw...@artifact-software.com>.
I think that they are showing search results as the user types and the 
ERP does not care what field you are entering.
If you start typing in the postal code field it will display everyone 
whose postal code matches what you have typed so far.
When you stop typing, you can select the party that you are interested 
in from the search results on the screen.
If you start with a phone number or last name or whatever, the effect is 
the same.

It clearly places a load on some computer(server or browser) and the 
balance between bandwidth, server processing and user convenience is 
constantly changing.

The dropdown filtering is a good start but they are carrying the process 
one step further.


Ron


On 05/02/2015 12:30 AM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
> BTW, when a lookup is not appropriate there is also the simpler 
> autocomplete dropdown field that we have recently fixed 
> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-6036
> By and large there are more possibilities in this area, cf 
> http://demo-trunk-ofbiz.apache.org/example/control/FormWidgetExamples
>
> Jacques
>
> Le 04/02/2015 23:43, Jacques Le Roux a écrit :
>> Le 04/02/2015 16:02, Ron Wheeler a écrit :
>>> http://post.technologyevaluation.com/t/180998/19677306/17511/2/?560a3889=VEVDIDIwMTUgRVJQIGZvciBEaXNjcmV0ZSBNYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nIEJ1eWVyJ3MgR3VpZGU%3d&3b64e84d=X19uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2RhaWx5X2Vu&3b64e84d=X19uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2RhaWx5X2Vu&b0c7069d=MjM4NDEzOA%3d%3d&fb8dc108=cndoZWVsZXJAYXJ0aWZhY3Qtc29mdHdhcmUuY29t&x=3c8d597c 
>>>
>>>
>>> is a link to an interesting whitepaper from TEC (Gartner competitor) 
>>> discussing the main ERP solutions that they follow.
>>> The big trend that they identify is a move to more functional user 
>>> interfaces that actually help users make sense of the data and find 
>>> what they want quickly and do that in a way that is familiar to ERP 
>>> users (Spreadsheets model).
>>> They talk about automatic search where the user can type information 
>>> into any field (phone number, first name, company name and have the 
>>> system show up potential matches without having to go to a search 
>>> screen.  This is what people who use email or web browsers expect 
>>> computers to be able to do.
>>
>> I did not read yet.
>>
>> When we standardized javascript in OFBiz, by replacing all other 
>> javascript frameworks and APIs by jQuery, there have been a specific 
>> effort around lookups and we implemented the auto-complete feature 
>> inside them (actually the js standardization came from this effort, 
>> which was initially done on the calendar where we began to replace 
>> pop-ups by js-layers). Auto-complete is just the feature you explain 
>> above. Of course limited, it's not a search engine, the set is 
>> constrained. In theory, we could have something much more powerful 
>> based on Solr for instance. But I'm not sure we will ever see that in 
>> OFBiz...
>>
>> BTW, during the jQuery effort, I improved the Price Rules and Promo 
>> Rules screens, using dependent dropdowns I then introduced (you would 
>> have to use R09.04 to see how it was before). I even made recently an 
>> effort in the Product Promo Rules screen to use auto-complete lookups 
>> instead of simple inputs
>> http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/ofbiz/trunk/applications/product/webapp/catalog/promo/EditProductPromoRules.ftl?r1=1653938&r2=1653937&pathrev=1653938 
>>
>>
>> I believe there are still inputs we could replace by auto-complete 
>> lookups. An effort which would be worth to do would be to take an 
>> inventory of those. We could then replace them...
>>
>> Jacques
>>
>


-- 
Ron Wheeler
President
Artifact Software Inc
email: rwheeler@artifact-software.com
skype: ronaldmwheeler
phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102


Re: ERP Buyers Guide

Posted by Jacques Le Roux <ja...@les7arts.com>.
BTW, when a lookup is not appropriate there is also the simpler autocomplete dropdown field that we have recently fixed 
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-6036
By and large there are more possibilities in this area, cf http://demo-trunk-ofbiz.apache.org/example/control/FormWidgetExamples

Jacques

Le 04/02/2015 23:43, Jacques Le Roux a écrit :
> Le 04/02/2015 16:02, Ron Wheeler a écrit :
>> http://post.technologyevaluation.com/t/180998/19677306/17511/2/?560a3889=VEVDIDIwMTUgRVJQIGZvciBEaXNjcmV0ZSBNYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nIEJ1eWVyJ3MgR3VpZGU%3d&3b64e84d=X19uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2RhaWx5X2Vu&3b64e84d=X19uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2RhaWx5X2Vu&b0c7069d=MjM4NDEzOA%3d%3d&fb8dc108=cndoZWVsZXJAYXJ0aWZhY3Qtc29mdHdhcmUuY29t&x=3c8d597c 
>>
>>
>> is a link to an interesting whitepaper from TEC (Gartner competitor) discussing the main ERP solutions that they follow.
>> The big trend that they identify is a move to more functional user interfaces that actually help users make sense of the data and find what they 
>> want quickly and do that in a way that is familiar to ERP users (Spreadsheets model).
>> They talk about automatic search where the user can type information into any field (phone number, first name, company name and have the system 
>> show up potential matches without having to go to a search screen.  This is what people who use email or web browsers expect computers to be able 
>> to do.
>
> I did not read yet.
>
> When we standardized javascript in OFBiz, by replacing all other javascript frameworks and APIs by jQuery, there have been a specific effort around 
> lookups and we implemented the auto-complete feature inside them (actually the js standardization came from this effort, which was initially done on 
> the calendar where we began to replace pop-ups by js-layers). Auto-complete is just the feature you explain above. Of course limited, it's not a 
> search engine, the set is constrained. In theory, we could have something much more powerful based on Solr for instance. But I'm not sure we will 
> ever see that in OFBiz...
>
> BTW, during the jQuery effort, I improved the Price Rules and Promo Rules screens, using dependent dropdowns I then introduced (you would have to 
> use R09.04 to see how it was before). I even made recently an effort in the Product Promo Rules screen to use auto-complete lookups instead of 
> simple inputs
> http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/ofbiz/trunk/applications/product/webapp/catalog/promo/EditProductPromoRules.ftl?r1=1653938&r2=1653937&pathrev=1653938
>
> I believe there are still inputs we could replace by auto-complete lookups. An effort which would be worth to do would be to take an inventory of 
> those. We could then replace them...
>
> Jacques
>

Re: ERP Buyers Guide

Posted by Jacques Le Roux <ja...@les7arts.com>.
Le 04/02/2015 16:02, Ron Wheeler a écrit :
> http://post.technologyevaluation.com/t/180998/19677306/17511/2/?560a3889=VEVDIDIwMTUgRVJQIGZvciBEaXNjcmV0ZSBNYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nIEJ1eWVyJ3MgR3VpZGU%3d&3b64e84d=X19uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2RhaWx5X2Vu&3b64e84d=X19uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2RhaWx5X2Vu&b0c7069d=MjM4NDEzOA%3d%3d&fb8dc108=cndoZWVsZXJAYXJ0aWZhY3Qtc29mdHdhcmUuY29t&x=3c8d597c 
>
>
> is a link to an interesting whitepaper from TEC (Gartner competitor) discussing the main ERP solutions that they follow.
> The big trend that they identify is a move to more functional user interfaces that actually help users make sense of the data and find what they 
> want quickly and do that in a way that is familiar to ERP users (Spreadsheets model).
> They talk about automatic search where the user can type information into any field (phone number, first name, company name and have the system show 
> up potential matches without having to go to a search screen.  This is what people who use email or web browsers expect computers to be able to do.

I did not read yet.

When we standardized javascript in OFBiz, by replacing all other javascript frameworks and APIs by jQuery, there have been a specific effort around 
lookups and we implemented the auto-complete feature inside them (actually the js standardization came from this effort, which was initially done on 
the calendar where we began to replace pop-ups by js-layers). Auto-complete is just the feature you explain above. Of course limited, it's not a 
search engine, the set is constrained. In theory, we could have something much more powerful based on Solr for instance. But I'm not sure we will ever 
see that in OFBiz...

BTW, during the jQuery effort, I improved the Price Rules and Promo Rules screens, using dependent dropdowns I then introduced (you would have to use 
R09.04 to see how it was before). I even made recently an effort in the Product Promo Rules screen to use auto-complete lookups instead of simple inputs
http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/ofbiz/trunk/applications/product/webapp/catalog/promo/EditProductPromoRules.ftl?r1=1653938&r2=1653937&pathrev=1653938

I believe there are still inputs we could replace by auto-complete lookups. An effort which would be worth to do would be to take an inventory of 
those. We could then replace them...

Jacques