sections in the article
This article explains how to set up a Supplier Onboarding site for a supplier.
About inriver Supplier Onboarding
Supplier Onboarding allows you to set up and easily manage how data and resources should be formatted and transferred from your suppliers. Facilitating the onboarding of new products, and speeding up the time-to-market by providing a single point of communication.
Setting up a new supplier
In the Suppliers Tab, you configure the specifics of the site UI and responsibilities for that particular supplier. This is also where you manage users and define data mappings to be used during imports.
To create a new supplier:
- Click +Create Supplier in the upper right corner
- Fill in Supplier name with the name of your new supplier and click Save.
- Once you have saved, you can start configuring the supplier.
Settings
Name - select a name for the Supplier. This name will be visible in the supplier portal for the supplier.
Responsible - assigns a system user as the "owner" of that supplier.
Automatic Import - if the checkbox is checked, it means that any upload the supplier does will be validated and automatically added to inriver. If the checkbox is empty, any upload will be subject to manual approval.
Background Color - sets the background color of the site start page the supplier logs into. Use HEX color format, e.g. #4c4c4c
Text Color - sets the text color that lies on the background color of the site start page the supplier logs into. Use HEX color format, e.g. #ffffff
Logo Image - you can upload an image (usually a logotype) that is relevant for this supplier.
Mappings
When you create a mapping between the fields in inriver and an .xls, .xlsx or .csv file, make sure you have prepared the file with the following information:
- The top row must contain column headers. The column headers are the "fields" you map to the fields of the EntityType in inriver.
- The file must contain columns with header that match and will be mapped to the mandatory fields of the EntityType. Without mandatory fields mapped, the upload will not be valid, and the validation process will reject the upload.
- The file should contain a column mapping to a localeString field, ending with a language code, for example "localeColumnName_en". Without the language code suffix the mapping will not map the localeString field to the correct language. You can always manually select the language using the drop-down menu.
Depending on your Model and what EntityType information your supplier provides, you should try to match the fields in inriver as closely as possible with the file your supplier uploads to make column/field mapping easy.
There are two ways you could facilitate this:
- You make an Excel export on a search result in Enrich of the relevant EntityType and send it to your supplier to fill in with relevant product information according to the columns/fields and mandatory fields in that file.
- You request your supplier to send a sample file that you map to the fields in inriver.
We recommend that you do a separate mapping for each EntityType.
Specifications in a mapping
If you need to add Specifications to the EntityType and add data to Specification fields, you can keep them in the same file and map them when you create a mapping.
Example: Click +Create Mapping and upload a .csv, .xls or .xlsx file. When the file has uploaded has been approved (green checkmark), you click Next.
Give the mapping a name, select the EntityType and the Specification you want to add to it. Map out which field values should be mapped to the EntityType fields in inriver, and which to the Specification fields on the EntityType. Mapping a field from your file to an inriver field can only be made once, you cannot add it to both EntityType and Specification.
User access
This is where you create users for the site where the supplier logs in.
- Click +Create user
- Enter the supplier´s Email, First name and Last name
- Click Save
- An API key will be automatically generated for the user. Once saved, a link will be generated. Send that link to the user, so they can set a password
Suppliers log into their supplier site through :
EU: https://supplier-prod1a-euw.productmarketingcloud.com
US: https://supplier-prod1a-use.productmarketingcloud.com
inriver Partners log into the Supplier site through: https://supplier-ptnr1a-euw.productmarketingcloud.com
Updating an existing supplier
The Suppliers Tab provides an overview of all your supplier-specific information and settings. If you want to edit an existing supplier, you can select the supplier from the drop-down list and add the information you want to update.
Good to know
- The Responsible setting is the system user that manages this supplier from your organization. It is an indication of who should be contacted regarding this Supplier. However, it is currently not possible to i.e. set up mail notifications when there are pending imports or use this setting in an extension. Since there are no API methods related to Supplier Onboarding, so it is not accessible from extensions.
Comments
8 comments
What is the Specification Field to be used for?
Hi Laura,
Specification is a feature used for storing properties on an Entity, as well as grouping these properties into Categories. Please read the following article to learn more about specifications:
https://servicecenter.inriver.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012353393-Specification
It appears when a supplier imports a file, the match to existing entities is happening on our Product number. Is there a way to change this so the match happens on the vendor number?
Thanks!
Beth
Hi Beth,
Is this still an issue for you? You should be able to change this by updating the mapping of the excel file. But we would need to understand a bit more on how the excel file looks and what kind of mapping you have.
BR
Martin
@...,
Hi
It is still happening, this is because we have our product number as a mandatory unique field. The issue is most of our vendors, will have their own manufacturing number for the product we are purchasing, but they will not maintain our product number for the item in their databases. So for a supplier to update information on an existing sku in Supplier Ownboarding is an issue. How do other companies handle this?
Thanks!
Beth
Hi,
There have to be some common field, either the supplier keeps your number. Or you have to keep their manufacturing number in a field and then match on that. If there is a risk of overlapping numbers from different suppliers could it be an option to append a 2-3 digit supplier code to their number in the excel file they are uploading?
BR
Martin
Are you planning to add API methods to import product list? We can't obligate our vendors to sign in and upload csv files to our system, but we could easily build an integration so that their system sends us item suggestions when ever they'll have something new in their catalogue. That would also give us benefit to be the first ones to sell those new products if the work flow was well automated.
Jarmo Huhtala, as stated in the article " no API methods related to Supplier Onboarding, so it is not accessible from extensions." so the best way is to post it as a product idea in the idea section in the community. Then our product managers will see it and can understand the need for it and others can vote for it. 🙂
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