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Running a multiple supplier extranet

This functionality is designed for companies looking to run a multiple-supplier account where individual suppliers can load their tours/services, add dates & prices, view bookings etc. In particular it is suitable for day tours/activities

Each supplier will only see their own tours and bookings

This functionality is built into TourCMS and available for everyone however you are likely to need one of the higher user volume accounts (see prices)

Functionality

• Supplier users will only see their own bookings, tours, options and their own company profile
• Much of the advanced functionality is hidden (e.g. sales tax settings, markups, commission etc) as this will be for you to determine rather than each individual supplier to choose (BUT as a result they should be able to setup without much/any training/support)
• As a result of removing most of the complex functionality (from supplier view) this is why this service is more suited for day tours rather than more nuanced multi-day tailor made tours
• The TourCMS assumption is that you will have a page on your own website to present the tour/activity - rather than sending web traffic straight to the suppliers' own websites

Branding

Configuration & Setup - Branding & Noticeboard section

• Change the header colour - so the back office looks much like your own corporate colouring
• Change the name of your service - e.g. refer to TourCMS as XYZ Company Extranet
• Change the support email address - new user notifications will be sent from this address (rather than TourCMS support) (Our assumption is that you are supporting your own suppliers)
• Add a supplier login to your own website - Instructions

Users

• To create a user go to supplier manager and create a supplier record. Then go to system manager and create a user (assigning them to the supplier you just created)
• You can have multiple users for the same supplier
• Or create suppliers / supplier uses via API

Notes

• As suppliers using this service are less likely to be logging into your account ALL THE TIME you may like, in Configuration & Setup - General settings for tours/hotels - to turn off Ask first departure statuses. This makes the departures only have two states - bookable or not - and requires less interaction with the supplier in order to take a booking

API

The TourCMS assumption is that you will use the API to power your website and distribution (rather than other TourCMS content management methods)

Use the supplier show method to see the company information for each supplier. Other companies that you are featuring on your website (from other TourCMS accounts) will have their similar information in the channel show API method

API credentials - internal vs agent
When using the booking creation APIs, use your INTERNAL API credentials for putting bookings into your own account and a partner (agent) API credentials for making bookings put into 3rd party accounts (where you are acting as the agent/affiliate).

The reason for this is that if you use the agent API credentials when putting bookings into your own account none of the marketing tracking will work as your agent settings will overwrite the 3rd party affiliate/agent tracking

If you are ONLY featuring tours/activities from your own account then you only need to use the internal API credentials

Alternative approaches

An alternative approach is that each supplier can have their own individual TourCMS account. This gives them much more control on their product but it is much more onerous (for them) to setup. This is not an either/or decision - you can feature product from your own multi-supplier account as well as other TourCMS accounts (which themselves could be multi-supplier!)

You can setup a supplier as a NORMAL staff user account. That is an absolutely fine approach (and best approach) if you are a specialist tour operator working with a ground handler, for example

Examples

An example multi-supplier account is GO Activities. This account has hundreds of UK outdoor activity suppliers logging in, adding product descriptions, images etc

Individual UK based activity companies can also run their own TourCMS accounts and feature on their main website. Full instructions and overview

If you are planning a multiple-supplier project PLEASE do contact support@tourcms.com and say hello to us!
We would love to help!