Provider Tutorial

In this tutorial, you will get skills in performing basic provider operations in Connect. Being oriented on providers, it is also helpful for vendors and closely bound with Vendor Tutorial.

Prerequisites

Before you get started, please read Introduction and Portals first; this will get you acquainted with the overall concepts of the Connect platform and its UI.

Tutorial Structure

The instructions in this tutorial will walk you through provider main management steps starting from initializing the provider environment to placing the first order for a product.

Initialization

As a provider, you come to Connect with your own commerce system with resellers and customers using that system. In Connect, you get vendor products and sell them through your commerce system. A commerce system must be represented in Connect with a hub and a marketplace.

Create a Hub

In this tutorial, you will create a hub to be used for managing business flows manually.

1. Start creating a hub

Navigate to the Hubs module from the Provider Portal:

Click the Register Hub button.

2. Specify the hub properties

In the pop-up window, enter the hub properties:

• Name: Enter a descriptive hub name.
• Type: Select “API”.
• Instance ID: Enter any string that uniquely identifies your hub on the provider side.
• Description: Enter a short description of the hub.

Click Register. The new hub is now in the list of hubs:

The new hub is not bound with any marketplace yet.

Create a Marketplace

In the following steps, you will create a marketplace and bind it to the hub created earlier.

1. Start creating a marketplace

Open the Marketplaces module:

Click the Create Marketplace button.

2. Specify the general properties

In the pop-up window, enter the following general properties:

• Name: Enter a descriptive marketplace name.
• Countries: Select one or more countries that your marketplace serves.
• Currency: Specify the currency that is used in your marketplace.
• Upload an image: Upload an image that will represent the marketplace on the Marketplaces main window and other places.
• Description: Enter a short description of the marketplace.

Click Next to continue.

3. Select your Hub

Fill out the following Hubs form:

• Hubs: Select the hub that you added earlier in this tutorial. You can add more hubs to the list if necessary.
• Tier Account External ID: Enter the ID of the account that sells products supplied through Connect on the external side. This must be an ID assigned to the account by the external system that the hub represents here.

Click Next to continue.

4. Specify price list attributes

At least one of the following attributes should be selected:

• Price represents Provider’s cost (i.e., wholesale price of an item from a Vendor to a Provider).
• Suggested T0 Price (MSRP) is Vendor’s price suggested to Retail Customer.
• Suggested T1 Price is Vendor’s price suggested to Direct Reseller.
• Suggested T2 Price represents Vendor’s price suggested to Reseller.
• The Custom attributes option allows adding a custom attribute and its description.

Click Create to finalize your marketplace creation. The system will provide a summary, click Close to finish reviewing your summary.

As a result, your created marketplace is now in the list:

The new marketplace is not bound with any distribution contract yet. This is what you will do in the contract flow.

Next Step

Your provider environment is ready to support business flows. Prepare agreements and set contracts with a vendor following the Sign Vendor Contracts instructions.

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