We have built our Vendor Portal feature to enable our customers to bring in images that they have not produced.
Studio Administrators Overview
If you're a studio administrator setting up the Vendor Portal for your vendors, here are the key configuration options available.
VPI Settings
Located under Studio Settings, VPI Settings is where you can define default auto-mapping settings for each vendor. Setting up these defaults ensures consistency when your vendors submit images.
Product Vendor Configurations
Under Production Setup, Product Vendors is where you can create default configurations for each vendor.
Creating a new Vendor
When you go to your Studio settings, you can access your vendors by going to the PRODUCT VENDOR tab. From there, you can add a new vendor manually by clicking on ADD. Alternatively, you can also import your vendors via the IMPORT button.
Default settings for Auto-Mapping
When vendors log into the Vendor Portal for the first time, they'll see these default settings, which they can customize or revert to as needed.
Automated VPI Source Allocation
Available in Workspace Settings, this feature lets you set up rules that automatically assign the correct source (Photo Production or Vendor Provided) when products are imported.
Assign products to the Vendor
In order to create a new image request for one of your vendors, you will need to change the source of a particular product or group of products.
You can go to either the Production or Products tab to assign. Under both places, navigate to Actions and choose Change Source from the list to assign the products from photo production on Creative Force to Vendor Provided.
Vendor Portal Overview (Vendor Perspective)
Kanban view introduction
Once you are into the Vendor portal you will be met with a To Do, Doing and Done Kanban view. When your client sends you images requests, they will appear in the To Do column, in Doing when you are actioning the request, and Done once the images have been uploaded to your client.
You can click the three-dot menu next to a task to access the Image Requirements and Debug info.
Besides that, there are a few other functions that you can take advantage of.
You can upload your images via the blue UPLOAD button. This is where you can submit images to be assigned to the relevant jobs your customer has requested
If there is a specific product that you are looking for, you can use the SEARCH bar in order to locate the one you are after
The ACTIONS tab allows you to export all of the data from the Vendor Portal to a CSV file.
The bell icon will show you the system messages either a success message or an error message.
Upload requests
After clicking on UPLOAD button, there are a few criteria that you may want to review before submitting your upload requests.
OPTIONS is where you can decide if you want to Upload more or Delete all files uploaded previously.
With MANUAL-MAPPING, you will be able to map the images to the product. You can either drag and drop the image to the product or select the image, then hover over the product and click 'map'.
AUTO-MAPPING uses identifiers to match your images with the correct product positions automatically. This option is used for bulk upload, and you can combine up to five mapping methods with a priority order of your choice.
Additionally, you can enable the optional "Close Match" logic, which uses normalization and partial matching for cases where naming might be inconsistent.
Settings and information
The top right corner of your screen is the Profile where you can access MY SETTINGS, DEBUG INFO, or Log Out. To learn more about Debug Information, check out this article.
Within MY SETTINGS you have four main areas, SETTINGS, CONTACT INFO, DATE & TIME, AND 2FA.
Within SETTINGS you can select a profile picture, and change your first and last name.
CONTACT INFO allows you to set up your contact information, while DATE & TIME can be changed to match your preferences.
2FA (Two Factor Authentication) can be set up for additional security on your account.
Finally, the lock icon in the bottom left corner allows you to change your password.