Have conversations with your customers about your Orders
💥 The companion "Messaging" feature is coming soon. During the initial early adopter program for Expediting/Order Updates, the Messaging feature is inactive. We will notify all users when Messaging is made available.
Messaging and Order Updates are new features allowing Buyers and Suppliers to converse and provide updates through ShipServ (decreasing the number of times you have to look at your email), associating the particular messages directly to a transaction, not to a specific user account. More details about the Inbox can be found here.
These two videos will guide BUYERS and SUPPLIERS through setup and use of the Expediting/Order Update feature. Details are found below the videos.
Contents:
From the Buyers' Perspective:
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Who can send messages?
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Viewing and sending messages
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New message email notifications
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To request an update on the shipping of your order
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Configuring your automatic order updates
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Requesting a manual order update
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Viewing the Status of the update requests in the transaction list
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Viewing the Status of the # of Messages and Order Updates in the Document view
From the Suppliers' Perspective:
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Who can send messages?
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Who receives Expediting Update requests?
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Viewing the Status of the update requests in the transaction list
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Viewing the Status of the # of Messages and Order Updates in the Document view
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A supplier can send the buyer an update
From the Buyers' Perspective:
Who can send messages?
Only Buyers who are opted-in can receive messages and request updates. If the Buyer is not opted in, then the supplier will see a notification such as this:
Note: We are currently in Private Beta with select buyers and suppliers. Messages are not active at this time.
Viewing and sending messages
In an RFQ or Quote document you will find a "# Messages" button.
In a PO or POC document, you will find a "# Messages & # Order updates" button. From these buttons you can see how many any unread messages you have and if there are any unread order updates from the supplier on your POCs.
Tapping the button, opens the messaging drawer on the right.
Messages as seen in messaging drawer
(Messages are not active at this time but the Updates are shown in this drawer) Type your message in the grey band at the bottom of the image and hit the arrow to send. The messages can be viewed and exported to a .txt file by both buyer and supplier, showing a clear audit trail of the conversation.
Messages and expediting updates will be shown in the same drawer, clearly indicating which party sent the message/update.
New message E-mail notifications
If you receive a message when you are not logged into Trade or are away from your desk for more than 5 minutes, you will be sent an email notification informing you that you received a message. You will see what the image was, and the previous message received to give more context.
An email notification referencing an order update will contain a link which will redirect the user to the transaction and the order update information.
Below image shows how the update email notification will look.
Click the link in the email to view the response from the supplier.
To request an update on the shipping of your order:
Within the ShipServ Trade platform, you can either schedule automated update requests from select suppliers or you can manually request an update from the supplier. These communications are associated with the transaction and can be exported to provide the update history in a .txt file.
Configuring your automatic order updates
Go to Settings/Expediting & Order Updates
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Turn on Automated Update Requests.
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Set the anticipated generic lead time for all your orders
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Set how many days prior to the lead time (as established in 2 above) you want the update requests to begin.*see how criteria determine when automatic update requests will be sent
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Select which of your suppliers you wish to send automated updates requests to. You can manually send an update request to any of your suppliers.
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Turn on automatic reminders with the toggle.
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Set how often you wish the suppliers to get reminders for the update requests.
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Set how many reminders you wish to send. Reminders will continue until the number of reminders is exhausted or the supplier sends an update.
*How lead and notification time determine when automated update requests are sent out:
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If the Generic lead time is set to a # of days, then use Created date (of the PO) + generic lead time - notification period to send automated update request.
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If the Generic lead time is set to "Any lead time" and the Delivery date (of the PO) is populated, then use Delivery date (of the PO) - notification period to send automated update request.
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If the Generic lead time is set to "Any lead time" and the Delivery date (of the PO) is blank, then use Created date (of the PO) + notification period to send automated update request.
Fill in the primary expediting email address and tick the box to set up the default expediting email notification. Secondary cc'd email addresses can also be established where copies of the order update emails will be sent. The user who sent the update request will also receive the reply notifications if they are not logged in.
Requesting a manual order update
A manual update request is sent to the supplier when the “Request Update” button is tapped. Alternately, tapping the "Messages & Order updates" button will open the messaging drawer where the "Request Update" button can also be tapped. After requesting an update, either manually or automatically, the “Request Update” button will be greyed out.
Viewing the Status of the update requests in the transaction list
When viewing the transaction list, the expediting status indicates if there is an “Update Pending”, the order has been “Shipped”, is “Ready to Ship”, is "On Schedule", is “Delayed”, or "Other". Select the desired criteria in the Status filter to limit the view to a subset of the transactions.
Viewing the Status of the # of Messages and Order Updates in the Document view
The Messages and Order Update values in the document view report unread counts of each. Once a user has opened the drawer on the right and seen the message or update, the number will revert to 0. The status of “Update pending” indicates the PO/POC is awaiting input from the supplier.
When reporting the order status is "Shipped" or "Ready to Ship", the supplier may also provide a Tracking Number and Tracking URL for your convenience. Clicking the Tracking link will open the link in your browser.
From the Supplier's Perspective:
Suppliers can share updates on the shipping of an order in response to a request from the buyer or to notify the buyer of a change in the status (without a request from the buyer).
Within the ShipServ Trade platform, you can reply directly to the buyer’s request from the Purchase Order Confirmation. You will need to confirm a PO before being able to send an update to the buyer.
You can send the buyer multiple updates if desired.
Who can send messages?
Only Buyers who are opted-in can receive messages and request updates. If the Buyer is not opted in, then the supplier will see a notification such as this:
Note: We are currently in Private Beta with select buyers and suppliers.
Who receives Expediting Update requests?
You control which email addresses receive copies of the Expediting and Update emails. The trading email will receive an email notification alerting them to the update request. See below for adding additional cc email addresses.
If users do not want to receive these notifications, they can be switched off under profile settings. Tap the avatar (square) to the bottom left of the Trade application to bring up a menu, tap Profile Settings, then tap Edit Notification Preferences. On the drawer, you will see a check box for 'Unread direct messages on transactions you're assigned to' and 'Expediting and Order Updates for documents you're assigned to'. Unselect these boxes to stop receiving emails and tap Save.
💥* Note: If you are an Administrator, you can switch these settings on and off for the Trading email account and any email addresses that are on the CC'd list under Settings/Notifications:
The buyer may choose to send automated reminders which will continue for a given number of days/number of reminders or until an update is provided by the supplier. An “update” from the supplier will halt sending of the reminders. Please note that “messaging” (once it is activated) is not counted as an update.
Viewing the Status of the update requests in the transaction list
The update statuses are found in the Transaction list view of POs and POCs and in the Document view. If an update request is pending, the buyer cannot send another update request until after the supplier has responded or the earlier update request has been cancelled. The supplier can send multiple updates as needed. The transaction list view can be focused on POs/POCs of desired statuses by selecting them in the Status filter.
A PO must be confirmed before a supplier can provide a status update. The supplier will be prompted to confirm the PO, after which the update drawer will open allowing the supplier to provide the update.
Viewing the Status of the # of Messages and Order Updates in the Document view
The Messages and Update requests values report unread counts of each. Once a user has opened the drawer on the right and seen the message or update request, the number will revert to 0. The “Update pending” status indicates the PO/POC is awaiting order update input from the supplier.
A supplier can send the buyer an update by:
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Tapping the shortcut menu in the upper right corner “Send 'On Schedule' update", or tapping the down arrow to reach the alternative update option to open the full update drawer.
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Clicking on the Messages and Update requests button on the left of the document view, the update drawer opens. Clicking the blue “Send update” button or the lighter blue “Provide update now->” button (when replying to a buyer update request) opens the Update drawer.
When sending an order update, choose an “Update type” from the dropdown menu, then a date and fill in a comment if applicable. The comment box can contain up to 500 words. If the “send update” button is grey, then more information needs to be populated. If the “send update” button is blue, pressing it will send the update to the buyer.
If choosing "Shipped" or "Ready to ship", you will have the option to also add the Tracking Number and the Tracking URL for the buyer to get the up-to-date status of the shipment.
At the bottom of the Messages and Updates drawer you will find the messaging bar with the option to send buyers attachments. (Coming soon)
Questions and Answers
Q. Can I integrate the messaging feature to my own 3rd party system that is already integrated with ShipServ?
A. Yes, you can integrate using our API. Read the API documentation here
Q. Is there a limit to the number of words I can send in an order update comment?
A. Yes, there is a limit of 500 words.
Q. Is there a limit to the number of characters I can send in each message?
A. Yes, (once activated--coming soon!) there is a limit of 1000 characters