- DATE:
- AUTHOR:
- The Cvent Event Marketing & Management Product News Team
Exchange Solutions Releases for 16 August 2023
Updates in the Cvent Supplier Network's New Experience
The product team has big improvements they're working to deliver in this window that we know you’re going to love:
1. Add Promotions to RFPs created in the New CSN Experience
We are thrilled to announce the addition of a new feature in our CSN Sourcing experience: Promotions in RFP! This feature update will allow you to claim promotions on your RFPs created within the new sourcing experience.
Here's a rundown of the new feature:
What's New:
Claim Promotions: With this update, you can now claim promotions on your RFPs within the new CSN Sourcing experience. These promotions, offered by Venues/Hotels to secure more business, can be availed for additional deals, rebates, or offers, making their event planning more advantageous.
Venue List with Claimed Promotions: Post claiming a promotion, you will now see a list of all venues with the claimed promotion on your RFPs. This enhancement simplifies the venue comparison and selection process.
Promotion-centered Proposal Creation: Suppliers can now tailor their proposals by taking into account the claimed promotions, providing you with more attractive offerings and potential deals.
View Claimed Promotions on Proposal Page: can now view the promotions they've claimed on the "View Proposal" page. This new feature enables Planners to consider these promotions when reviewing and comparing proposals.
Benefits:
For Planners: Increased ability to secure beneficial deals and offers when sending RFPs, improving your event planning experience and potential outcomes.
For Suppliers: Enhanced visibility and utilization of their promotions, leading to an increase in RFPs and potentially more business.
Note: This feature will be released to all planners who have opted in for this feature.
2. Filters on RFP List in the New CSN Sourcing Experience
We're excited to announce the introduction of a new feature in our New CSN Sourcing Experience: Filters on RFP List. Designed to enhance your navigation and search efficiency, these filters will allow you to quickly find the RFPs that matter most to you.
Here's a detailed look at the new feature:
What's New:
RFP Type Filter: Planners can now filter RFPs based on their type, whether they're for Meeting Room, Guest Room, or both. This facilitates quicker access to RFPs of specific interest.
RFP Status Filter: This filter allows you to narrow down the list of RFPs based on their current status. Whether you're looking for pending, awarded, or any other status of RFPs, this filter has got you covered.
Citywide RFP Filter: Looking for Citywide RFPs? Use this filter to bring them up in your list instantly.
Enhanced Search Field: Apart from introducing new filters, we have also upgraded the search field to let planners search based on the name of the organization for which the event is being planned. This will significantly speed up the process of finding specific RFPs.
Send RFP direct to NSO within the new CSN redesign
Prior to this release, planners sourcing through the new redesigned experience could only copy an NSO along with sending the RFP to a supplier.
Now you can send the RFP and a individual message directly to an NSO contact that is saved within your account or a new one can be added on the fly.
This feature can be found within an RFP on the "Venues" page under the actions drop down.
3. RFP Policies in the New CSN Experience
We are pleased to announce RFP Policies within the New CSN Experience: RFP Policies allows enterprise users to establish rules to manage your RFP process more efficiently and ensure compliance with internal procedures.
Here's a breakdown of what the new feature offers:
What's New:
RFP Send Policy: You can now set up policies that dictate the specific venues (supplier categories/preferred) that should receive the RFP. This ensures alignment with organizational preferences and strategic partnerships.
RFP Award Policy: In line with the policy set, you can also determine rules that decide the venues to be awarded the RFP.
Policy Enforcement: These policies will be enforced during the RFP send and RFP award stages, ensuring adherence to organizational procedures.
Reason and Disposition Code: In cases where policy compliance is not possible, you will need to provide a reason and disposition code. This creates a record of exceptions, facilitating transparency and accountability.
Benefits:
For Enterprise Planners: Increased control and efficiency in the RFP process, adherence to internal procedures, and enhanced transparency in cases of policy exceptions.
For Organizations: Improved compliance, more strategic alignment with preferred venues, and better management of supplier categories.
Note: This feature will be released to all planners who have opted in for this feature.
Another New Improvement to Make Your Job Easier
In addition to the exciting items mentioned above for the new redesign, there is another new feature coming soon in CSN Sourcing that you should know about...
Award RFPs Outside CSN Network
This new feature broadens your possibilities for event planning - the ability to award RFPs to venues not present on the current Cvent Supplier Network.
What's new?
More Choice for Planners: With this new feature, event planners can now award RFPs to the best-suited venue, even if they are not part of the CSN Network. We understand that sometimes the perfect fit might be just outside our network, and we don't want that to limit your choices.
RFP Tracking and Awarding: Even when your chosen venue is outside our network, you can still use CSN for RFP creation, tracking, and awarding. Simply add basic details of your external venue, and our system will enable you to mark the RFP as awarded.
How does it work?
When you find an external venue that suits your event requirements, go to the 'Award RFP' section in your CSN account. Here, you can add the external venue by filling in some basic information. This will allow you to award your RFP to this venue and keep track of it within the CSN Sourcing system.
This feature is designed to provide more flexibility and choice to our users, supporting your decision-making process and ensuring you can create the best possible events, no matter where your ideal venue might be located.
Note: This feature will be released to all our planners using the New CSN Experience.
Now, Switching Gears to Cvent Event Diagramming...
Introducing the NEW create diagram workflow!
This work segments the planner vs supplier experience when creating new diagrams, increasing efficiency for both parties.
Suppliers will have quick access to their accounts floor plans in a highly visual and accessible format.
Planners will have access to all floor plans in the ST library, currently only accessible from the "Venues" tab, making your experience more closely aligned with their workflow.
Why?
Our current diagram creation experience is tailored only to suppliers, and is clunky to navigate even for those familiar with their property. Floor plans are nested under layers of categories (property, building, floor) and for years we have heard from customers who are confused by the navigation structure and unclear empty states. Creating one diagram takes far too many clicks, and we want to ensure our users can make it to our core functionality as quickly as possible.
The new workflow is highly visual, and provides a customized experience dependent on the data available in a user's account. A supplier who only has one property won't have to select that property to move through the flow. If the user doesn't have more than one building at their property, they won't see any navigation referencing buildings. If they don't have layouts saved for a floor plan, they won't see an empty state for layouts. We worked diligently to eliminate all the extras that could lead to confusion and to only show the user information relevant to themselves.
Likewise, planner account types will now be able to search all the properties in the ST library for a floor plan while you are creating you diagrams. Your saved properties will still be easily accessible, but the new workflow enables a seamless search+create experience that hasn't been possible before. This sort of experience customized by user type is the first of its kind in the Social Tables product, and is an important first step in making our product more usable by planner client types.
The New Experience:
The "Create diagram" modal will be launched from 4 locations - From within an event in Home, from the "Storage" page in Home, from within a diagram, and from a floor plan in Floor Plan Finder. These are all existing launch points. The new modal has three sections: Browse, Upload, and Customize.
Browse
Browse Venues/Uploads Page
You will have quick access to your account's saved properties, along with additional new functionality that will allow you to search through the entire ST venue library for a floor plan, replicating the existing Floor Plan Finder functionality. Additionally, you will also have access to their saved PDF uploads from the "Browse" screen.
Venue Details Page
Once a property has been selected, you will see a list of thumbnails of the floor plans from that property. This is a new addition - previously the names of rooms were just provided in a list. We believe the inclusion of the image is important context for users when moving quickly through the flow.
If the property has multiple buildings, a building filter will be visible at the top, narrowing the set of floor plans to just those in that building when selected.
Floor Plan Details Page
Once a floor plan has been selected, you will be taken to a page where you will name your diagram, link it to an event (if not already selected), and apply a layout if desired. You will then click "Create Diagram" and be taken into the diagramming experience.
If a room (venue floor plan or uploaded PDF floor plan) does not have any layouts saved for that space, you will not see any layouts and will be able to proceed without interacting without having to select "No layout"/"Blank" (as is the case in the current functionality).
Upload
There will be no functional changes to the upload process. You will still be able to upload their own images to diagram on. They can save them to their library for future use (will display on the second half of the browse page) using the "add to library" checkbox.
The diagram name is what will display in Home and the diagramming tool when you create a diagram using this floor plan; this is specific to the individual custom instance of this room as it exists in the event. The floor plan name is what this upload will be stored as, and will be visible when you access it from your uploads on the "Browse" page of this new modal. In other words, the "diagram" is the session/function description, and the "floor plan" is the name of the room or event space.
Important notes:
The scaling process for an uploaded floor plan will no longer take place as a part of this flow. More details on a new scaling flow coming soon!
We have noticed that users are uploading the same floor plans over and over in the existing workflow, not realizing that they are saved to their library. Since this new design brings the uploaded floor plan library to a more visible place, we expect users may potentially want to delete duplicate floor plans they didn't know they had. They can do this from Home>Settings>Event Space Library>Blank and Uploaded Spaces.
Custom
Lastly, you will continue to be able to create a custom diagram using their own dimensions. The image on the left will adjust in size depending on the length and width dimensions that you insert.
