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Topic:
Portal, you are making a SERIOUS mistake
This thread has 323 replies. Displaying posts 31 through 45.
Post 31 made on Wednesday July 11, 2018 at 13:10
juliejacobson
CE Pro Magazine
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3,032
On July 11, 2018 at 10:15, Kirk_SS said...
Thanks, Julie. The $49 will go straight to our advertising budget ;)

I know, Kirk. I only write supportive things when we can make a buck off of it, so they say.
"CEPro: your website sucks!" - Fins
www.cepro.com
[Link: twitter.com]
Post 32 made on Wednesday July 11, 2018 at 14:46
Kirk_SS
Long Time Member
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22
On July 11, 2018 at 13:10, juliejacobson said...
I know, Kirk. I only write supportive things when we can make a buck off of it, so they say.

Lol. Well good, then you recognized my passive aggressive attempt to smear you as a capitalist.
Kirk Chisholm
Founder - Portal.io
kirk at portal dot io
Post 33 made on Wednesday July 11, 2018 at 15:11
imt
Long Time Member
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466
What I think would have gone over better would have been a pay per proposal model for smaller users. This would be based on an "Accepted Proposal" sent via Portal. This way an integrator could build the fee into the proposal (misc).

If an Integrator, under this pay option, selects to preview client view or download the PDF, then it the proposal would appear watermarked, so an Integrator can't use that copy and circumvent paying. With this setup an Integrator can easily recoup costs for using the service since they can easily build it in, since they pay when a proposal is accepted. They wouldn't be looking for other ways to use the service without paying. Its a win/win.

I had also posted on IP with some other issues with the way the order works on Portal as well and a better understand as to how this works.
Post 34 made on Wednesday July 11, 2018 at 15:18
goldenzrule
Loyal Member
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8,470
Looks like this is retroactive to the beginning of the month even though the email just came out on Monday.  I logged in and it said 1 of my 4 free proposals was used/sent.  I sent one last week.
Post 35 made on Wednesday July 11, 2018 at 15:25
InVision Systems
Long Time Member
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119
Cash flow.....need dat!
Elevate Technologies
Nashville, TN
Post 36 made on Wednesday July 11, 2018 at 18:27
Ranger Home
Super Member
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June 2007
3,486
$5k a month is nothing. But then again, $50 a month is nothing as well. I have been meaning to check out the proposal side of Portal. The way I do it know just SUCKS, quickbooks. lol .But its what Im used to and what I know. The hardest thing in making a change is simply taking the first step and getting over the learning curve. Portal Proposals are still on my radar. I will eventually check it out.
Post 37 made on Wednesday July 11, 2018 at 19:45
imt
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On July 11, 2018 at 18:27, Ranger Home said...
$5k a month is nothing. But then again, $50 a month is nothing as well. I have been meaning to check out the proposal side of Portal. The way I do it know just SUCKS, quickbooks. lol .But its what Im used to and what I know. The hardest thing in making a change is simply taking the first step and getting over the learning curve. Portal Proposals are still on my radar. I will eventually check it out.

I am not going to go into if 5K is nothing or not.

Submitting the order via Portal is what many are hung up with. The other day I took an old proposal and said to make an order. When you create an order from a proposal it takes ALL the items from ALL vendors and makes an order. So if you have a project where you need certain items now but then will order other parts later in the project, there was no way to just select specific items on that order to send and keep the rest for later. You can "delete" them off. But then I guess when you want to order the rest you have to manually add or go back into the proposal and create a new order and then delete off all the parts you already ordered? Not sure.

With portal in the middle of lets say Snap, since that is your go to, I am not sure how the ordering process works and how quickly orders are sent. I know I can submit an order at 6:55pm and have it shipped out that day on Snap's site. No idea what cutoff times are and if orders are submitted and entered same day. Do confirms come only from Portal or do you receive normal confirms and tracking from Snap? What happens if you proposal has the normal price for an item but at the time you place the order, the item is on special/promo at the time you order? Is it adjusted? You would only know if you were on Snaps site to see what the current price happens to be. There are only 2 options listed for shipping on Portal, etc. I watched the videos but still unclear on the things I thought about above. Wonder if these are some of the same that have kept those integrators on the sidelines.
Post 38 made on Wednesday July 11, 2018 at 20:54
joelusi
Long Time Member
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370
On July 11, 2018 at 19:45, imt said...
What happens if you proposal has the normal price for an item but at the time you place the order, the item is on special/promo at the time you order? Is it adjusted? You would only know if you were on Snaps site to see what the current price happens to be.

I had this very issue tonight. I place my foist 2 orders through portal. I had both windows open to verify the correct pricing. I ordered 10 of one item and had to manually set the discounted price (if you order 4 or more) Maybe just because it is new but it was actually more work to do it through portal.
Post 39 made on Wednesday July 11, 2018 at 21:18
Stryker
Long Time Member
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November 2010
402
So how did Portal start anyone remember? Didn’t it start as a company trying to make thier lives simpler and creating a database /product to order gear and then going this is a good thing we’ve invested a lot others would benefit from it?
"If they give you ruled paper, write the other way"
Post 40 made on Thursday July 12, 2018 at 10:46
Kirk_SS
Long Time Member
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On July 11, 2018 at 19:45, imt said...
Submitting the order via Portal is what many are hung up with. The other day I took an old proposal and said to make an order. When you create an order from a proposal it takes ALL the items from ALL vendors and makes an order. So if you have a project where you need certain items now but then will order other parts later in the project, there was no way to just select specific items on that order to send and keep the rest for later. You can "delete" them off. But then I guess when you want to order the rest you have to manually add or go back into the proposal and create a new order and then delete off all the parts you already ordered? Not sure.

Hey, IMT, this is indeed a shortcoming. We are going to update it very soon. You may have noticed that the new version of our site now allows you to "select" items in the proposal and then a bulk action toolbar appears at the top. We just need to add the "Order" option. We'll start working on that towards the end of next month.

With portal in the middle of lets say Snap, since that is your go to, I am not sure how the ordering process works and how quickly orders are sent. I know I can submit an order at 6:55pm and have it shipped out that day on Snap's site. No idea what cutoff times are and if orders are submitted and entered same day. Do confirms come only from Portal or do you receive normal confirms and tracking from Snap? What happens if you proposal has the normal price for an item but at the time you place the order, the item is on special/promo at the time you order? Is it adjusted? You would only know if you were on Snaps site to see what the current price happens to be. There are only 2 options listed for shipping on Portal, etc. I watched the videos but still unclear on the things I thought about above. Wonder if these are some of the same that have kept those integrators on the sidelines.

Snap is one of the most responsive suppliers on our site. They very reliably open and confirm orders. We are working with them to eventually tie our systems together for real-time integration. Currently we update their pricing daily so it would be very rare for a price change to happen and not be updated on our site. That being said, they can view and edit the price upon confirmation. For example, you could write in the note section "please apply my credit of X, or promo price of Y" and they can do that. Perhaps it's best to remind everyone how our ordering tool was designed...

We designed our order delivery so that it could be accepted by every supplier, so we chose email since it was the lowest common denominator and required zero integration. It's a more sophisticated version of an order you would normally type up an email to your rep. So when the supplier receives it, they manually enter into their system. We don't just put the details of the order in the email though, we send the supplier a link which takes them to a secure page inside our site. This allows us to show you they opened it and then we require them to "confirm" the order. In the example of SnapAV, you'll get a confirmation from us, but then you will also get the same confirmation emails from them, as if you had emailed them the order.
Kirk Chisholm
Founder - Portal.io
kirk at portal dot io
Post 41 made on Thursday July 12, 2018 at 11:12
Lowhz
Senior Member
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1,168
On July 11, 2018 at 21:18, Stryker said...
So how did Portal start anyone remember? Didn’t it start as a company trying to make thier lives simpler and creating a database /product to order gear and then going this is a good thing we’ve invested a lot others would benefit from it?

They showed up at a Denver CEDIA wearing orange pants and handing out Red Stripe beers at 3pm on a Friday as I recall. Supplystream.
Post 42 made on Thursday July 12, 2018 at 12:07
Kirk_SS
Long Time Member
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On July 12, 2018 at 11:12, Lowhz said...
They showed up at a Denver CEDIA wearing orange pants and handing out Red Stripe beers at 3pm on a Friday as I recall. Supplystream.

Haha, true story. I had an integration company in Chicago for about 8 years and we had more than 50 techs in three states. We were doing installs for Costco, Circuit City, Sears and we had a custom division (C4 dealer). Our guys all brought their trucks home and came to our three warehouses once a week. Since everyone was remote we needed a way to manage the the entire company in the cloud, so we built a custom piece of software back in 2003. We had the ability to create proposals, close out jobs, upload photos and run credit cards over sprint wireless cards from our vans, 15 years ago! In 2009 when the economy tanked, I decided to sell the company to one of our employees, carve out the software and share it with several companies in the industry. Everyone said it was too complicated and it did too much. One thing they all loved though was the shared database. After much discussion we realized that product data is the real problem in the industry and if you can organize it all in one spot then everything becomes easier. So I scrapped the old software (ouch) raised some money, and built the new data engine from scratch, under-the-radar, for almost two years. We then sprang up out of nowhere at a Cedia and blew peoples minds. That's basically the story.
Kirk Chisholm
Founder - Portal.io
kirk at portal dot io
Post 43 made on Thursday July 12, 2018 at 12:08
TAAVS
Long Time Member
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178
I think what many are missing about the value of Portal is the streamlining of process. Who wants to go to 3,4,6 different sites to order product when you can do it in one shot with Portal?

Yeah some vendors don't react as quickly as you want or even confirm the orders, but its a hell of a lot more efficient than the old way.

Oh and the rebate onto the Debit card.... Who doesn't want free money? At 5k a month in orders, you get $50 back, cash money. Not a credit to be used later, not some stupid rebate off an invoice that creates longer accounting time.
Post 44 made on Thursday July 12, 2018 at 13:56
Audiophiliac
Super Member
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August 2006
3,309
Sooooo.....whats the unicorn totally badass and FREE option that does everything Portal does? With everyone complaining.....there must be a cheaper and better alternative....right?
"When I eat, it is the food that is scared." - Ron Swanson
Post 45 made on Thursday July 12, 2018 at 16:04
goldenzrule
Loyal Member
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8,470
Does "ordering" Sonos through portal count towards your monthly total?  You can add Sonos to an order, but cannot actually order Sonos, at least not if a direct dealer.  You still have to go to your Sonos dealer store and place the order.
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