Within Elastic Suite, there are many ways to share and collaborate with other reps and dealers. Below are some of the recommended ways to share using various pathways on the site:
A. Collections Sharing
B. Order Whiteboard Sharing
C. Share With Dealer
D. Mass Sharing To Users
A. Collections Sharing
Whether you are a rep, merchandiser, or sales leadership, creating Collections can be a powerful way to create suggested buys or show off certain products in a catalog. Being able to share with your dealers or other reps using these custom catalogs, is a great way to get them the information they need to make the right decisions for their territories.
To Share a Collection with someone who uses Elastic, open the Collection you'd like to share. Click the Menu drop-down in the top right corner of the screen:
The 'Share Collection' screen will open, with a list of all users assigned to your username. Select who you'd like to share the custom catalog with and click 'Continue':
There are three types of users/accounts you can share with. This can be changed using the tabs in the modal:
- Rep - This list will include any reps that you share a rep group with. Filtering by an account you can share with all reps under the selected account.
- Internal - This list will include any internal customers that were created (via Elastic Admin) and also share a rep group with you. Filtering by account you can share with all users under that marketing account.
- Dealer - This will include any dealer users that have been created under the accounts your repID is assigned to. Filtering by account you can share with all users registered with that account #.
You will receive a confirmation that your catalog has been shared and the arrow logo will appear next to the catalog in the Collection widget on your dashboard:
B. Order/Whiteboard Sharing
Product and sales management might want to create suggested orders and Whiteboards to show color stories and merchandising. You may want to back up these orders and share them with your reps, but may not have a shared customer to enable Collections sharing. You can use the download to desktop feature to create an .ELS file (Elastic Suite specific file that only works in Elastic Suite) which can be used as a backup of your order and can be shared with other reps. When sharing with other reps, the rep will only need to have a customer that has access to the catalog the order was created from. It will then load the order/whiteboards from this file, removing any styles the user does not have access to and adjusting for any new inventory levels.
Creating an .ELS File
- Create or open an order. This can include quantities and whiteboards.
- Select Menu in the top right and select the 'Download to Desktop' option.
- This will open a Save to dialog box where you can select where to save the file.
Opening .ELS File
- Navigate to your Orders.
- Select the 'Open From Desktop' tab.
- Select the customer to set the correct catalog permissions, then the 'Browse' button, and select an .ELS file from where it is stored.
- The Elastic software will process the file then open in a new order.
C. Share with a Dealer
A great way to collaborate your dealers, is to use the 'Dealer Sharing' feature in Elastic Suite. This allows draft orders created with the rep's account, to be available to the dealer's account. When rep clicks the 'share with dealer' button, elastic will send out an email notification to all of the user's registered against the dealer's account number. If there were many buyer's registered to this dealer account for example, they would all receive an email letting them know an order has been shared with them.
The dealer can then go in and make any changes they may want to make to the order. This option can be selected from the 'Orders Widget' by showing all of your Elastic orders, then you will see the option on the right side of your draft orders. It can also be accessed while in an order from the Menu.
Once shared, reloading/refreshing the page will show this order has been shared with a link share symbol.
D. Duplicate and Share
Let's say you're working with other reps and want to create copies of orders that other reps (that share your customer groups) can utilize. Or perhaps, you want to send a suggested order to many of your dealers. The mass sharing modal is a great way to distribute copies of your orders to multiple recipients. *Note - this function will make a copy of your original order (while using the share with dealer function, will not create a copy and is the preferred method for collaboratively sharing orders with your dealers).
You can access the 'Duplicate Order' Icon from the Order Widget. The icon will appear to the right of all orders that are eligible for sharing.
You can also access sharing from within an order by clicking on the Menu button and selecting 'Duplicate and Share'.
Note: Once an order has entered final submission, you will not be able to share it.
Select who you want to share with
A modal of which users you want to share with will appear. You can select the Elastic user (or users) you'd like to share with by selecting the checkbox next to their name. Sharing with multiple users is a great way to share a suggested buy with all of your accounts, or share an order with your store's team.
There are three types of users/accounts you can share with and can be changed using the tabs in the modal:
- Rep - This list will include any reps that you share a rep group with. Filtering by account you can share with all reps under that account.
- Marketing - This list will include any internal customers that were created (via elastic admin) and also share a rep group with you. Filtering by account you can share with all users under that marketing account.
- Dealer - This will include any dealer users that have been created under the accounts your repID is assigned to. Filtering by account you can share with all users registered with that account #.
Click Continue
A notification will appear in the top right letting you know the order has been shared and the recipients will receive an email indicating they have a shared order. Orders that are in a shared
state will appear with an 'Arrow' Icon in front of them in your orders list.
