The information in this guide is focused on Agencies with Order Writing & B2B services moving to MarketTime.
Things to Know About Data/Features, etc.
If your company is making the move from Brandwise to MarketTime, there are a few things to know to prepare you for the transition.
Timing your Transition
Depending on your company's size and current Brandwise products, you may need to consider when your transition should take place. Things to consider would include the following points:
- Commission Cycle - We recommend trying to schedule the transition after the close of a commission cycle to ensure as much of a "clean cut" as possible. This is not required though, as data will be migrated into MarketTime as-is, so you can continue in-progress statements if needed.
- Wrap-Up Pending Orders - We recommend wrapping up any Pending orders. Pending orders will not make their way to MarketTime, so it's important to set these to HFC or Quote to ensure the orders transition successfully. More information about Order Statuses in MarketTime can be found in our dedicated article on the subject.
Data Transfer
You will see the standard 2 years of order / invoice / customer history included in your data migration (additional years incur a cost).
Barcodes
Barcode Scanning
All vendor UPC / Product SKU values listed in your Brandwise account will be a part of the initial data transfer process and flow into each agency-managed vendor account we set up in your MarketTime system. This includes "ssiBarcode" information present in your Brandwise system.
Note: an SSI barcode is a numeric value created in the Brandwise system, unique to each product and each agency<>vendor relationship. In other words, when multiple Brandwise agencies represent the same vendor, each agency using SSI barcodes has a unique code for that vendor's products.
How does this impact you post-transition?
Scenario A: If you utilize the agency-managed vendor account created during the transition process, your existing barcodes/labels will function with the MarketTime system, using either the MarketTime Pro iPad app or the MarketTime web application. This is true for both UPC and “ssiBarcode" labels.
No re-labeling of “ssiBarcode” items will be required. We recommend using MarketTime Barcodes and re-stickering your products with these as soon as possible.
Scenario B: If your vendor is going to take control of managing their data using a vendor-managed account, then you will lose the ability to utilize ssiBarcodes for that manufacturer and must use either the UPCs they provide or generate new MarketTime Barcodes. Your showroom products and any ssiBarcode-labeled catalogs/documents must be re-labeled for scanning.
The table below summarizes the different scenarios and implications for scanning barcodes:
|
Will the barcode scan after I transition to MarketTime? |
||
|
Barcode / UPC Type |
Agency-Managed Vendor Account in MarketTime |
Vendor-Managed Vendor Account in MarketTime |
|
UPC |
YES |
YES |
|
SSI |
YES |
NO |
Finally, if you begin managing your Agency-Managed Vendor account, using the REPLACE option when importing products will remove the ssiBarcode data (since this option removes data for that account and replaces it with the data on the file you're importing) and will require you to re-sticker products with MarketTime Barcodes as noted above.
Click HERE for a dedicated article on creating and printing barcode labels.
Product Pricing/Multiple Currencies
At this time, there are certain pricing-related features that will not be supported in MarketTime. That list can be found on our dedicated Support Article on the subject.
MarketTime offers alternatives to some of these features that won't have a direct counterpart.
Multiple Currencies
For those using multiple currencies (e.g. CAD and USD), MarketTime recommends one of two solutions:
1. Utilize Price Codes to label, upload, and assign pricing to retailers as needed with the value of the alternative currency.
2. Utilize multiple Manufacturer accounts to segregate each currency into it's own product lists, customer bases, etc. as needed. Moure about this can be found in our article focused on non-us companies.
NOTE: MarketTime will always display the $ symbol for any value you provide for a product, so you will need to inform your users/retailers to understand the value may represent the currency even though the $ symbol appears.
Price Lists (AKA Price Codes)
Those who utilize Brandwise and have multiple Price Lists for a single Manufacturer assigned to a single customer will find there is no alternative in MarketTime.
Product Options
Manufacturers who utilize Product Options will not see their products transferred into MarketTime due to incompatibility and upcoming improvements. These products will need to be manually uploaded within MarketTime by the Agency or Manufacturer if they're managing their own data.
Orders with product options will visibly be identical to that of any other order, with details and totals as expected.
These orders will appear on Order-level reports, but not Item-level reports.
Duplicating Orders for multiple Ship To locations (Parent Chains)
The ability to efficiently duplicate orders for multiple Ship To locations for a chain of customers is best done via the Parent Chain feature. This is a feature exclusive to MarketTime, so Parent Chains must be created in order to utilize it, this data will not come over from Brandwise.
How to Create Parent Chains
Duplicating Orders to members of a Parent Chain
Notes Regarding Data Validation and Report Matching between Brandwise and MarketTime.
During the process of reviewing your data in MarketTime's Staging Environment and as you interact with your data once you're live on MarketTime, there are various considerations to take into account when comparing order/commission totals between Brandwise and MarketTime.
One of the most common differences are typically orders that have missing/corrupt/incomplete required data fields that are technically reportable within Brandwise, but may not make it into MarketTime due to different data requirements.
A few examples of reasons why an order wouldn't make it to MarketTime:
- Order is outside of the date range of data being bright into MarketTime.
- Order is deleted in Brandwise.
- Order is missing a Ship To record in Brandwise.
- Order is missing other required data (status, order details, etc.).
- This is commonly caused by data originating from outside of or prior to Brandwise.
This same criteria can is typically extended to Invoice/Commission data as well.
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MarketTime Account Creation
Since we'll be moving your data and creating your system for your order writing needs, all you need to do is create a login account. This should only be done at the direction of MarketTime Staff or an email from us.
NOTE: If you already have a MarketTime account to access your Manufacturer data, you do not need to create a new account. Reach out to MarketTime Support at support@markettime.com and they can link you with your new account. See below for how to request.
For more information on how to create a MarketTime account, see our dedicated article.
Preliminary Transition Tasks
For a list of the tasks needed to complete during your transition, see our dedicated article.
Post Transition Tasks
For a list of the tasks needed to complete during your transition, see our dedicated article.
Web App Overview Video
The article linked below outlines all the major screens and features available to a Sales Agency Admin in the MarketTime Web App (https://apps.markettime.com).
As this is a website, an internet connection is required at all times while using the Web App.
MarketTime Pro app for iOS
For more detailed information about MarketTime Pro, see our dedicated section of articles on the app.
Order Writing Tools
Click on the image below to view a side-by-side comparison of the order writing tools available to you in MarketTime.