Meeting Planner Quick Guide To Planit Direct
Planit Direct for Meetings and Events is simple to use.
This quick guide provides everything you need to know to find the products you are looking for, see your company’s net or preferred rates when reviewing supplier product pages, create Resource Carts, save products to them and send supplier RFPs.
Keep in mind that new suppliers are being added every day. So please check back often.
1. Create a free planner account.
A free planner account lets you
- Save resource selections in private resource carts.
- Always view your private net rates wherever you have established them with suppliers.
- Track any RFPs that you send.
Choose the locations you want to search for products by using the location drop-down menus and pressing go.
2. Click “Cart Manager” to create your first Resource Cart. Pressing View Cart will open up your “Current Resource Cart”.
Resource Carts are where you can save resources or products for every destination. You can create as many resource carts as you need.
Note “Current Cart” in the lower right corner of this screen. As you are working, here is where you designate the resource cart you want to save products and service to.
Resource carts are dynamic. When you return to them anytime in the future, each saved resource will contain the most current supplier information; rates, descriptions, upgrades, etc.
Helpful hint: Many planners construct them geographically. Some even by hotel location.
3. ”Cart Manager” opens the Resource Cart Manager. Here you can create new resource carts and edit existing ones.
The first time you open the Cart Manager the initial cart will be named “My Group”. Just press edit, to change the name.
4. When you click on any search term looking for products, you will be brought to a search results screen. Here is where you will see and select the various products that suppliers listed under that term.
5. Product or Resource Pages deliver the group product details and costs you need to get to keep moving forward. Each flows with the language and format planners need to work faster.
A word about rates: Wherever possible, current retail product rates are included for your budgeting purposes. Occasionally, you will come across resources that do not display rates. When this occurs, you may still forward an instant Request for Proposal to those vendors with your questions.
If you receive Net or preferred rates from any Planit Direct supplier, let the supplier know you joined Planit Direct. They can instantly set things to where you will always view both their retail rates as well as your private preferred rates (only you see them) for each product whenever you visit.
If you don’t have contracted rates with any vendors, we encourage you to contact whomever you might like to work with to negotiate a one-time discounted rate or apply for a preferred rate status. The savings can be significant.
Supplier RFPs can be sent by pressing the RFP button located on the bottom of each product page or from any resource cart. You can keep track of sent RFPs when sent from inside each cart.
Note the “Current Resource Cart” selection field located at the bottom left of each product page. When saving resources to resource carts, make sure you have the correct cart selected that you want to save to.
6. A look at Resource Cart Construction
When you save resources (products) to a Resource Cart they are positioned under the heading, “Resources”. Clicking the actual resource name opens that resource so you can review any details or cost information you need to.
Pressing “Add to RFP” adds the company to the RFP queue under its resource type or category. From here you can send individual company RFPs or, if you are seeking general information and want to send one RFP to many suppliers under the same category you can accomplish this quickly be pressing “Send Multi-Vendor RFP”.
7. Sending Supplier RFPs
Clicking any of the Send RFP commands, brings up an editable Request for Proposal form that already has the supplier contact information and your contact information filled in. Simply fill in the blanks and hit send.
Next to the company name in your cart, the date and time your RFP was sent will be displayed. You are also copied on all RFPs sent if your email address is what appears in the “Copy Me At” field under Contact Information.
If you haven’t created your free planning account yet, join today.
It’s free.
