About a year ago, prairieFyre decided it was time to update our web presence and revamp the entire web site. Those of you who have done this before know this is a fairly ambitious project. Although in most cases, not overly challenging technically, the bulk of the work comes from developing new content and getting consensus from all departments on subjects ranging from graphic style to general look and feel. It was also decided that not only was the public website being updated, but our dealer portal would require the same ‘facelift.’ While we were going to update the portal, we thought it would be a good time to introduce new tools to automate common functions and integrate into our primary business system.  

We knew that a fairly significant effort was going to be required to lay the ground work for these new applications. The key technologies making this portal job easier were Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 with a direct link into our Microsoft CRM. We agreed a phased approach was the best way to ensure both systems were launched simultaneously.  As most of you are already aware, Phase 1 didn’t introduce any significant features but did revamp and update a lot of the Dealer Portal content as well as the overall look of the portal. For those of you who are not familiar with our Dealer Portal, you’ve been missing out! The Dealer Portal is a central repository for all technical and sales documentation, product videos, product demos, technical knowledge base, and software download center. If you want to know anything about prairieFyre product or services, this is the place to go! 

Now that the new Dealer Portal is in place, we have everything we need to develop applications that truly increase productivity and more importantly, make it easier to do business with prairieFyre. Now, we are making the final preparations towards launching Phase 2 of the Dealer Portal.

With Phase 2, we are proud to announce a full suite of self-service features which we believe are long overdue. Here are some of the highlights: 

Software Registration:

In the past, software registration was a fairly manual process. Customers were required to fill in a form and send the information to our administration team for processing, which could take up to 24 hours, especially if the request was made outside our regular business hours. We now offer the ability to register online in real-time! This will instantly activate warranty, register the customer, as well as generate the necessary license files in real-time. No more waiting to start implementing all the great service improvements our software provides! 

Software Assurance Quotes:

Another great new feature we’ve added is the ability to generate standard one-year Software Assurance quotes.  Simply provide us with the site key and once verified for accuracy, a quote is sent to you via email in PDF format. It really doesn’t get any easier than that! 

User  Management

Every partner will now have their dedicated view to manage their interactions with prairieFyre, as it relates to their customers. One contact from each company will be sent an email inviting them to our dealer portal. This contact will be designated “Prime User” and will have the ability to grant access to their colleagues. As most of these functions are integrated into our main business system, in most cases it will simply be a matter of activating existing contacts. If the contact isn’t already in our database, you can simply create them and provide them access. From here, you can designate various roles such as “Technical Contact,” “Sales Contact,” “Training Contact,” etc… You will also be able to grant various permissions such as “Generate Quotes,” “User Management,” etc… 

These are some of the most significant features we will have available to our valued partners very soon. We want to get you involved! Should you want to be part of our “Controlled Introduction” contact your Mitel Account Manager for more details. Have a great day! 

Luc Raymond
Internal Services