| White Label System (Beta) |
14/01/2008
Introduction
Technical Overview
Header and Footer Branding
Theming
HTML Injection Points
End User Payment Options
Google Checkout
Telephone Payments
Cheque Payments
Bank Transfer Payments
Defining your Price Model
Fixed Markup - Pricing Method
Fixed Percentage Markup - Pricing Method
Fixed Total - Pricing Method
Auto Charging and Processing
Adding your own Custom Products and Services
The Quotation System
End User Control Panel
Mailing and Communication Systems
Compiling a Completed HIP
HIP Design Variables
Account Holder Payment Options
Notes about the Beta Release
Introduction
The White Label System is a new platform (Currently scheduled to go Beta by the end of January) that will enable a third party company to deploy our HIP ordering gateway on their own website. The integration process is very simple and the system has many layers of control to enable the pricing, design and layout to be easily modified.
Technical Overview
The software behind the white label system runs on a dedicated web server accessible through the domain HipWiz.com. A White Label account holder would link into the system with a unique identifier that enables the software to embed all the related branding, colours, annotations and price model. The gateway then displays a full set of user controls to enable a client to create a new quotation and access previous orders.
The system has been designed to seamlessly integrate with the new Google Checkout service. Which can be fully configured from the HIP Manager control panel by entering a few key values.
Essentially there are two stages to fully enabling a new HIP ordering service on a third party website:
Stage 1
Create the html for the header and footer branding and theme the system with your own colours and fonts.
Stage 2
Setup a Google Checkout Account (FREE) and pass the account credentials into the HIP Manager Control Panel. You can also setup additional payment methods such as cheque, telephone payment and bank transfer.
The only prerequisites to enable the White Label system are a website to link from, some HTML code for the header and footer banners. Should you not wish to use a Google checkout account you can setup alternative payment methods detailed in Stage 2 (above).
Header and Footer Branding
The overall page layout is constructed by two banners, one at the top (Header) and one at the bottom (Footer). All the forms that deliver the functionality are sandwiched between these banners. The banners are rendered through some HTML provided by the user and should reflect the header and footer branding of the referring website.
The banners can be any dimension, and can incorporate any compliant HTML, this includes embedded Flash and JavaScript components. The HTML is uploaded from The HIP Manager control panel and you can switch between multiple pre-saved banners. If the system cannot detect any banners on an account it will show the default placeholders.
Theming
A theming module has been included within the HIP Manager Control Panel to enable the aesthetic properties of the system to be customised. The account holder can easily adapt the page layout, background and orientation along with more precise control over the textual content and button set. There are over 10 pre-saved themes to choose from. Below is a list of all the editable components in the system.
Font size, style and colour. There are several text styles that can be individually modified.
Page alignment and back colour.
Colour scheme. The system incorporates 3 different colours that can be modified.
Borders. Configure the style, width and colour of all bordered elements.
Graphics. There are several pre-saved graphic sets that can be applied depending on your overall theme. The graphics include tabs, buttons and bullet points. Additional functionality will be added later to import bespoke graphics.
All the elements described above can be adjusted and the effects are updated in a preview panel. Once the desired theme has been achieved the settings can be saved and exported to your live system.
HTML Injection Points
We understand that account holders will demand a high level of customisation for the front-end interface. We have therefore created what we refer to as HTML injection points, these are quite literally positions within the front-end system where you can inject your own custom HTML code. This feature will enable account holders to add additional layers of information to the system and to deliver custom content such as samples, demos and testimonials.
The HTML Injection Points will not be a core part of the initial White Label Release but will be made available to account holders in the proceeding weeks after launch
End User Payment Options
There are a number of methods that you can apply to the system to collect payment from your end user customer. These are detailed below:
Google Checkout
Google Checkout is an online payment processing service provided by Google. The service was launched in the US in 2006 and was later made available to UK merchants in April 2007. The White Label system seamlessly integrates with the Google Checkout gateway to enable the end user to pay online and authorise payment almost instantly.
All funds accumulated on a Google Checkout account are paid to the merchant within 3 working days. Until February 2008 the service will be completely free, subsequent to this Google will charge a fee of approximately 1.5% on the total of all orders plus an additional 15p flat fee.
Setting up a Google Checkout account is free and takes approximately 5 minutes. The White Label system can easily be integrated into a Google checkout account by simply enabling the service and adding the relevant account credentials. There is an additional testing environment that can be switched on to make test payments over the system.
Telephone Payments
If your company has a card payment facility and you are able to take payments over the phone then the telephone payment feature can easily be enabled. To setup this service all you need to do is provide a sales telephone number. This will be displayed within the payment option page along with a unique quote ID that your customer will be prompted to relay when calling your number. To find out how to retrieve a customer order please refer to the section entitled The Quotation System.
Cheque Payments
You can enter full instructions that will be displayed to your end user customer that will enable them to make a cheque payment for their Home Information Pack. This can easily be setup within the HIP Manager control panel by providing a few key details such as payee name and cheque delivery address.
Bank Transfer Payments
A bank transfer option can be enabled to allow your end user customer to initiate a BACs or CHAPs bank transfer to pay for their Home Information Pack. You can set this up in the HIP Manager control panel by providing a few key details such as the bank name, account number and sort code.
Defining your Price Model
The price model will take the individual trade cost for each of the HIP components (The amount you pay HIP Manager) and apply a simple formula to calculate the retail cost. The difference between these figures will be your profit margin.
When developing the system we concluded that it would be vital to provide a number of different options to the account holder to factor in their markup. We therefore created three methods for generating the retail prices, these are described below.
Fixed Markup
The account holder adds a fixed markup to the trade amount. For example if the trade cost on a Local Authority Search is £90, the account holder adds a fixed amount of £20 to arrive at a retail figure of £110. The account holder's profit is equivalent to the markup amount.
Fixed Percentage Markup
The account holder adds on a fixed percentage of the trade amount. For example if the trade cost on a Local Authority Search is £100, the account holder may stipulate a percentage markup of 20% to arrive at a retail figure of £120. The account holder's profit is the percentage of the trade amount, in this case £20.
Fixed Total
The account holder can fix the total of a HIP component irrespective of the trade amount. It is important to note that this may result in a loss if the fixed amount is less than the trade amount.
The HIP Manager control panel enables you to declare the method for setting your retail prices using any combination of the formulas detailed above. The system will output the projected profit margin and total retail price for a typical HIP order. You can also declare whether your company is VAT registered so that VATable content of a sale is displayed to the customer and transmitted to the Payment Service Provider where necessary.
Auto Charging and Processing
Auto charging is where a Google Transaction is automatically charged as soon as all the payment critical information has been collected from the end user customer. This option is set from within the Google Checkout Control Panel. Setting Auto Charge to false enables the merchant to review the order before accepting and authorising the card payment. This is often a measure that some merchants take to avoid credit card fraud.
Auto processing is currently defaulted to false on the BETA release of the White Label System. This means that we will never automatically process a HIP order unless you have implicitly instructed us to do so from your Control Panel. In the future we will implement an option to auto process all transactions.
Adding your own Custom Products and Services
The White Label System is currently capable of storing three custom products or services. Theses items are displayed alongside the other HIP components before the end user is presented with your payment options. The customer can indicate that they wish to order any of these components by checking the corresponding box, the system will then dynamically recalculate the price.
To enter a custom product or service in the HIP Manager Control Panel you must enter a product or service name, a full description, the retail amount and the expenditure. The expenditure corresponds to how much it will cost your company to provide this product or service. This effectively enables you to calculate your profit margin.
The Quotation System
The quotation system forms an integral part of the functionality for all ancillary White Label services. Whenever an end user customer enters information to retrieve a quote for a Home Information Pack the data is recorded in the quotation database. The data can be later called upon if the customer decides to order the HIP, not only that but it provides the White Label account holder with a means to monitor the activity on their account and derive conversion rates and other demographic information.
Every quotation has an associated ID number. If an end user customer completes a quote then the ID number that will be issued to them can be passed to the white label account holder so that the transaction can be processed.
There are two methods that can be used to retrieve a customer quote. The first is by the quote ID number, this can be typed directly into the HIP Manager control panel. The second is to use the 'advance search' option accessible from the White Label control panel, this will enable you to search using any part of the address.
As we develop the system further we will look to deliver more reporting tools from the data available within the quotation system.
End User Control Panel
When an end user customer places an order they will be issued with some login credentials that will enable them to access a branded control panel on the White Label system. The control panel is a means to communicate the order progress with the end user customer. As and when new documentation becomes available we will notify the end user customer to keep them informed. This will ensure that a high level of customer confidence is maintained.
Certain white label account holders may wish to supply their own components for the HIP rather than use ours. The contents of the end user control panel is mirrored on the account holders control panel and once all the components have been supplied by HIP Manager additional documents may be uploaded to complete the order. A fully compiled HIP can then be generated by the white label account holder and notification delivered to the end user customer. The standard document format for all HIP documentation is Adobe Acrobat PDF, these documents can be viewed using a free reader from adobe.com.
For all customers paying by Google Checkout the end user control panel also provides a downloadable sales receipt for their order. In future releases of the White Label system we will also add functionality for the account holder to create receipts for cheque, telephone and BACs orders.
Mailing and Communication Systems
There are effectively three parties involved in a white label transaction, the end user customer, the account holder (you) and HIP Manager. Efficient communication between these parties is essential to ensure that a high level of service is delivered to the end user customer.
Currently HIP Manager incorporates a web based messaging system to enable correspondence to be sent to and from our admin department. We will be extending this system so that your end user customer can communicate directly with HIP Manager in relation to pending orders. All messages delivered to end user customers will appear to have originated from the account holder. At all times HIP Manager will remain transparent.
As in many cases HIP Manager will be the best placed to answer any end user queries. We feel that this arrangement will be the most conducive to resolving any issues as quickly as possible. We however are keen to ensure that the white label account holder is well informed therefore all messages will be CC'd to the associated white label account holder.
Occasionally it may be necessary to contact an end user by email for example to notify them of their login credentials. In this case the email is appended with a signature created using the details held for the White Label account holder.
Any deliverables relating to a White Label order are despatched in a plain envelope. This may be applicable if the customer orders a printed hard copy of their HIP.
Compiling a Completed HIP
When all the component parts of a HIP are available then the completed product must be compiled. The compilation process takes all the individual documents such as the Local Authority Search, title documents, EPC and Con29 and stitches them all together with a front cover, contents page, sales and index statement, along with all the relevant dividers and additional documentation uploaded by the account holder. The result is a single PDF document that can be downloaded by the end user.
HIP Design Variables
The completed Home Information Pack can be automatically styled with your corporate branding by configuring your default design settings. Although the scope for customisation is not as broad as the actual website, it is possible to add your own logo, modify the colours and add some footer text.
Account Holder Payment Options
Each White Label Account has a credit file that is used to track the funds available to process any pending HIP orders. Typically when a new order is placed by the end user customer it will appear in the new order panel. The White Label account holder will be notified of any new orders through the Google Checkout Payment service, they can then log onto their control panel and add the necessary funds to process the order. A positive balance may be maintained on the account or funds may be paid on an ad-hoc basis to cover any new orders.
HIP Manager currently enable any account holder to add funds to their account by Google Checkout, telephone payment, cheque or bank transfer. Please not that the latter two options may delay the order as the funds will need time to clear.
Once an order history has been established with HIP Manager it may be possible to apply for a credit limit on your account. A credit account is setup with a monthly credit limit and the outstanding balance is cleared on a monthly basis or whenever the limit has been reached.
Notes about the Beta Release
The White Label system is currently in its Beta version. This means that it has been thoroughly tested within the company and made available for public use. While the system is at the Beta stage no guarantees can be made to assert that the system will be bug free. We greatly appreciate the assistance of the individuals using the service to report any bugs and suggest ways in which the service can be improved.
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