Courier Field Master

Introduction

Courier Field Master (CFM) is used to convert input from our client (soft data) to a valid value that is acceptable by the 3PL.
This can be used for converting Location (City, State, Country, etc) values to the set applicable for 3PL (in case of incorrect, similar sounding values being input), defining default values in case a value is not present(for example if the weight, height, etc are not passed), or conditionally defining values for a parameter according to a given set of input.

Relevance

CFM is relevant in all those cases where the courier partner expects a value for a given field but the customer has given a different value / has not provided any value for the field.

Usage

System-Defined Mappings:

• Commonly used mappings for the carriers are defined here (Standard City, Country, etc. names to Carrier Alias for the same)

  • Location: Setup > Carrier Partners > Carrier Field Master > System Defined Mapping

    Open

    

• Customers can use a single click to enable the complete list of mappings :

  • To enable: enable the “Use System Defined Mappings” option

• If the user has created a custom mapping, it takes precedence over these mappings

Basic Transformation:

Change soft-data input from the customer to valid values for the carrier.

Usage:

1. Goto Location: Setup > Carrier Partners > Carrier Field Master > Custom Mapping

   Open

   

2. Select Add New and then Single Mapping. One can also use Excel upload to add multiple mappings using a CSV file

3. You will be able to see the given pop-up

    

4. Under “Carrier Partner” select the required 3PL

5. Under “Carrier Account” select the account of 3PL if the mapping is applicable for a specific account only, else select “ALL”

6. Under “Parameter Type” select the parameter (soft data field) to be mapped

7. Enable the Conditions checkbox in case advanced filters are to be used. (link)

8. Under “Organization’s Alias” add the values expected from the soft data/customer input or select a wild card value (“Default”, “Empty”). You can add multiple values here.

9. Under “Carrier Alias” add the value to be sent to Carrier Partner for booking

10. Set the Priority of this mapping. In case multiple such mappings exist the mapping with the highest priority will be applicable. A higher number means a higher priority. More specific mappings have a higher priority in case the same value is assigned to them. Custom mappings always have higher priority than system-defined mappings.

11. Click “Add” to save the mapping

Examples

Problem Statement :

• The customer has added the city "niger", "ner", and "562" in soft data 

• Carrier accepts only “NE”

Solution :

Addition of a rule in CFM that maps Organization’s Alias "niger", "ner", and "562" to Carrier Alias "NE" for Parameter Type "city"

Problem Statement 2 :

• The customer has sent the Service Type “Premium”

• Carrier accepts Service Type “One Day Delivery

Solution:

Addition of a rule in CFM that maps Organization’s Alias "Premium" to Carrier Alias "One Day Delivery" for Parameter Type "Service Type ID"

Wild Card Options:

We have the following 2 wild cards available:

Empty

This wild card is used in case no data is being sent by the customer in a given field for soft data.

We can use this to send a static value in all such cases and define fallbacks to prevent booking failures

Problem Statement:

• The customer passes no value for field quantity

• Quantity is a mandatory field for the carrier

Solution:

Addition of a rule in CFM that maps Organization’s Alias wild card "empty" to the Carrier Alias default value "1" for Parameter Type "quantity"

We need to use the Wild card value provided in the dropdown and not type it.

Default

This wild card maps every possible instance of nonempty values which do not have a corresponding mapping already existing in shipsy mapping.

This can be used for cases where all possible values are not mapped for a particular field but we do not want the booking to fail due to an invalid value being passed by the customer. Hence we send this default value for booking.

Problem Statement:

• A carrier in India accepts only “IN” in the Country field

• We have created a mapping for “India”, “91” to “IN”

• The value “IND” is being passed in soft data which is not acceptable by the Carrier

Solution:

Addition of a rule in CFM that maps Organization’s Alias wild card "Default" to the Carrier Alias default value "IN" for Parameter Type "Country"

We need to use the Wild card value provided in the dropdown and not type it.

Advanced Filters

These are used for conditionally adding a mapping.

Enabling advanced filters:

1. To enable advanced filters, go to “Courier Field Master” > “Advanced Setting”

    

2. Under “Allowed Parameter Types for Conditions”, Add all the “Parameter Types” (Soft data fields) that are needed to be added as filters. This is a search to type list, so you can type the field name and select from the drop down

    

3. Click Save to save the settings, close the dialogue box and enable the selected filters.

    

Using Advanced Filters and Examples

To add an advanced filter the same steps as the addition of a Mapping are to be followed along with enabling the conditions checkbox.

1. The following view will be visible upon enabling the “Conditions” checkbox.

    

2. Click + to add a condition

    

3. Select the Parameter relevant to the filter from the dropdown. This dropdown only contains the enabled conditions. And type in the values in which case this condition will be valid.

    

4. Existing conditions can be removed by clicking - icon and additional conditions can be added with + icon

5. The remaining flow is same as addition of rules without conditions.

Use Case:

Problem Statement:

For a carrier, virtual series are being used for booking with following constraints:

1. For forward prepaid booking, PPD virtual series is to be used

2. For forward cod booking, COD virtual series is to be used

3. For reverse bookings, REV virtual series is to be used

4. We get initial inputs about Consignment movement in consignment type (Forward / Reverse) and movement type (“forward”, 'rts', 'rto', 'rtv', 'rvp') fields. And the COD information about order in “is COD” field.

Solution:

We create the following rules to take care of all the given cases:

1. For case 1, Addition of a rule in CFM that maps Organization’s Alias wild card "empty" to Carrier Alias "PPD" for Parameter Type "Virtual Series Service Type" given, condition Is COD is FALSE

2. For case 2, Addition of a rule in CFM that maps Organization’s Alias wild card "empty" to Carrier Alias "COD" for Parameter Type "Virtual Series Service Type" given, condition Is COD is TRUE

3. For case 3, We need to add the following 2 rules,

   1. Add a rule that maps the Organization’s Alias wild card "empty" to Carrier Alias "REV" for Parameter Type "Virtual Series Service Type" given, condition Consignment Type is Reverse

   2. Add a rule that maps the Organization’s Alias wild card "empty" to Carrier Alias "REV" for Parameter Type "Virtual Series Service Type" given, condition Movement Type is rvp