Product power! 💪 Here’s a wrap-up of can’t-miss product announcements from Simpleview Summit 2023

If you joined us in Houston for Simpleview Summit 2023, you probably heard that our focus in 2023 is to be future-forward and hybrid — and we want our products to reflect that. Simpleview tools are the backbone of our approach to development; we want to be accelerating and integrating into every iteration of our products.

There are a ton of exciting product advancements in the pipeline for this year — many of which we announced for the first time at Summit. So whether you weren't able to attend Simpleview Summit or you missed a thing or two, this powerful product wrap-up is for you.

What's New, Simpleview?

The Next Evolution of Simpleview CMS

Simpleview CMS is expanding its approach to content delivery by adding headless support, alongside new tooling to build next-generation web applications for destinations. These tools, meaning a headless API, Next.js, and React, are built to ensure brand consistency across all of your digital channels while making it easier and faster to bring content initiatives to your customers. This tooling will result in the ability to build next-generation web applications for destinations and will be available early 2024. As a SaaS product, this new evolution will be platform-wide, providing new opportunities for customers looking to unify their online properties under a single brand.

We’re excited to further boost our CMS forward by extending our set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and presenting a new, modern suite of tools for building web applications and providing a path to manage your content from within the CMS. Adding additional APIs that allow us to be not just hybrid, but headless — which creates opportunities to consolidate your content management into one place.

Simpleview CRM & CRM Apex

At Summit, our experts spent some time highlighting the many new features in our current CRM, including the Forecast Feature and the import integration with Eventsforce. We familiarized attendees with CRM Apex — our next-gen platform with modern, intuitive UI and features designed specifically for the future of DMOs.

Exciting features of CRM Apex include:

• New opportunities section to meet the needs of the modern meeting manager
• Smaller targeted forms
• Minimal required fields
• Multiple room blocks with an enhanced summary view and venue blocks
• Integration with your favorite APIs

An announcement was made at Summit that a migration path has been developed for 20 clients and a second group of customers will be contacted soon to start steps towards their migration.

Simpleview Data Engine

Have you heard the news? Simpleview Data Engine, launched on April 25 at Summit 2023, is a “game changer” for DMOs. This Saas-based business intelligence suite and warehouse provides DMOs with highly reliable, accessible, and digestible data

As the newest, most complete reporting solution for DMOs, Simpleview Data Engine collects, standardizes, and cleans data from across the internet and compiles it into a data warehouse. From there, DMOs can use the data engine’s vast data visualization capabilities to generate reports and dashboards to share with internal and external stakeholders. Simpleview Data Engine centralizes reporting and data models, provides direct access to robust reports curated by industry experts, and allows DMOs to incorporate their unique data.

Transform your DMO with powerful data insights, with Simpleview Data Engine.

The New Simpleview DAM Powered by Cloudinary

Cloudinary is a SaaS company with an industry-leading DAM and programmable media. The power of Cloudinary will soon be powering the Simpleview DAM in early 2024.

Our new DAM will feature:

• The ability to edit assets directly in the DAM and other transformations
• Folder structure for organizing assets
• More robust collections that can be easily shared with internal and external members
• Customizable metadata
• Advanced search capabilities
• Integrations with a multitude of systems you may already be familiar with, like Slack and Office 365

The new Simpleview DAM will become fully integrated into Simpleview CMS through a navigation tab and have the ability to upload assets from DAM directly into CMS. The beta will run through the summer of 2023, with an expected launch in the fall of 2023. Simpleview will continue to maintain Legacy DAM while we migrate users to the new platform.

The Future of Book › Direct

Book › Direct is proud to announce the following updates and looks forward to future enhancements within the Simpleview tech stack.

• Platform Update: Book › Direct recently migrated from Amazon to Google, allowing for the platform to have a more seamless integration process and updates. Moving forward, the focus for Book › Direct will be to further integrate with Simpleview CMS for a more seamless user experience.
• CMS Integration — Places to Stay: with this focus comes optimization of our back-end rate system and audits of our current connections. We’ve found that some property API connections are weaker than others, some send updates more frequently than others, and some provide more content than others. We are happy to speak with you and your team to provide recommendations as needed.
• CMS Integration — Things to Do: Simpleview is partnering with providers such as Viator and Fareharbor Distribution Network to bring you real-time rates and availability for bookable tours and attractions. We will also be extending our integration with feeds to provide ticketed events in association with major venues from your destination.
• Reports: We’ve successfully launched the new and improved Book › Direct reporting. Earlier this year, Book › Direct users were the first to access our newest product, Simpleview Data Engine.
• CMS Improvements & New UX: Our improved rates integration with the CMS now focuses on stability and accuracy, and a new UX widget that will focus primarily on engaging users and driving booking referrals is coming later this year. Ask your CSR to implement this new integration during your next website redesign, or reach out earlier to fast-track the process.

All engagement and performance data is now live in Simpleview Data Engine and can be accessed at any time by all Book › Direct clients. The reports include relevant Google Analytics data, as well as new visuals that provide more in-depth insights into your Book › Direct referral data — and the dates can be manipulated as needed to provide real-time insights at any moment.

Simpleview Partners with Bandwango for Increased Visitation for DMOs

Simpleview is proud to announce it has partnered with Bandwango, the leading provider of Experience Passes, to offer an integration with Simpleview CRM and CMS. The solution is designed to help DMOs add further value to their members and partners through increased visitations while increasing efficiencies through the integration.

This integration will allow participating DMO listings to be included in a Bandwango pass that generates leads and drives revenue. Bandwango’s technology will enable DMOs to organize restaurants, tours, and attractions into free and paid experiences that can be accessed directly on the DMO website.

Key features and benefits include:

• The ability to seamlessly push first-party consumer data captures from Bandwango into the consumer database within Simpleview CRM
• Access to Bandwango analytics in the “Benefits Summary” of Simpleview CRM — including a virtual representation of on-site visits via check-ins and an authentic attribution of in-person visits generated by the DMO website
• A streamlined installation of Bandwango's integrated elements into Simpleview CMS-powered websites incorporates passes into relevant listings and offers an optimal increase in partner value and drives referrals

Whew! We weren’t kidding when we said this year’s Simpleview Summit was out-of-this-world. To stay up-to-date on the ever-changing world of Simpleview products and services, subscribe to the Product Press newsletter and follow along for product updates, enhancements, and announcements.