Quick start for Concierges developers

Quick start with Service Discovery

In order to offer their customers the widest range of services, concierges can easily include new services that are not yet part of their portfolio. As a member of the MASAI community, the first step is to use the MASAI Service Discovery tool to search for your desired services. Depending on what integration modes the service provider has published, the third parties services will be accessible through:

Webpage

In this case, the web page can simply be used directly, for example to make bookings, without the need for any software development.

Application

If the desired service is being offered as a mobile app, the concierge application can open the mobile app (or lead to the download web page if not yet installed). The user must then follow steps as instructed by the mobile app.

Application that supports deep linking

In this case, the service provider offers a mobile app that accepts deep linking parameters. The customer will be asked to install the mobile app if not already done. Information gathered from the customer can then be sent directly to the app which can open with relevant data available, thus reducing the need for further input by the customer.

API

If the service provider has published an API, this requires the most effort for software development and integration by the concierge, but in return customers enjoy a seamless integration of the desired service into the concierge application. This solution offers the best level of comfort, speed and ease of use for the customer.

Thanks for M2C standardised models, the integration effort for a concierge for a type of service (e.g. “booking” “APIs” for “car-sharing”) is a once-and-for-all effort.

Note that service providers may publish more than one integration mode. In that case, a concierge is free to select the mode that best fits their needs.

To  find out the Service Providers and their services, Service Discovery is used by Concierges. See how to proceed depending on your case:

Case 1: SDK

Librairies to integrate in your mobile application to use the Service Discovery features. MASAI Service Discovery SDK is available for Android, for iOS, PHP, JavaScript and C#.

See tutorial for Android SDK >     Other SDK >

Case 2: Web Wizard

A visual interface to construct a proper request and send it to the Search Engine.

Case 3: API

Construct your own request with the parameters you want and send it directly to the Search Engine.

Quick start with open source Concierge modules

Digitally mature concierge services may already have their own apps. Many hotel chains, for example, offer branded mobile apps that aim to improve the customer experience during their stay by offering a range of services. However, smaller concierge enterprises may not yet be able to leverage such advanced technology. MASAI aims to assist both large and smaller companies, and has developed a set of components and tools to help technologically less mature concierges to operate on a level playing field by bridging the technology gap.

MASAI Concierge providers can either take advantage of the pre-built MASAI open source components for concierges, or build their own bespoke components based on the MASAI specifications. Concierges who want to build their own components can still benefit from these off-the-shelf examples because they are open source and can be used within their own development.

The off-the-shelf MASAI components can be found in the MASAI repository on GitHub. The following MASAI Concierge components are currently available:

Use Concierge backoffice template >

Use Concierge application template for iOS / Android >