It's getting to the "home stretch" for this year's business. Many companies look forward to the sales they make in the holiday quarter. For some, the holiday quarter is critical for their yearly business projections. For a few, successful holiday sales mean the company survives for another year. Whatever the situation, it's always important for products to be delivered as the customer expects, but at the best price for the shipper, too. As the final link in holiday success, your shipping system can be your best friend or can cause nightmares. Use these 3 tips to make your shipping system your BFF.
Apply Those Updates
It seems like the carriers are always changing something. Look for a shipping system that supports automatic updates or at least automatic update notifications. As an example, our CPS shipping software lets you choose how to handle updates, including applying them automatically whenever they are available. New routing codes, labels, services, rate classifications and other information that is required - all of these can change anytime and without much notice, if any.
For CPS users, we keep an email list just to let CPS users know whenever an update is available. Using your shipping software vendor's latest program and being up-to-date with the carrier requirements are steps you can take to keep your shipping system working great and help your packages get delivered on time.
Use A Battery Backup to Safeguard the Shipping Station
If you have a power loss and lose that day's shipping data, it's NOT a good thing. Other power line problems, like power spikes or voltage sags, can also damage the shipping computer or corrupt your shipping data and software. Here are some ways to solve this power problem as much as possible before it happens - use a battery backup and protect the network connection.
What to look for? Companies like APC, TrippLite, Belkin and others provide battery backup devices with surge/spike suppression in a variety of sizes. Make sure you get a device with the right capability for your computer's system, but even in the under $100 price range, you will find a battery backup that will at least provide protection from a power loss and the resulting mess it can make of your day. For additional protection, look for a connection to protect your network connection, too. Of course, a direct lightning strike can be devastating, but the idea is to do as much as you can for problems you can prevent.
Backup / Backup / Backup
Actually, just one backup each day should do. What is the wild card in even the best shipping system protection plan? It's a critical computer component (hard drive, motherboard, etc.) that that just stops working. Computer components do wear out and fail - but almost never at a convenient time. Our CPS shipping software can perform an automatic backup to protect your valuable shipping data every time the CPS program is closed. Set up the automatic backup to send your important shipping data to a server, and your shipping system safety net is in place. And if the worst happens, like data corruption or a computer failure, getting back to shipping will be much easier if you have a current backup.
Look for an automatic backup feature in your shipping system and be sure it's setup and working for you. This is smart and could make a key difference at a crucial time if something breaks.
So, keep your shipping system updated, backed up and plugged into a battery backup. That's doing what you can to help create a successful shipping season.
To find out more about CPS, visit our web site at www.HarveySoft.com.
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