We touched on this earlier but it’s time to expand on what can be the key link in the chain for the shipping system process to work as efficiently as possible – the interface between the shipping system and the “backend” accounting system.
Using multiple carriers brings great advantages to a company. Some companies use separate shipping systems so they can ship with multiple carriers, such as the two major US carriers and the Post Office. That can work, but it’s quick to see that using multiple shipping systems that all work differently from each other can create complications from the very start, especially when data needs to be exchanged and updated between the accounting and shipping systems.
These issues surface when interfacing to a “backend” system, whether accounting, order management, ERP or some other:
1) At the start, separate research and work are needed to setup each shipping process to integrate with the accounting system, which can double or triple your installation time.
2) Mandatory carrier and/or accounting system updates, with their possible effects on the interface, must be evaluated for every system when they occur, meaning more work to keep the shipping systems current.
3) Since there are two or more separate shipping processes, if errors occur when returning data to the accounting system, tracking down the issue becomes a multi-step process. First, discovery must be made as to which system is not interfacing correctly and only then can correcting steps be completed.
Each of these mean more IT time spent, whether it’s in-house IT resources or an outside company hired to do the work. All of these translate to higher implementation costs, higher on-going expenses, plus the loss of IT resources for other parts of the business. The result is that using different shipping systems for multiple carriers complicates every step between the shipping system and the accounting system as well as affecting other parts of the company.
To take the best advantage of the benefits of using multiple carriers, it’s a given that the shipping system must reliably and easily exchange data with the “backend” system. The elegant, smart solution comes down to using a single, multiple carrier shipping system - not separate shipping systems for each carrier. A multi-carrier shipping system streamlines each process – setup, updates and potential troubleshooting. This adds tremendous efficiency to the entire shipping process from the very start. Our CPS shipping software easily handles shipping with the three major US package carriers, putting all of these multiple carrier shipping system advantages at your fingertips.
When a single system handles all the shipping, it un-complicates every step from initial setup to end of day processing. For more information about CPS, visit www.HarveySoft.com.
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