Rauland-Borg Selects Varsity ShipSoft and Achieves
Exceptional Shipping |
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For over 70 years, Rauland-Borg has been an industry leader in the design and manufacture of communications and life-safety equipment for institutional environments. The company ships hundreds of parcels a day via FedEx and UPS from their distribution centers in Skokie and Waukegan, Illinois.
As an AS/400 shop, and long-time MAPICS ERP user, Rauland-Borg had deep functionality, integration and reliability across their ordering, warehouse management, accounting and customer service operations. When it came to their shipping system however, the company made do with an out-dated, stand-alone PC shipping system that slowed customer service, drained IT resources, and complicated the shipment of electronic components to their world-wide distribution network. “I thought of it as islands of technology,” says Tim Hallisey, MIS Director for Rauland-Borg. “We had the information, but nobody could get to it.” As the company’s shipping volume increased, it became apparent that it was time to modernize their shipping system.
Rauland-Borg evaluated a number of PC and AS/400 software shipping packages and determined that Varsity’s native AS/400 shipping software and pre-built MAPICS ERP would best fit their requirements. To verify their decision, they visited two Varsity customer sites.
The first visit was to a company similar in size and shipping processes using Varsity ShipSoft to select carriers, optimize shipment pricing and exchange shipment and order data with their MAPICS ERP system. “We saw that the interface to MAPICS was completely invisible,” notes Hallisey, “and this fit well with our goal to add new software without revolutionizing our shipping processes.”
The second visit was to a warehouse using the item detail files in Varsity ShipPack to determine package weight prior to shipment eliminating the need to manually weigh the package. Here, Hallisey saw the long-term potential of Varsity. "Looking to the future, we would be able to ship 45% of our orders from shelf to skid without the time consuming in-between step of weighing the package."
These two site visits illustrated Varsity's ability to support a wide range of shipping scenarios and cemented Rauland-Borg's decision to implement Varsity.
It was during the second day of their Varsity deployment that Rauland-Borg's choice of Varsity was reaffirmed. Mid-implementation, Rauland-Borg decided to deploy Varsity at a second, new distribution center. Already onsite, Varsity's professional services team gathered new requirements and adjusted the project time frame and resources to meet the company's new goals and minimize the impact on employees and customers. "Thanks to Varsity, our move to a new shipping system and new distribution center was transparent to our customers", comments Hallisey. "In addition, we have been able to support the second location without adding staff."
Today, Rauland-Borg enjoys seamless integration between Varsity and their MAPICS ERP system. Orders are received via fax and entered into MAPICS' customer order management. Using MAPICS' available to promise feature, the absolute fastest delivery date is calculated based on component availability, build time, destination and customer delivery date and shipping preference. Order numbers are passed to Varsity and pick lists are printed in the warehouse on the ideal shipping day. The warehouse staff selects items and packs each package. Pick list numbers are scanned and the package is placed on the scale to determine shipping weight. Varsity prints the appropriate label and supporting documents and the boxes are labeled. According to Hallisey, this streamlined process is invaluable. "I would tell any MAPICS user considering the addition of a shipping system that the integration is fantastic. It has made a night and day difference."
Not only is shipping smoother, IT expense has been reduced. Previously IT staff had to troubleshoot the PC hardware, network connection, AS/400 or the shipping software. Now, they make one call to Varsity's support department. Hallisey has found that, "Varsity's technical support is quick, patient and thorough. They make sure they have a complete understanding of the problem so they can provide the best solution."
Seamless integration between MAPICS and Varsity has improved customer service as well, cutting call volume in half. With access to ShipSoft generated tracking numbers from within MAPICS, shipping status inquiries are answered on the first call.
Rauland-Borg plans to continue adding Varsity functionality. "Next on the list," concludes Hallisey, "is ShipTalk Alerts. We want to send our customers pro-active email alerts regarding shipment details so that we stop inquiry calls altogether."
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