Fulfillment Tech: Whats New, Whats Good?

A fulfillment house should not blindly adopt every single new technology, but taking advantage of new technologies that really work is a sign of excellence in a fulfillment company.

The best fulfillment companies incorporate new technologies to improve their operations, but do not adopt technology just for technologys sake.

Here are a few new, good technologies that cutting-edge fulfillment companies are using to do a better job--while keeping costs firmly in check.

Visibility, Via Web Applications
Modern fulfillment companies can now offer their clients, via Web-based applications, the ability to track product delivery in real-time, at all stages of the process.

This is an amazing development, and impossible, even unthinkable a mere decade ago.

But now, these Web applications are de riguer, allowing the high-tech fulfillment house, and even the client, to quite literally watch as products are delivered to customers. Packages are tracked and traced, and signatures verified, all online.

Of course, great fulfillment operations also depend on what is done with all that information--for example, processes must be in place to handle seen problems--but just seeing everything in real-time is in and of itself a powerful tool.

Visibility. Its a good thing.

Reporting, Via Dynamic Databases
Now its time to do something with all that information. This is where a fulfillment house proves that its a true business partner, not just a contractor looking for a steady paycheck.

Cutting-edge fulfillment companies can use tracking information to diagnose problems and improve processes all the way along the supply chain.

For example, the fulfillment house may notice that packages containing a certain part arrive late at a higher rate than other packages that dont contain that certain part. The fulfillment house can alert its client to address this issue with the supplier of the part.

Online Ordering
Gone are the days when customers had to call during business hours.

In fact, many customers, if they cant order a product online in their underwear at four in the morning, will simply find a similar product that they can order online in their underwear at four in the morning.

Fulfillment companies, then, have wisely made the effort to facilitate online ordering. Whats more, many fulfillment companies can provide this service without any additional effort on behalf of the client.

The orders come in over the Internet, and then flow right into the fulfillment process. No extra work, yet extra revenue from more sold products.

What could be finer?

Technology Must Serve the Client, Not the Other Way Around
Product fulfillment is, at heart, a simple job: get the product out to the customer.

This simplicity should not be lost among all the talk of EDI, XML, etc., etc. A great fulfillment house will describe its use of technology in terms of its business purpose.

Clients seeking to hire fulfillment companies are wise to think the same way. For instance, if it takes a year for employees to learn the fulfillment software, its probably not any good.

Source
Fulfillment Learning Center