Varsity ShipSoft Helps lia sophia's Shipping Department Sparkle |
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Founded in 1971, lia sophia sells fashion jewelry through a direct selling channel. The lia sophia party planners across the country represent the company's extensive line of exclusive, high quality fashion jewelry. In response to in-home show and follow-on catalog orders, lia sophia ships an average of 400 parcels a day, mostly via UPS to thousands of party hosts and advisors.
The company's commitment to quality, online support, and rewarding incentive programs have contributed to significant yearly sales increases. This growth taxed lia sophia's custom built software systems and revealed the vulnerability of dependence on a standalone UPS WorldShip system that was not integrated into their HP e3000 mainframe. "We relied on 'the shoe leather express,'" recalls Al Karman, Director of Information Technology for lia sophia. "Our shipping clerks had to hand walk a floppy between systems to exchange order information and shipping data."
When Hewlett-Packard announced their intention to sunset the HP 3000 line of midrange computers, the company determined it was time to change their technology infrastructure.
To support their aggressive growth, lia sophia decided to implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that would integrate general ledger, accounts payable and accounts receivable with core distribution systems, including order entry, inventory, shipping and receiving. After examining a wide range of options, the company purchased the HarrisData ERP system, which runs on IBM's iSeries platform. "We felt HarrisData had the flexibility to best fit our direct selling model," notes Karman. "With HarrisData, we can build in the exact functionality we need."
When it came time to select their new shipping software, lia sophia examined a number of shipping system options, ultimately selecting Varsity ShipSoft and ShipTalk. "Our due diligence led to Varsity," recalls Karman. "Varsity has a reputation for simple and fast deployment, low maintenance carrier rate updates, and the flexibility to integrate with a wide-range of ERP systems."
Because the bottleneck in their shipping department had become critical, lia sophia deployed ShipSoft first. They were eager to begin using ShipSoft to select carriers, optimize shipment pricing and ensure label and manifesting compliance for UPS, USPS, and FedEx Ground shipments. In addition, they were able to easily integrate ShipSoft with their existing home-grown order processing system to streamline their shipping processes.
Since deploying ShipSoft, lia sophia has cut shipping times in half. The company's new shipping processes require very little human intervention. The lia sophia shipping clerks simply scan the order number, put the parcel on the scale, scan the weight, and label the package. Karman reports that user reviews have been outstanding. "Our shipping department loves the new system, and so do our customers."
The lia sophia Advisors can go to the company's Website and find shipping details provided by Varsity ShipTalk such as the tracking number, carrier, and a listing of the items that are being shipped. Online access to shipment details, combined with advance notice email alerts, help lia sophia manage their Advisor's expectations and increase satisfaction.
As the next step in their corporate-wide systems upgrade, lia sophia intends to integrate ShipSoft with their HarrisData ERP to streamline order fulfillment processes from start to finish. And, in the near future, the company plans to use Varsity's international capabilities to produce international shipping documents for return shipments to their vendors in the Far East.
"We are very pleased with our investment in Varsity," concludes Karman. "Varsity is the Cadillac of shipping solutions. When you compare expense to ROI, functionality and integration, there is no other choice for iSeries-based shipping software."
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